Marek's disease drug for our new chickens?
 

Everyone online says people should get the herpes drug for chickens, but why?

Can anyone tell me why and what is actually in this medicine?

Do I really need this?

*edit: after reading more I have decided not to get anything extra. There is some messed up stuff in this inoculation.

Re: Marek's disease drug for our new chickens?
 

What are you talking about? Do you have a herd of chickins?

Re: Marek's disease drug for our new chickens?
 

I have never given my chickens any kind of medication, and have never lost one to disease. However, IIRC, commerical baby chick food does have anti-biotics in it.

Re: Marek's disease drug for our new chickens?
 

We purposely gave our chicks the medicated feed for the first month. Mainly because the chicks have no defenses for barnyard bacteria that grow is chicken poop.

Once they have been exposed to it for a while, they build up an immunity and don't really ever need it again.

Other than the starter AB, nothing more. They are now over 30 weeks old, and out of 15 chicks we only lost one rooster (courtesy of the OTHER rooster I firmly believe).

Re: Marek's disease drug for our new chickens?
 

I've always had commercial-hatched chicks treated for Marek's disease, but home-hatched chicks I don't treat them and have never had a problem.

I did however have a BIG PROBLEM last night when I came home. A coyote or wild dog had dug under my tightly-closed greenhouse where I had 30 one-week-old baby chicks in an open-top box. It was the Thanksgiving Eve massace! :36_1_28: Only one chick survived out of the whole lot by jumping out of the box and hiding between the box and the greenhouse wall.

Today, I'm building a homemade E-caller, downloading some free coyote calls, purchasing some Federal Premium V-Shok Coyote shells for my trusty Remington 11-87 and daylighting a few coyotes.

Re: Marek's disease drug for our new chickens?
 

I've always had commercial-hatched chicks treated for Marek's disease, but home-hatched chicks I don't treat them and have never had a problem.

I did however have a BIG PROBLEM last night when I came home. A coyote or wild dog had dug under my tightly-closed greenhouse where I had 30 one-week-old baby chicks in an open-top box. It was the Thanksgiving Eve massace! :36_1_28: Only one chick survived out of the whole lot by jumping out of the box and hiding between the box and the greenhouse wall.

Today, I'm building a homemade E-caller, downloading some free coyote calls, purchasing some Federal Premium V-Shok Coyote shells for my trusty Remington 11-87 and daylighting a few coyotes.

Re: Marek's disease drug for our new chickens?
 

I've always had commercial-hatched chicks treated for Marek's disease, but home-hatched chicks I don't treat them and have never had a problem.

I did however have a BIG PROBLEM last night when I came home. A coyote or wild dog had dug under my tightly-closed greenhouse where I had 30 one-week-old baby chicks in an open-top box. It was the Thanksgiving Eve massace! :36_1_28: Only one chick survived out of the whole lot by jumping out of the box and hiding between the box and the greenhouse wall.

Today, I'm building a homemade E-caller, downloading some free coyote calls, purchasing some Federal Premium V-Shok Coyote shells for my trusty Remington 11-87 and daylighting a few coyotes.