Skinny, Small + Stumbly.. Sophie's Story -Will she walk again??

Everything that you have mentioned is consent with Mareks which is a form of cancer and progresses slowly. Good luck

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ChickieMandy said:

I feared Mareks or another disease, but after almost 2 weeks her condition remained pretty unchanged! We were leaning mostly toward malnourishment and vitamin deficiency.

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I have had birds with Marek's that went lame so that they couldn;t stand or get up in a matter of a few hours, then 3 or 4 days later were completely recovered, but then suffered a second attack later which was more protracted. I've had one that went lame and deteriorated over a couple of weeks until I had to euthanize her and I had one that lost the use of one leg and learned to hop everywhere. The one I spent most time nursing had two attacks. The first lasted a few days and the second was about 4 months. During that time there were a couple of weeks when I really thought I was going to have to end it, but each time I set a date, she would show me that she still wanted to fight. What made the biggest difference was putting her out on grass in the sunshine (not something that is easily come by in the UK) in a cage with a friend and scattering scratch in and around the cage so that the flock foraged with her. I would carry her out every day and back at night and as her mobility improved I would open the cage and let her start to make her own way back. Sometimes it was hard to watch her struggling, but gradually she made progress and in the end she actually started laying eggs and eventually free ranging with the flock although she continued to have a limp. Sadly she fell victim to a fox but she had a very good quality of life until that end and as chcikengeorgeto says, the chances are that a tumour would have taken her eventually, but I was still incredibly upset.

Enjoy this time with your special chicken and the only advice that I can give to encourage her to eat, is the company of and perceived competition with other chickens and sunshine and grass. Make the cage her special place and then after a week, introduce her friend and let her fight for dominance. This is what happened with mine and I was totally horrified when they fought but it was surprising how my seriously lame chicken could move when she felt she had a point to prove. It was ugly but her spirit was strong and she won. After that they became great friends.

Good luck with your girl. I hope we are wrong about Marek's but it sounds very similar to my experience of it. Keep the progress reports coming. We are rooting for her and you. You have done a tremendous job getting her this far and you should be incredibly proud of yourself..

Best wishes

Barbara

Just checking in to see how your girl is doing. She looks like she is a super happy chickie in your last pictures that you posted! Keep up the good work!

~Mb

I have been out of the loop but wanted to check in...how is she?!

I unfortunately had to have a csection so i cant be out with my birds as much as before right now and have my hands full with a new little bundle of joy ...but had thought about your little hen and had to ask!

Hi everyone! Been so long but didn't want to leave this thread without a final update.

After much struggle and months of care I made the difficult decision to let her go. Mid July 2016.
My sweet Sophie wasn't gaining weight regardless of how much or often she was fed... and was never able to stand or walk on her own again.

I learned a lot about chicken care... and myself, in this experience.

Thank you to everyone who gave support and words of wisdom... and my apologies for not updating the thread sooner, I was so sad after losing her!

Wishing you all lots of luck and love on your chicken journeys
Mandy

A sad end to this saga. Thank you for sharing Sophie's story with us. Best wishes!

I'm so sorry to hear Sophie didn't make it and I do understand your comment about learning both about chicken care and yourself. There is a lot of soul searching involved in these situations, especially when they don't have a happy ending. I currently have another bird with Marek's and it is getting close to needing to make that difficult decision. She is nearly 2 and this is her second attack and I'm getting rather more experienced with this scenario than I would like. It doesn't get any easier but I can't call time on her until she gives up fighting it!
Did you get a necropsy done on your girl?

At least you can comfort yourself that you did everything possible for her and you have those lovely photos, especially the ones of her in your apron pocket, as momentos.