Hen suddenly can't stand...Mareks?

[Shan30]

My husband just called me from home to tell me that one of our hens has spent the day inside laying next to the waterer. She took a couple steps when he picked her up and put her on her feet an then layed back down.

This hen is a Orpington cross, guessing about 2 years old, healthy and high in the pecking order. She was fine yesterday.

About 2 months ago I lost 2 other hens in similar conditions both 2 year old x-battery hens. We have 35 birds total, all over a year except 3 that are probably 10 months old. The three young hens are fine. I did not look too close at these 2 deaths (about a month apart) as the battery hybrids sometimes just die. They seem to have reproductive issues as they age.

I am now starting to consider mareks but thought the young hens would be effected. Also thinking that as the other 2 were battery hens, wouldn't they be vaccinated?

Any idea what else this could be? I scrub the waterers with dishsoap once every 2 weeks...And the food is very fresh and dry.

At a loss as to what else could be going on...I will see if I can feel and egg in her when I get home...

 

[Snob Doctor]

My Orpington died just last week with similar problems- she couldn't stand or bend her legs, she could move her toes a little though so she couldn't have been paralyzed... She would try to get up, but ended up on her side or belly with her legs sticking straight out. She was also very skinny and became very weak after a few attempts to get up. She was dead 8 hours after I found her laying on the coop floor. I don't know when her symptoms started, but she was only obviously sick a significantly shorter time than any of the cases I found online (and most of them were survivor stories.) I was gone the past few days, leaving my dad to take care of them, but before I left she seemed fine. If she was losing weight we didn't notice because she was a fluffy chicken.

I still don't know exactly what it was (maybe it was Mareks, maybe she laid an egg that was too big for her, maybe it was something she ate), but my other chickens seem to be doing well so I assume it wasn't contiguous. I sincerely hope you have better luck! I'm curious to know what you come up with.

-Mallory

 

[Shan30]

That is exactly how she was acting and unfortunately did not make it through the night.
She wouldn't eat and had one sip of water all night.
I made her warm and comfortable but knew it wasn't likely that she would recover if she wouldn't drink. Wish I knew what it was. Her abdomen did feel firm. I don't think it was a virus as she went so fast and was totally fine hours before.

Thank you for your input and hope neither of us lose any more.