Mystery condition

[Martha444]

I had two chicks develop this condition this year in two different "cohorts" - incubation batches. The first chick got so bad we had to cull the poor feller.

I did some more research when the second one developed it. There is an itchy flaky skin condition on face and feet with yellowish crusty buildup, sometimes developing into lesions. Poor pale coloring, lack of growth (about half of what the rest of the cohort is putting on), underwhelming mobility with some stiffness. Feathers were coming in looking a little "frizzie".

My research suggested a biotin deficiency possibly due to overload of parasites or an underlying metabolic condition.

Frizzie went on a protocol of filtered water with silver and apple cider vinegar, and her organic starter feed was supplemented with boiled egg yolk (biotin and B's), plain yogurt, and ditatomaceous earth. After four days the silver and diatomaceous earth were removed.

Her skin condition, mobility, color(for her), and interactivity greatly improved over the following two weeks and she started putting on weight a little faster but still cannot be considered normal or healthy. I tried removing the egg yolk, continued feeding filtered water with ACV and yogurt in food but the skin condition started to reemerge. This is not good because I can't continue to keep her separated from the rest of the flock to feed her a special diet for the rest of her life.

I have the question everyone has! Does anyone have any ideas about what this might be or a suggestion about what to try? The images attached are from when the skin condition was at its worst right before I started treatment. Her tiny comb has been coated with rooster booster because the other chicks had started picking on her when they started to get much bigger than her. She was separated from the flock into an adjacent grassy area shortly after this.

 

[littledog]

Aw, poor thing. I have no idea what is causing this, but maybe try some chick boost in her water (electrolytes and probiotics)? The pale color seems like she may be anemic, so some kind of protein/iron supplement?
Good luck, wish I could help more - hope you solve her issue!

 

[Martha444]

I had two chicks develop this condition this year in two different "cohorts" - incubation batches. The first chick got so bad we had to cull the poor feller.

I did some more research when the second one developed it. There is an itchy flaky skin condition on face and feet with yellowish crusty buildup, sometimes developing into lesions. Poor pale coloring, lack of growth (about half of what the rest of the cohort is putting on), underwhelming mobility with some stiffness. Feathers were coming in looking a little "frizzie".

My research suggested a biotin deficiency possibly due to overload of parasites or an underlying metabolic condition.

Frizzie went on a protocol of filtered water with silver and apple cider vinegar, and her organic starter feed was supplemented with boiled egg yolk (biotin and B's), plain yogurt, and ditatomaceous earth. After four days the silver and diatomaceous earth were removed.

Her skin condition, mobility, color(for her), and interactivity greatly improved over the following two weeks and she started putting on weight a little faster but still cannot be considered normal or healthy. I tried removing the egg yolk, continued feeding filtered water with ACV and yogurt in food but the skin condition started to reemerge. This is not good because I can't continue to keep her separated from the rest of the flock to feed her a special diet for the rest of her life.

I have the question everyone has! Does anyone have any ideas about what this might be or a suggestion about what to try? The images attached are from when the skin condition was at its worst right before I started treatment. Her tiny comb has been coated with rooster booster because the other chicks had started picking on her when they started to get much bigger than her. She was separated from the flock into an adjacent grassy area shortly after this.

Update:

Frizzie's condition progressed quickly after this post, even with pasture and high protein organic feed. She seemed to get more and more uncomfortable, and without any hopeful remedy we decided to kill her.



My best guesses as to what happened to her are:

1) We've only had to treat a cohort for a possible cohort wide problem twice, and it was with the two cohorts that these two chicks were from. Corrid for the one cohort and a mix of silver and licorice for the other cohort. We may have a genetic expression coming from our parent flock that is prone to damage from these two treatments, or from the possible diseases.

2) The condition would have shown up even if the medical interventions or the disease had not been present. I will know better over the coming years as we raise more birds.

The condition was partially alleviated with high B supplement of egg yolks, which matches up with the description of biotin deficiency in the Merck Veterinary Manual. https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry

 

[littledog]

Oh, so sorry she didn't make it.

 

[Martha444]

Oh, so sorry she didn't make it.

Thanks littledog,
It's kind of a cruel twist of life that I get more attached to the sick and injured ones - I have to spend so much more time tending to them.

Her life was kind of sad, but she helped me understand something important going on in our birds that might make future generations better, and I'm grateful for that.