A couple of weeks ago I posted about my 3-month-old chick, Peep, who was walking on his hocks. (I say "his," but not sure on gender yet). threehorses kindly helped me out with her vast knowledge, and we fixed Peep right up with Poly-Vi-Sol baby vitamins and B-complex. After about 10 days, he was all better and we put him back outside in our little halfway house, which is in a separate 40′ x 50′ pen from the rest of the flock.
Peep was fine the first night, but then I worried that hed be lonely and chilly out there by himself, so the next day we moved his big sister Lucky (5 months old) in with him. After about 24 hours, DH noticed that Lucky was starting to exhibit the same wobbly legs problem...although Peep is still fine.
We figured that either Peep had something contagious after all, or there was something in the environment causing it. We took a careful look around the pen, and noticed nothing unusual except for several different types of mushrooms growing.
We collected samples of four different kinds of mushrooms. Two turned out to be harmless, but I recognized the speckled reddish ones right away as Amanita Muscaria (aka Fly Agaric), and there was another pearly-white mushroom that just felt evil to me when I picked it up. After doing some research I am fairly certain that the white one is Amanita Bisporigera, a type of Death Angel mushroom common in the eastern US. Both of these Amanitas are deadly poisonous to people, and as you can see in the pics below, both have been taste-tested by Peep and/or Lucky.
Apparently Amanitas are not immediately fatal to chickens, at least in small doses. I cant say for sure whether these mushrooms caused the wobbly-legs problem, but we are continuing with the vitamins and keeping a close eye on both chicks for the next few days. We cleared out all the mushrooms we could find, but will keep going back to check to be sure there arent more.
I'm in North GA but these mushrooms grow on both coasts and the midwestern US. If you live in the vicinity of woods and the weather has been damp, you may want to take a look around and be sure that these Amanitas arent growing anywhere your chickens, dogs or livestock can get to them.
I'm sorry these images are so big, but I wanted everyone to see them in detail:
Peep was fine the first night, but then I worried that hed be lonely and chilly out there by himself, so the next day we moved his big sister Lucky (5 months old) in with him. After about 24 hours, DH noticed that Lucky was starting to exhibit the same wobbly legs problem...although Peep is still fine.
We figured that either Peep had something contagious after all, or there was something in the environment causing it. We took a careful look around the pen, and noticed nothing unusual except for several different types of mushrooms growing.
We collected samples of four different kinds of mushrooms. Two turned out to be harmless, but I recognized the speckled reddish ones right away as Amanita Muscaria (aka Fly Agaric), and there was another pearly-white mushroom that just felt evil to me when I picked it up. After doing some research I am fairly certain that the white one is Amanita Bisporigera, a type of Death Angel mushroom common in the eastern US. Both of these Amanitas are deadly poisonous to people, and as you can see in the pics below, both have been taste-tested by Peep and/or Lucky.
Apparently Amanitas are not immediately fatal to chickens, at least in small doses. I cant say for sure whether these mushrooms caused the wobbly-legs problem, but we are continuing with the vitamins and keeping a close eye on both chicks for the next few days. We cleared out all the mushrooms we could find, but will keep going back to check to be sure there arent more.
I'm in North GA but these mushrooms grow on both coasts and the midwestern US. If you live in the vicinity of woods and the weather has been damp, you may want to take a look around and be sure that these Amanitas arent growing anywhere your chickens, dogs or livestock can get to them.
I'm sorry these images are so big, but I wanted everyone to see them in detail:
