Please help! My daughter is so upset!!!

tofumama

Songster
10 Years
Aug 12, 2009
178
1
109
In the Shadow of a Mountain MA
I posted about my mutt roo(6mo) with the leg issue...he is now sort of sitting with it out in front of him, puts no weight on it at all. I think he is ok otherwise, he is eating and drinking, and I have him isolated...could his leg be broken? If so, what do I do???

Also, we just lost my daughter's favorite baby, our little runt Lavender d'Uccle. She was small and fragile, never should have lived as long as she did...my 7yo daughter took extra special care of her and she lived 4+ mo with us. Now her brother(about 6 or 7mo old) is not doing well...he is having trouble walking, sort of walks like he is drunk, he has done this off and on for a while but this morning was the worst- when I went out this morning, he could barely walk over the shavings to get out of the henhouse. He was sitting on his butt, sort of. I took him out and put him on the ground and he was very unsteady. I put him in the food and water enclosure and he just sort of reclined back on his butt, with his legs/feet s sort of in front of him and made himself flat.
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He seems alert, happy when we held him but did not eat. Please help! My daughter is very upset and will not leave him as she is afraid he is going to die!
 
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I hate to say this and I am sure someone will come along with better advice, but sounds to me like Marek's disease. The reason I say that is because you mentioned him sitting on his behind with his legs extended out front.... The only other thing I can think of, because you mentioned drunk, is maybe poisoning, but I don't think that is the issue. Sorry to say, but there is no cure for Mareks. Here is a little bit of info I found for you about Marek's. I hope this is not the issue, but until you find out, you need to quarantine that bird to prevent spreading to other birds.

Marek's disease is a Herpes virus infection of chickens, and rarely Turkeys in close association with chickens, seen worldwide. From the 1980s and 1990s highly virulent strains have become a problem in North America and Europe.
The disease has various manifestations: a) Neurological - Acute infiltration of the CNS and nerves resulting in 'floppy broiler syndrome' and transient paralysis, as well as more long-standing paralysis of legs or wings and eye lesions; b) Visceral - Tumors in heart, ovary, tests, muscles, lungs; c) Cutaneous - Tumors of feather follicles.
Morbidity is 10-50% and mortality up to 100%. Mortality in an affected flock typically continues at a moderate or high rate for quite a few weeks. In 'late' Marek's the mortality can extend to 40 weeks of age. Affected birds are more susceptible to other diseases, both parasitic and bacterial.
The route of infection is usually respiratory and the disease is highly contagious being spread by infective feather-follicle dander, fomites, etc. Infected birds remain viraemic for life. Vertical transmission is not considered to be important.
The virus survives at ambient temperature for a long time (65 weeks) when cell associated and is resistant to some disinfectants (quaternary ammonium and phenol). It is inactivated rapidly when frozen and thawed.
Signs

Paralysis of legs, wings and neck.
Loss of weight.
Grey iris or irregular pupil.
Vision impairment.
Skin around feather follicles raised and roughened.

Post-mortem lesions

Grey-white foci of neoplastic tissue in liver, spleen, kidney, lung, gonads, heart, and skeletal muscle.
Thickening of nerve trunks and loss of striation.
Microscopically - lymphoid infiltration is polymorphic.

Diagnosis

History, clinical signs, distribution of lesions, age affected, histopathology. Differentiate from Lymphoid leukosis, botulism, deficiency of thiamine, deficiency of Ca/Phosphorus/Vitamin D, especially at the start of lay.

Treatment

None.
Cull infected birds.

Prevention

Hygiene, all-in/all-out production, resistant strains, vaccination generally with 1500 PFU of HVT at day old (but increasingly by in-ovo application at transfer), association with other strains (SB1 Sero-type 2) and Rispen's.
It is common practice to use combinations of the different vaccine types in an effort to broaden the protection achieved. Genetics can help by increasing the frequency of the B21 gene that confers increased resistance to Marek's disease challenge.
 
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Thank you Barnyard...omg
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My mutt roo...no idea what happened. Not sure if he got his foot stuck somehow/where, fell(?) or what. He was fine...then not. He is also missing the feathery part of his neck feathers, but not the quills ?

My other guy, oh no. It does sound similar...He doesn't hang out much with the other chickens(we have 3 roos and 2 posse's) but they all sleep together in the same house. I am meticulous about cleaning up poop, etc, and they all free range during the day...no chance of poisoning as we are a green family, and no chance of any sort of attack...all the other chickens are perfectly fine.

What should I do? Is he going to die regardless? Would it be more humane to end his life now?(though I could not do it, nor could hubby...)this is not good
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I would suggest separating him completely from the other's, in a small pen. Food, water and maybe some vitamins and electrolytes. I am a wait and see type person and since you/we don't know for sure this is Marek's then, I would just hold off as long as I could before I did anything drastic. I could not cull either so I feel you on that. Who know's maybe it is a vitamin defecency
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