Sick Silkie....stumbling, stands on her knees for 5 days now!! HELP!

did she injure her foot / feet at all ?? just wondering - you mention that she is on her knees ...

as for the poop - runny doesn't always mean sick. Poop has all sorts of normal - and runny is one of them.

Chickens are easy till something happens - I have bumblefoot that I'm dealing with at the moment ... but it'll all be over soon and things will hopefully be back to normal.

http://chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

check this out if you're concerned about poop- it has a lot of great photo of what the range of normal is - and it's quite a large range.

The hock-sitting is generally a sign of neurological damage/disease or nutritional deficiency. Since you've been giving vitamin therapy without seeing improvement, you might consider diseases that have a neurological affect such as: Mareks, Newcastle, or encephalitis caused by bacteria, fungi (eg, aspergillosis), or mycoplasmas. Unfortunately, the prognosis is not bright for any of those possibilities. There is no cure/treatment for Mareks or Newcastle. And, encephalitis (although treatable) can result in permanent brain damage. Even encephalomalacia caused by nutritional/vitamin deficiency can result in permanent brain damage largely depending on how long the deficiency remained uncorrected.

I don't know what to suggest to you aside from continuing to keep this bird separate and keeping up the vitamin therapy for as long as you have the will and energy to give this bird intensive care. You could also give a few days of a broad spectrum antibiotic on the off chance that this is a bacterial infection. It wouldn't do any harm and I would certainly try that first with my own bird if I were considering culling.

I think it's very possible that your chicken has worms! Worms have been known to make chickens become lazy and lose weight. If your chickens aren't already wormed, I would recommend adding piperazine-17 to their water to see if that helps solve anything.

Best of LUCK!

-Teresa

I have heard of this happening from bad feed. Alot of people around here (Texas) got feed from VFM and alot of their chickens got crippled. Change their feed immediatly and maybe in a couple of days things will change. Took about a week around here to get them straightened out.

How is she doing?

I know how frustrating it can be to have a sick bird and not know what to do for them. Right now, it sounds like you are doing everything right.
The runny poop is fine- perfectly normal once in a while. It's just when it becomes runny for every poop that it is a problem.
She is eating and drinking - thats good too. Make sure she continues- you wouldn't believe how quickly a bird can become emancipated from not eating.
Have you changed foods recently?
I read your other thread- you say she is walking on her knees. Is she weak? Are her toes curled? Does there seem to be pain when she tries walking? Is she stumbling?
Can she hold her head up- is itr just her legs that seem to be affected. Is she alert and otherwise acting normal?

I know I am asking a lot of questions. I can't help any. I don't know much about illnesses. In fact, I had a silkie with strange problems for the past few weeks, living on my breakfast bar in a cat carrier. I had no luck treating her. There are so many things that can cause illness, it's hard to know how to treat or what to do. I'm just hoping with more info, maybe somene might have had a similar experience

Thanks for all the help...I decided to move her back out to the coop with her friends....I have continued with the vitamins and now they are all getting that...she seems better but still stumbling and walking on her knees... tommorrow we will finish up a treatment for Cocci on all the birds, then I will be doing the worming treatment with wazine...getting her out with the others really perked her up!!I have noticed now that she seems to be standing one one leg normally and the other on her knee...she certainly has not lost her appetite!!
We had a sick and sluggish one two weeks ago and gave it olive oil and the next morning she was in perfect health and has been since!!! That will be next....

Thanks for all the help....I helped my silkie by treating for the least troublesome issue I thought was making her walk on her knees and worked my way up to treating for the worst case issue. Started with vitamin therapy, no change, then switched to a grower feed instead of layer ( they have not layed yet), then treated for cocci in all the birds. Took three weeks to go through all the steps and this morning I went out to change water and she greated me standing and running around with all the others!!!! I will continue with adding the vitamins and electrolytes to the water for a few weeks and they will now stay on the grower feed until someone lays an egg. I really think it was a vitamin deficiency as the dumb feed guy gave us layer crumbles for chicks that were only 11 weeks old. I thought it was Mareks and am glad that it is not!!! First time with chickens and we have only had them for 3 months now....Thanks again for all the help and the emcouragement!!!

SOoooooo glad you stuck it out and she turned out well! I always love a happy ending!

This is excellent news. I'm so happy for you and your bird.