12 week old chick, possibly sick, need help please.

[TroyBlackburn]

She's still not back up on her feet; however, she's eating on her own and her droppings have appeared normal for a few days now.

 

[TroyBlackburn]

She's still alive and alert, but legs are very weak and she doesn't stand. It's also obvious she lost a lot of weight in this ordeal, any suggestions?

I also posted another thread regarding this (https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1069611/recovering-weak-14-week-old-chick-need-help-please) in case someone who doesn't want to read down to the end of this one, might reply.

Thank You
Troy

 

[Eggcessive]

Mareks disease could be a problem, although I really hate to suggest it. I would continue giving the poultry vitamins, some chopped egg with her feed, a little yogurt, and TLC. You may want to get some fresh droppings checked by your vet for worms and coccidia. Your state vet can do a necropsy on her if she dies, and that might answer some questions. Here is a link for that: http://www.usaha.org/Portals/6/StateAnimalHealthOfficials.pdf

 

[TroyBlackburn]

Thank you very much for the reply and info. I'm happy to report that she's still with us. Seems to be feeling better and slowly regaining some strength. Emphasizing slowly. For quite a while her legs felt so weak, that I sometimes wondered if she was capable of moving them at all. The last few days I've noticed her moving them more (definitely still not standing or walking) and today I observed some increased strength and her even using her legs to move forward; again not standing or walking, but a definite increase in her leg strength.

 

[Eggcessive]

Thanks for the update, and I hope she continues to have improvement.

 

[TroyBlackburn]

Overall she seems as if she's still improving, be it very slowly. She's not currently on any meds and seems to be getting stronger; again, very slowly. I'm still feeding her at night to ensure she has a reasonably full crop before I turn the lights out in the room for the night. I was starting to get more concerned about Marek's disease as a possibility (still not dismissing it) because I wasn't detecting any strength or muscle control in her lower legs and feet, however I'm starting to feel detect a little at this point. Her upper legs are weak, though seem to be gaining strength. Overall her droppings seem normal, however every once in a while she either has a dropping or a part of a dropping that is more of a very dark, thick mush (more like the consistency of yogurt) and with a very strong foul (pardon the pun) smell. I'm by no means a chicken dropping expert. Does anyone have any thoughts regarding this? Whatever is going on with her, she doesn't seem to be in a hurry to die, at this point it's been 16 days since I discovered she wasn't doing well.

Thank You
Troy