6 month old chicken can't get up or balance!

[BlueBarnCrew]

We had a flock of 8 healthy chickens, of varying breeds and ages ranging from 6 months to 3-4 years. About 2 weeks ago we found one of our 6 month old ones under a plank of wood, dead. We thought that it must have been killed by the plank of wood falling down on it, put it down to bad luck and moved on. 2 days ago I was in the chicken run and saw another one of the 6 month olds pressing itself up against the fence in a dusty area of the run. I went across to have a look, thinking it might be having a dust bath and would pick itself up and move off, but it didn't. I picked it up and put it down in the middle of the run, but it just tipped over on one side. It looked like it couldn't move it's legs at all and was therefore unable to balance or stand. I then moved it into an inside hutch on a bed of hay and put food and water near it. Over the next day we checked it regularly but it became more unresponsive, and just seemed to be deeply asleep. It had its eyes closed and wouldn't eat or drink. It didn't react when you moved it or stroked it apart from to occasionally move it's head a bit and it shied away from torchlight. Her breathing was still normal and even. By this time we were panicking and had looked it up many times but the only thing that seemed to fit even slightly was Merricks disease, but we checked her eyes and they were normal. Today she passed away with no change from her previous state. It made us wonder if perhaps the other chicken actually died from this too and not from the falling plank.If it is Merricks we are very worried for our other chickens health.
Please help us work out what is wrong!

 

[boskelli1571]

Hi there, it surely sounds like Mareks to me - are your birds vaccinated? There are actually 3 types of Mareks. Go to the learning center tab, pull up chicken diseases and look for ' the great big Mareks FAQ'. It's a long article, but will give you lots of info. on Mareks disease. It would be to your benefit to vaccinate any birds you bring into your coop since any survivors will be carriers.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. While Mareks disease may be the cause of death of your 2 chickens, I would also look at Botulism symptoms. Could they have gotten into something like a rotted fish or animal carcass, or rotted vegetation, or even maggots from one of those? Symptoms may be so sudden that all you find is a dead chicken, but they are paralysis of the feet, then legs, wings, neck, and finally eyelids and death from the toxin. Here is 1 link about botulism and several on Mareks:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/19/botulism
http://extension.unh.edu/resources/files/Resource000791_Rep813.pdf
http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/avian-atlas/search/disease/502
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq

 

[BlueBarnCrew]

Thankyou very much for your prompt replies! It seems after investigating that it was probably Botulism as after we looked around we found not one but two dead rats that our dog had caught and then dragged away to a secluded corner of the orchard. As we let our chickens out of their run during the day to find worms and bugs we think that the two chickens (they were from the same brood and were very close) must have stumbled upon the carcasses and taken a peck around. Very thankful to hear that it isn't contagious and as we have now cleared the remains hopefully it should be an end to the problem! Thanks again

 

[boskelli1571]

Good to know you found the source! Glad to hear it isn't Mareks, although botulism is bad enough!

 

[seminolewind]

I was very sad to say that last year I lost 2 hens to a dead mouse that I hadn't gotten around to moving. The mouse was gone from the trap and the 2 hens died over night.