8 week old chick with bad leg attacked by others

[EggSighted4Life]

A symptom checker tool I can't believe I haven't shared with you yet. It is helpful in narrowing down possibilities...
http://www.poultrydvm.com/symptoms

 

[DoubleBoop]

The bird has clearly been kept away from food for a couple weeks other than the once a day feeding my girlfriend gave it. It has almost no breast meat and is very light for it's age. Today we gave it a shot of 1cc of b vitamins and helped it to walk a bit. Until it was finally tired and in need of sleep it was making good progress. I think the bird is definitely battling malnutrition and vitamin deficiency. Before I left my girlfriend's house I noticed that it was starting to be able to put it's leg under it instead of out in front of it

 

[DoubleBoop]

Great news guys! The chick stood up and put weight on the weak leg! The B vitamin shot helped! I'll keep updating with progress, she still can't walk on it but she is now strong enough to stand!

 

[DoubleBoop]

She stood up and took a step before laying back down. She's a fighter! I'm getting more and more certain it was a vitamin deficiency with malnutrition and nothing more.

 

[rebrascora]

I'm afraid I concur with microchick and EggSighted4Life.
That leg out in front is a pretty classic Marek's Disease symptom.
I too have experience of it in my flock and have nursed some for weeks and months. I've had some come out of the coop lame after being fine the day before, then be floundering on their side unable to get up and a few days later they were back up on their feet and appeared completely normal. There are no hard and fast rules with the disease. Being bright eyed and having a good appetite is quite common for Marek's birds particularly in the early stages.

I hear what you are saying about her being thin and perhaps bullied from the food, but Marek's also causes muscle wastage, so what you are describing is also a common symptom.

Personally I am sceptical about the whole vitamin deficiency thing causing wry neck and other paralysis and my gut feeling is that the reported cases of this are actually most likely suffering Marek's. Responding to vitamins makes people assume/believe it is a vitamin deficiency but those vitamins will help to support the damage that the disease is doing to the immune and neurological system.... but sometimes they recover without vitamins or any other treatment..... however they are prone to future and usually more severe or prolonged outbreaks in the future, be that weeks, months or years later.

I don't cull as long as they continue to eat and have a will to live and fight it.
Good luck with her.

Barbara

 

[DoubleBoop]

She is walking now, a little off balance but walking and eating while standing up. The bird has made huge steps towards recovery. If it were Mareks, she would have died weeks ago. She's been having trouble for 3 weeks now. The other 9 pullets in the cage with her would be having symptoms too I believe. She is acting much healthier and happier now.

 

[micstrachan]

Good luck with her! I’m glad the vitamins seem to be helping.

 

[DoubleBoop]

She's walking forwards now and able to stand for long periods of time. She's fighting so hard to keep standing and work that leg out. You can tell by her peeps that she's in a bit of pain but is pushing through it to try and walk and use that leg again. She's eaten nonstop today and is starting to gain a little bit of body mass.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Vitamin E and selenium are the ones I was trying to think about yesterday that give the best chance of recovery from a vitamin deficiency.

The vitamin B is giving energy, but not the actual vitamin deficiency that causes the paralysis.

It's awesome that she seems to be showing signs of improvement!

Did you see the other birds keeping her away from the feed? Or is that just what makes sense to you? If in fact it was the other birds keeping her away that caused a "deficiency", how will she be reintroduced and assure that doesn't happen in the future.

I have never had a bird YET with that issue. As they pay attention and run around and eat anyways since the others don't hover over the feed all day long.

If it were Mareks, she would have died weeks ago.

Not sure what makes you think that... My birds lived for weeks with it before I personally cut their throat. And plenty of birds go through what you describe and recover to walking and such. Yep, mine were bright eyed and ate veraciously the whole time.

I also remembered what they call the strains that kill faster... very viral.

The pain you describe is something I don't quite understand. The one time I thought I had a deficiency that turned out to be Marek's, showed no signs of pain. And lots of birds with a deficiency bad enough to cause wry neck never seem to be in pain from what I can remember reading. I know each case may be different though. Consider this part of the discussion for my learning purposes. I'm not trying to talk you into believing something else is wrong.

Have you ever checked for worms via a fecal float? It is usually around $15, and could be one reason for a deficiency if there is one. In which case your supportive care may only work short term if the root cause isn't solved. If you can afford to have it done any vet can do it doesn't have to be avian. You would want a species load count to make sure and treat with the correct thing if needed. But I would never worm an ill bird without confirmation of that issue as it taxes their system and could just make them worse.

Hope you continue to see improvement!

 

[DoubleBoop]

We haven't checked for worms, but I have wild piquin pepper I could give the bird that would kill any worms. There are 10 8 week old birds in a 5x5x5 cube cage being integrated with the flock of 11 adult hens, so I think it would be very possible that they kept her from the food. The pain is manifested to me anyways, in chirps that are longer than the usual chirp, as if the chirps are labored or drawn out.

I meant to post the above this morning. As of now, she is running and able to fly. My girlfriend was able to toss her and have her use her wings to land gently, and with a little encouragement from the farm dog (their dogs are trained to protect chickens, not hurt them, but the chicken doesn't know that), she ran just fine. She is putting on weight and making a great recovery.