Avian Encephalomyelitis in my Silkie chick, help!

[Stephine]

So far this chicken is doing ok! The best way I can describe her is: odd. But she's the same size as the other females now, and most of her feathers have grown in. She can jump and fly, not as well as the others... definitely a bit clumsy. Does odd head movements from time to time, but no more of those seizure-like episodes at all for the past 3 weeks. She is quite the lap chicken. Just sits on me and lets me pet her until she falls asleep, never poops on me <3 I'm glad I saved her!

Me too! I hope she’ll have a long happy life with you. It’s so interesting that the chicks we have to baby the most turn into the ones most comfortable around us, even if we had to do a lot of stuff to them they didn’t like. I had a shipment of chicks that I suspect had AE, first one chick sick with it and then after it recovered all the others got it. One was so bad she was only stumbling backwards and falling over, on her worst day she had a cross beak even. I nursed all of them around the clock and most recovered within days. One of them needed help for a few weeks. She also developed swelling around one eye (I think she might have gotten pecked). She is the only one who didn’t make a full recovery - she was ok for a few months and then died suddenly shortly after coming into lay. The other three are just fine. The one with the temporary cross beak is my one chicken that comes running to me in the morning and asks to be cuddled (she pecks my leg until I pick her up).
Thanks for the update! Keeping fingers crossed for her.

 

[Kiki]

My 3 wk old Silkie chick Puff is not doing well today. Started with seizure-like fits after being disturbed by other chicks, and decreased activity yesterday. He was acting so bizarrely that I did one of those online Telehealth vets for $5 this evening. I sent the doc a video of the behavior and he diagnosed him with avian encephalomyelitis. Unfortunately, because it can be up to 50% fatal apparently. Well I'm very sad... we had a chick die on day 4 of life from similar symptoms and we didn't know what it was. This makes sense because this is a virus with vertical --> horizontal transmission which a "classic biphasic mortality pattern" Puff seems to be handling the disease a little better than the newly hatched chick did, he is still able to eat and drink. I am worried about his weakness causing him to be trampled... he can walk around fine but he's not flying around like the others.

I know I should quarantine him. At least to prevent trampling. I feel like the other chickens would have displayed symptoms of the disease and caught it by now? Is that stupid to say? Or is it going to spread around to the other members of the flock slowly? I found a good resource that says it's normally done spreading your flock by week 4... It seems like it's such close quarters in there that they would have likely caught it all at the same time? I don't know. Anyway... I ask because I don't have the heart for the forced quarantining. The logistics of quarantining aren't great... I have a brooder plate only for heat. It's not like I can totally take him away from the others. So I set a shallow cardboard box under the plate so Puff had about half the plate all to himself. And his own food and water. But he just couldn't handle the isolation. Hearing the others, but not being with them. He's my most social chick. He just would NOT stop chirping. Like loudly, like a fire alarm! It was insane. It was so heartbreaking that I just put him back with his friends. I forcibly quarantined the original sick chick (Yellow), she screamed all night, and still died anyway. :/

Anyway, it's late. I'll go to the store in the morning and get a heat lamp and try to just remove Puff from the others, like out of the same room. And maybe that will work. Hopefully it's not too late... And the other's haven't caught it from him. Any advice for supportive care for a sick chick with this? Any advice for dealing with a sick chick who doesn't handle isolation well?

Also, my husband just went on some crazy canoe adventure for a week with 0 cell service, so please help me keep these chickies alive until he gets back!

Can you please PM me the link to this a Telehealth place?