Baby Chick is sick....Please Help!!!

[curious0205]

On 6/28 I posted that I had found one of my brown leghorns at the time was 3-4 weeks old, lying on the hutch floor trying to get up, but couldn't. Her left leg was straight out and her right leg was under her. She didn't have any strength in her right leg and she couldn't bend her left. Also, when I picked her up she would cry out in pain. I looked her over and found nothing visibly wrong. At first I thought it was heat stoke, because the temps here in SC had gotten up to 102-104 and the heat index got up to 117. And because I thought it was heat stroke I looked up to find out what the symptoms were and what could I do and it said to dunk her in COOL water up to her neck. I did that and it seem to help. I brougth her in the house and because she was so weak I had to hand feed and water her with a syringe. She was extremely tired and slept a lot. After a few days she could put both feet and legs down normal, but needed assistance to stand and was able to eat and drink on her own. Soon she was able to stand on her own, but was very unbalanced, she walked as if she were drunk. Finally after about a week she was able to stand and walk on her own with out assistance. She is now back to her old self, so we took her back down to the hutch and watched to see how she would do. First thing she did was dust herself with dirt. After a while she rolled over on to her back and couldn't get back on her feet. I picked her up put her back on her feet and she stumbled away as if she were drunk. We brought her back into the house and she is back to her old self again.


Now my question is what is in the dirt that would cause this problem?

 

[Bigwig]

Have you or anybody else sprayed the place she dust bathed in recently with poison?

 

[Eggcessive]

She could be showing signs of Mareks disease, but dehydration, vitamins deficiency, and heat stress can also cause similar symptoms. Make sure that her hutch is in the shade and well ventilated in summer, and I would put vitamins and electrolytes in her water. Check your 20% chick started to make sure that it is fresh dated so that vitamins are not depleted. Avian encephalomyelitis can cause lameness, tremors, and imbalance, and strikes chicks up to 4 weeks old. Read this link on Mareks disease to see the other causes of lameness, and for other signs of Mareks:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/9/avian-encephalomyelitis-epidemic-tremors/

 

[curious0205]

nope

 

[curious0205]

We feed her start n grow 24% and we put vitamins with electrolytes in the water. I checked the date on the bag of food and it is fine. She has plenty of water, hutch is well ventilated, and it is in the shade. Also the temp here has gone down and is now a comfortable 70-80 degrees. After I read about mareks I know what it might be, moldy food, When I cleaned the hutch the last time, I discovered that there was food under their feeder that was molded. So, we took the food and put it in a feeder that we raised up off the ground and they can't scratch the food out. We also moved the waterer away from their food. So, today I am going down to clean the hutch out. Once I do that I will give it a few days and then bring her back to the hutch. I will let you know how she does.

 

[curious0205]

I cleaned out the hutch yesterday and took off the top layer of dirt, it was full of mold. What a mess that was, it took me half the afternoon to clean it all up, but it is all done. I then put down fresh pine shavings, I feel a lot better now that I know all of the mold is gone. We took Miracle down yesterday and she is doing great. Now she wants to come back inside with us, Last night she jumped on me and looked at me as if to say your not going to leave me here are you. Then my son looked at me with sad eyes and asked if we could bring her in the house for one more night. Of course I couldn't say no. But now she is down in the hutch in her house doing great.

Thanks for all of your help.