Baby chick keeps falling over

[Sheebee82]

I have a 5-day-old baby chicken that was hatched naturally by Mama outside. She's a barnyard mix. She had a normal incubation length and an uneventful incubation.
She was found wet and cold out from under Mama shortly after hatch. Brought her inside and dried her off and left her up with a hair dryer on low speed low heat. And then returned her to Mama where she was accepted and stayed for the last few days. Noted baby has a hard time with balance. She'll stand but then fall over to one side.
She is acting normal, eating and drinking. She is not being picked on by her siblings. I find her most frequently under Mama instead of exploring the environment like the other baby chicks. Wondering if this looks like slay leg or if this looks like some kind of neurocognitive disorder.

I'm hopeful for any thoughts and recommendations.

 

[The Chickens' Maid]

might be splayed legs, do you have a picture or video?

 

[Sheebee82]

might be splayed legs, do you have a picture or video?

Sorry, was supposed to have been attached...

 

[Ebz5003]

I have a 5-day-old baby chicken that was hatched naturally by Mama outside. She's a barnyard mix. She had a normal incubation length and an uneventful incubation.
She was found wet and cold out from under Mama shortly after hatch. Brought her inside and dried her off and left her up with a hair dryer on low speed low heat. And then returned her to Mama where she was accepted and stayed for the last few days. Noted baby has a hard time with balance. She'll stand but then fall over to one side.
She is acting normal, eating and drinking. She is not being picked on by her siblings. I find her most frequently under Mama instead of exploring the environment like the other baby chicks. Wondering if this looks like slay leg or if this looks like some kind of neurocognitive disorder.

I'm hopeful for any thoughts and recommendations.

This sounds like Merck's disease. Our Bielefelder chick started doing this at 1 week old, and also fluttering it's eyes. The exotic vet told me it was probably Merck's disease. I had it put down as the vet recommended it. These symptoms were csused by paralysis. The vet said it can be very contagious and that prob all the others contracted it, but this proved to not be the case. This was months ago and all the others remained healthy. I really hope this isn't the case with yours. If it gets worse, I'd say it could be Merck's.

 

[Sheebee82]

Video
I had to upload to YouTube , link above

 

[Sheebee82]

 

[Ebz5003]

Hmmm, this chick isn't staying down the way our's did. Maybe it's not Merck's disease? I wonder if at the hatchery it was stepped on by it's mother of else hurt it's leg another way?

 

[The Chickens' Maid]

Not so sure it's splayed leg after seeing the video. I haven't dealt with something like this with my chickens but my first thought is that there's some neurological issue. You could try the splay leg splint and see if it helps just in case though.

 

[The Chickens' Maid]

Hmmm, this chick isn't staying down the way our's did. Maybe it's not Merck's disease? I wonder if at the hatchery it was stepped on by it's mother of else hurt it's leg another way?

oh yeah it could be a leg injury too, that's a good point

 

[Ebz5003]

oh yeah it could be a leg injury too, that's a good point

And I misspelled....it is Marek's disease that our chick probably had