Bad limp, suspected hip injury

[microchick]

I am so sorry, @Gizabelle. I grieve with you.

Sometimes the last gift of love we can show a beloved bird is to let their souls fly free.

Please do keep us informed.

 

[microchick]

Thanks, I know its necessary sometimes, but gosh it's tough. I can really understand @microchick's encouragement not to give up... looking at the rest of my girls and wondering if that's the fate that awaits each of them... its just too awful.

Forgot to mention, yesterday I did reach out to the farm store all of my girls have come from... no vaccines. They gave me some spiel about "thats why they recommend medicated chick starter" I didn't bother explaining the irrelevance.

We're south of Tallahassee, just a few miles from the coast.

You can't fix stupid, Gizabelle. But you can spread the word about them

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Today was a tough day. I made the call this evening to go ahead and let her go. I'm so grateful to my husband for handling the deed. Its been a long time since losing a bird has hit me this hard.
I checked on her throughout the day and knew from early this morning that she had gotten much worse. She would see me and try and try to get up and come over, but she just couldn't. She looked so defeated, still watching me and chattering, but unable to make her body obey her. It absolutely broke my heart.
That is the part that really got to me. She was so alert. Still ready to eat from my hand, and desperate to come over for whatever I had brought her. Never before today have I made the decision to euthanize an animal that still had some fight and will to live left. I hope I made the right decision. I think I did, but not all of me truly knows it yet.

So... I've prepared everything to send her to the state lab for testing.
I'll post results when they arrive.

Thank you for all the support.

I'm so sorry.

Please do let us know what you find out.

 

[dawg53]

Thanks, I know its necessary sometimes, but gosh it's tough. I can really understand @microchick's encouragement not to give up... looking at the rest of my girls and wondering if that's the fate that awaits each of them... its just too awful.

Forgot to mention, yesterday I did reach out to the farm store all of my girls have come from... no vaccines. They gave me some spiel about "thats why they recommend medicated chick starter" I didn't bother explaining the irrelevance.

We're south of Tallahassee, just a few miles from the coast.

I currently get my birds from feed stores and once in awhile from TSC. The feed stores around here and in Jacksonville mainly get their chicks from Ideal hatchery. I used to order from them years ago and never had any problems.

I never want chicks vaccinated, never have, never will. Every place that I've bought chicks, I ask the manager if they've been vaccinated. The answer is always "no."
If you want vaccinated chicks, you have to call a hatchery and place an order. Then tell the order taker what vaccines you want your birds to get. There is an additional charge for vaccines and it's best to ask about the cost of vaccines.
Your other option is to buy the vaccines online and do the vaccinations yourself.

Medicated chick starter has a small quantity of amprolium in it for chicks to help boost their immune system against coccidiosis.

 

[Gizabelle]

I currently get my birds from feed stores and once in awhile from TSC. The feed stores around here and in Jacksonville mainly get their chicks from Ideal hatchery. I used to order from them years ago and never had any problems.

I never want chicks vaccinated, never have, never will. Every place that I've bought chicks, I ask the manager if they've been vaccinated. The answer is always "no."
If you want vaccinated chicks, you have to call a hatchery and place an order. Then tell the order taker what vaccines you want your birds to get. There is an additional charge for vaccines and it's best to ask about the cost of vaccines.
Your other option is to buy the vaccines online and do the vaccinations yourself.

Medicated chick starter has a small quantity of amprolium in it for chicks to help boost their immune system against coccidiosis.

Yes, I understand the amprolium to help prevent coccidiosis, but my point was more that that has nothing to do with vaccines.
My I ask about your opposition to vaccines for your chicks? Are you aiming for natural immunity through breeding?
Honestly, I assumed (until recently) it was pretty standard for hatcheries to do it, but its not something that I'd thought about much before now.
Its such a shame the learning curve with chickens usually costs lives.

 

[Gizabelle]

I received the final report today, and as expected, the findings are consistent with MD.

"Necropsy findings in this chicken are most consistent with a lymphoproliferative disease such as Marek’s... Another less likely differential is lymphoid leukosis."