Okay, so as one final post, I would like to summarize all of her symptoms and all of the treatments I administered. Hopefully this will help if anyone else comes across this thread looking for help.
Blizzy started out 'dizzy'. By this, I mean she would be standing still, but be unable to keep her head still. She would look around, but as she tried to focus on things, her head just kept moving slowly. She could still walk fine, but was unable to see things like a foggy shower curtain in her way. I know she wasn't blind because she could focus on more solid objects.
Just two days after I noticed this, she was unable to walk at all. This did not present as paralysis, but more as weakness in her legs. She was still able to sort of waddle along on her 'knees'. At this point she had stopped eating solid food, but would still drink on her own and eat raw eggs.
The first treatment I tried was Epsom salts, at the rate of 1 teaspoon of salt dissolved completely into one ounce (1/8 cup) of warm water. I gave her this treatment twice, the second dose about 24 hours after the first dose. I made her drink almost all of the ounce of water for both treatments.
I had been feeding her 2 or 3 raw eggs a day from the start with vitamin/electrolyte water (you can probably get packets of this at your local feed store; just follow the instructions on the package for dosing). I switched at some point to a raw egg/crumble/yogurt mixture, which she would peck at at first. She stopped eating on her own completely, though, and so I pureed this mixture and syringed it directly into her mouth 3 times a day until her crop felt full enough (which was at about 30-50 mL usually). Around the same time, I began giving her ACV water and giving her access to it at all times during the day.
By week two of treating her, while she was out of the sling both of her legs would stretch out straight behind her. All the while she was in her sling, I exercised her legs by stretching them out and then gently pushing them up against her belly. I think this helped initially.
About three days before we put her down, her crop mysteriously stopped passing food while still passing water. After 36 hours and a crop massage or two, this resolved itself.
She became increasingly stubborn about eating at this point, even from the syringe.
She eventually became too visibly uncomfortable for me to justify keeping her around.
There was never a sign of anyone else in the flock showing symptoms.
So if I had to do it over, I probably would have done things like this:
1. Start treatment as soon as the first-noted 'dizzy' spell! Don't wait until she can't walk!
2. Start with the Epsom salt treatment--two doses, 12 hours apart (1 teaspoon of Epsom salt dissolved completely in 1/8 cup of warm water; make her drink most, if not all, of both doses). Keep her on vitamin/electrolyte for the next two or three days, then switch to ACV water at the rate of 1/4 teaspoon per 1 cup of water.
3. Try treating with Amprolium and deworming her a few days after the Epsom salt treatment. (Post #52 by cowcreekgeek on this page has dosing info.)
4. Keep a closer eye on her weight! Make sure she is fed at least two times a day and until her crop feels full (but not over-full! again, I found about 30-50 mL was enough when syringing her, but this was three times a day).
5. Offer water 24/7 instead of trying to get her to drink enough when I syringed it to her. Also, feed egg/crumble/yogurt mix from the start instead of just raw egg. My mixture was one raw egg, one handful of crumbles, and a heaping spoon of plain yogurt. I found toward the end that the egg could be scrambled and then pureed and would mix into the crumbles and yogurt pretty well with some water added to loosen it up.
6. Lastly, if she began to lose weight too rapidly, try tube feeding her sooner! (Tube feeding info HERE or HERE.)
I hope, hope, hope that if anyone sees these symptoms in one of their chickens that this thread can help them. The most important thing is to keep trying and don't give up on him or her until he or she is ready!
Seein' your efforts to assemble such thorough abstract of this thread, and remembering all you've done along the way, is deeply moving, and inspiring ...
You've made the loss of your precious one into a much better chance for the many.
