Buff orp all of a sudden not able to walk , wings wonky, alert - comb red, eating, drinking some - vent clean - laid egg this morning! Help!

[DesertPollos]

I have a year plus buff Orpington who I found on the ground of the coop unable to walk. Brought her in. She’s not able to balance and walk. Wings seem to be reacting weirdly. She’s eating , drinking , vent clean , comb red , but can’t stand up. Pretty yucky and smelly diarrhea (green) yesterday. Have given poultry cell, Strike , yogurt …don’t know what to do . If this is disease …

 

[SmiYa0126]

@Wyorp Rock @azygous @Eggcessive please help!

How much is she eating? Any injuries on her feet? Anyone else acting the same way. What are you feeding them? How big is your flock? Do they free range or are they in a run?

 

[azygous]

I have a year plus buff Orpington who I found on the ground of the coop unable to walk. Brought her in. She’s not able to balance and walk. Wings seem to be reacting weirdly. She’s eating , drinking , vent clean , comb red , but can’t stand up. Pretty yucky and smelly diarrhea (green) yesterday. Have given poultry cell, Strike , yogurt …don’t know what to do . If this is disease …

We would love to help you if you start a thread on your subject and give us all the background, location, climate and recent weather, laying history, what her health was just before you found her in this state.

Go back to the forum title page and click on post a thread at the top of the page. Include photos of this hen both closeup to catch the eyes and another to capture her posture.

 

[DesertPollos]

@Wyorp Rock @azygous @Eggcessive please help!

How much is she eating? Any injuries on her feet? Anyone else acting the same way. What are you feeding them? How big is your flock? Do they free range or are they in a run?

She’s not eating much. She was eating more yesterday. I have to put the food and water right in front of her. No injuries on her feet. Checked her body for any injuries. I’ve fed them flock raiser and Kruhse Super Egg. I have 20 chickens, 5 turkeys. They free range at day and in the run and coop at night. I had a loss of my older hen a couple weeks ago. She was spitting out her food and somewhat lame towards the end too. She was 3 years old tho. Also one of my Easter eggers I had inside a few days ago because she was mopey , dirty vent. I treated the whole flock with Corid. This is the first time in 2+ years of Chicken keeping that im feeling something is going around the flock.

 

[DesertPollos]

We would love to help you if you start a thread on your subject and give us all the background, location, climate and recent weather, laying history, what her health was just before you found her in this state.

Go back to the forum title page and click on post a thread at the top of the page. Include photos of this hen both closeup to catch the eyes and another to capture her posture.

Ok. I’ve been trying to get a picture of her standing but it’s not possible. I’ll work on the others and get a thread up later today.

 

[SmiYa0126]

How does her crop feel?

 

[The Chick Addict]

I have a year plus buff Orpington who I found on the ground of the coop unable to walk. Brought her in. She’s not able to balance and walk. Wings seem to be reacting weirdly. She’s eating , drinking , vent clean , comb red , but can’t stand up. Pretty yucky and smelly diarrhea (green) yesterday. Have given poultry cell, Strike , yogurt …don’t know what to do . If this is disease …

This happened to my RIR. I soaked her feet in warm water with epsom salt then dried her feet off and put hen healer on her. I think vicks could work too. In the morning she acted as if it never happened.

 

[DesertPollos]

How does her crop feel?

I would say feels normal. Not swollen or protruded.she just gobbled down some strawberries and apples I cut up for her, but still not able to walk or stand.

 

[azygous]

The paralysis is a big clue. Unfortunately, it fits a number of serious poultry diseases. It can be caused by starvation, heat and cold extremes, mold toxins, bacterial toxins in the soil, and an avian virus. It can also be caused by vitamin deficiencies. That's a broad set of possibilities to try to narrow down.

The bad odor to the poop is another clue that may point toward bacterial infection as well as mold toxic poisoning.

We wish to rule out the simple and common causes first. Mold. Is it possible the feed is contaminated by mold? You need to check. Feed has a very noxious odor when moldy. It all needs to be tossed out if you find mold. Treatment is to clean up all sources of mold and feed high protein and increase vitamins for a bit.

Since the poop is smellier than normal, it might be wise to go right to an oral antibiotic. I prefer amoxicillin which can often be found at feed stores under a "fish mox" label. The dose is 250mg per day for ten days. You will see improvement within 48 hours if bacterial infection is the culprit. Finish the whole ten days, though.

If no improvement, then it may be worthwhile trying vitamin E and B-complex for possible deficiencies that could be causing neurological symptoms. Get these at any outlet selling people vitamins. Pop a vitamin E and a B-complex pill directly into the beak daily for two to four weeks. If no improvement by the end of week two, it's probably not a vitamin deficiency. If there is improvement, a full four weeks or longer may be required for full recovery.

Last, if all of the above fail, then you may be looking at an avian virus. Sadly, there is no cure, and a necropsy after the chicken dies should be obtained to get a diagnosis as it would directly affect your whole flock.

 

[DesertPollos]

The paralysis is a big clue. Unfortunately, it fits a number of serious poultry diseases. It can be caused by starvation, heat and cold extremes, mold toxins, bacterial toxins in the soil, and an avian virus. It can also be caused by vitamin deficiencies. That's a broad set of possibilities to try to narrow down.

The bad odor to the poop is another clue that may point toward bacterial infection as well as mold toxic poisoning.

We wish to rule out the simple and common causes first. Mold. Is it possible the feed is contaminated by mold? You need to check. Feed has a very noxious odor when moldy. It all needs to be tossed out if you find mold. Treatment is to clean up all sources of mold and feed high protein and increase vitamins for a bit.

Since the poop is smellier than normal, it might be wise to go right to an oral antibiotic. I prefer amoxicillin which can often be found at feed stores under a "fish mox" label. The dose is 250mg per day for ten days. You will see improvement within 48 hours if bacterial infection is the culprit. Finish the whole ten days, though.

If no improvement, then it may be worthwhile trying vitamin E and B-complex for possible deficiencies that could be causing neurological symptoms. Get these at any outlet selling people vitamins. Pop a vitamin E and a B-complex pill directly into the beak daily for two to four weeks. If no improvement by the end of week two, it's probably not a vitamin deficiency. If there is improvement, a full four weeks or longer may be required for full recovery.

Last, if all of the above fail, then you may be looking at an avian virus. Sadly, there is no cure, and a necropsy after the chicken dies should be obtained to get a diagnosis as it would directly affect your whole flock.

Thank you for this very thorough response! I am somewhat skeptical of the feed. I typically buy flock raiser from a particular tractor supply because I know the manager and trust him, as you know there are many conspiracies going around about the feed. This past bag I bought from a different tractor supply seemed way more powdery than normal and the biggest clue was most of my birds wouldn’t eat it . I ended up tossing a ton of it and going back to Kruhse super egg that I get from local feed store. Thank you for all the advice. I will start there and pray it’s not an issue of disease , which at this point would be detrimental to my whole flock.
I’ve never had a bird become like this ever. Her egg that she laid seemed very healthy . So , fingers crossed she recovers .