Buff Orpington Can't Walk or Drink

[BeastialGuardian]

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
Buff Orpington, 7 months old, seems about the same weight as our two other 7 month old Orpingtons
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
I found our Buff Orpington (Fatty) still on her roost this morning with her head dangling down. I took her off her roost and found that she could not stand or even hold herself up. She couldn't even move her head much. She was very much alert and watched everything with her eyes and slight head movements. She is now under a heat lamp in our house, but her neck has become very crooked and almost twisting around. Due to this, and a lack of movement, she can't drink or eat. We have been trying to give her some water with an eye dropper but she doesn't seem very capable of swallowing.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
We found her this morning.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
Our 13 other chickens all appear to be completely normal.
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
There doesn't seem to be any bleeding or broken bones. She must have been well enough last night to hop her way onto our 2nd highest roost (~3.5 feet up).
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
No idea. The only change that the chickens have had recently is that we got 2 additional older chickens from a family friend 3 weeks ago who was moving. All of the hens get along great though. Other than this, it has been raining a lot frequently. Our chickens often do not go back into their coop and would rather scratch outside in the rain.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
My fiance sent me a video of our chickens eating two days ago and I can definitely see that she was eating.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
She hasn't had a poop all day.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
We separated her from the rest of the flock, and put her in a box with blankets and a pillow so her head isn't on the ground. We have been trying to give her water every hour or so.
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I want to try to identify what might be the problem with her so we can ensure that we do whatever we can to keep the rest of the flock healthy and hopefully nurse her back to health.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
I will attach a picture from earlier today of her. Her neck is now quite a bit more kinked and twisted.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Our chickens have a 64 square foot wooden coop that is split in half by a wall. One half if used for roosting at night and has a ladder of roosting bars that they can climb up at night. The other half has their food and water. During the day, they have access to an attached ~600 square foot outdoor run that is mostly dirt and redwood duff.

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

@Eggcessive @casportpony @staceyj

Could it be wry neck?

 

[WindingRoad]

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
Buff Orpington, 7 months old, seems about the same weight as our two other 7 month old Orpingtons
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
I found our Buff Orpington (Fatty) still on her roost this morning with her head dangling down. I took her off her roost and found that she could not stand or even hold herself up. She couldn't even move her head much. She was very much alert and watched everything with her eyes and slight head movements. She is now under a heat lamp in our house, but her neck has become very crooked and almost twisting around. Due to this, and a lack of movement, she can't drink or eat. We have been trying to give her some water with an eye dropper but she doesn't seem very capable of swallowing.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
We found her this morning.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
Our 13 other chickens all appear to be completely normal.
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
There doesn't seem to be any bleeding or broken bones. She must have been well enough last night to hop her way onto our 2nd highest roost (~3.5 feet up).
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
No idea. The only change that the chickens have had recently is that we got 2 additional older chickens from a family friend 3 weeks ago who was moving. All of the hens get along great though. Other than this, it has been raining a lot frequently. Our chickens often do not go back into their coop and would rather scratch outside in the rain.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
My fiance sent me a video of our chickens eating two days ago and I can definitely see that she was eating.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
She hasn't had a poop all day.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
We separated her from the rest of the flock, and put her in a box with blankets and a pillow so her head isn't on the ground. We have been trying to give her water every hour or so.
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I want to try to identify what might be the problem with her so we can ensure that we do whatever we can to keep the rest of the flock healthy and hopefully nurse her back to health.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
I will attach a picture from earlier today of her. Her neck is now quite a bit more kinked and twisted.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Our chickens have a 64 square foot wooden coop that is split in half by a wall. One half if used for roosting at night and has a ladder of roosting bars that they can climb up at night. The other half has their food and water. During the day, they have access to an attached ~600 square foot outdoor run that is mostly dirt and redwood duff.

So sorry she's so sick. I don't know much about sick chickens. I would try to give her some Nurti Drench or some electrolytes. Those seem to be somewhat of a magic bullet. Perks birds up some times. Good luck hopefully someone with more experiences comes along soon.

 

[Chickens4Life101]

Oh no! Poor girl I haven't experienced any sick chickens yet that have been older than a couple days, so I can't help a ton. But, you should definitely keep her away from the rest of the flock until she gets better. Call your vet and see if they treat chickens. If they do, you should take her in

 

[Eggcessive]

It does sound like she has signs of wry neck, but she also may have signs of possible Mareks disease. I really hope not. Wry neck is a symptom, a neurological symptom, that can be from a head injury, a vitamin deficiency, but also can be a sign of Mareks disease or afew other diseases. I would give her some chick vitamins such as Poultry NutriDrench or Poultry Cell 2 ml daily. Those have thiamine and vitamin E among others. But she may require a little more vitamin E. You can open a vitamin E 400 IU capsule once daily on her food.

Can she move either leg or her wings? Can you try to stand her and see if she can move anything? Botulism is another disease that can cause total paralysis of the whole body, beginning with the toes, then wings, neck, and eventually eyelids. As long as her eyes are open, that is good.

It sounds like you may need to tube feed her if she will not take any water or food. You can get a section of aquarium air tubing (at Walmart fish aisle or Petsmart) and cut off a 10 inch section. Take a lighter and melt the sharp edges to soften the part that goes into the throat. That will fit a 35 ml syringe from your feed store to work for tube feeding. Let me know if you want to try tube feeding.

Sometimes you can mix a mash of chicken feed with a lot of water, and add a little cooked egg, and hold them to eat several times a day.

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you know if the new chickens that you got may have come from a flock that had Mareks disease in the past? Here is some reading about Mareks disease:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/

 

[BeastialGuardian]

Here she is with her neck kinked. Whenever we reposition her and straighten out her neck she twists it around again.

I looked up wry neck but it seems like most of the chickens with it can walk around okay. Fatty is not able to move much at all, but definitely can still move her legs if held up. The way that she twists her neck and then twitches her head makes me think that it's something neurological though.

In terms of Mareks, I called up our friends and they said that all of their chickens were seemingly healthy when they gave the rest away last week. They had chickens die in the past couple of years, but they thought that it was from old age and none of them showed signs of sickness.

About 10 years ago we had 2 free range Silkies that showed all of the same symptoms and eventually died. We chalked it up to them eating something poisonous in the yard because they slowly seemed to get more and more paralyzed. Now that our chickens are confined to a run we know that they definitely didn't eat something strange in the yard.

At this point she can move her legs and wings, but it isn't coordinated at all and is just twitches. It usually just ends up causing her to fall on her side. When I hold her up she will try to slightly peddle her legs, but they won't hold any weight. Whenever I come in she can make soft cooing noises and will turn her head. She is blinking a ton, but it's probably from the light. When I leave her, I put some cloth over her face so the light isn't in her eyes.

We do have a local vet that does chickens. I'll look into taking her in tomorrow if she survives the night.

 

[Eggcessive]

It sounds more like Mareks at her age. If you do see a vet, you might get some tube feeding equipment, such as a tube and a large syringe. It is very easy and quick to give fluids and food when they cannot eat or drink. Of course, tube feeding may not be something that you want to do.

I would give her supportive care, especially for her wry neck. She might get better.

Mareks can only be positively diagnosed with testing, usually after death with a necropsy. They look at any tumors and they also can test feather shafts. Blood tests can be done, but is less accurate and may have false negatives.

 

[BeastialGuardian]

UPDATE: She finally was able to poop and it is very green. The dark green part is sticky and smells terrible, the whiter colored part was very hard and dry.

 

[Eggcessive]

She probably hasn’t been getting much to eat or drink which would cause the deep green poops. The white part is uric acids from the kidneys.

If you decide to tube fluids or give them with a syringe, here is a link and a picture where to insert the tube down to her crop: https://unitedpeafowlassociation.org/articles/oral-medication-dosing-of-peafowl/