chick shaking issue

[mauigirl]

video of chick with tremors also posted as shaky chick

or search in the bar maui feather lei channel

Still alive, eating well.
Tremors are the same. Neck pulls and twitches to the right and backwards left leg totally useless. chick leans to left when propped up, cant stand or walk without assistance

 

[mauigirl]

My 4 week old serama was shaky like a little old man. Then a day later he stopped using his left leg. Just came from vet (again) and he is sure it is NOT Mareks, but a thiamin deficiency. He administered a b1 shot with thiamin and a long acting penicillin and said come back on Thursday for follow up.
Vet said dont alarm everyone BUT he saw this often in med school with chunks of thianice (spelling??) in the chick starter which blocks thiamin. So I think the question we should all be posting in addition to other info is WHAT BRAND OF starter are we all using. It seems rampid on backyardchickens forum especially with the seramas. He said it comes from feed that uses fish as a base and a factory that makes feed/makes feed of all kinds, just a little would be too much for a serama.

Today 12/27 the left side of Nicks head is 'road rashed' as he scoots/moves about (clockwise) the plastic reptile carrier - have lined it with wash cloths and more stuffed animals.
He's still on 2nd formula which is abba green with soymilk and a drop of baby poly vitamins (no iron), no water the pasty food has enough liquid. He is very alert, flaps his wings and peeps really loud if everyone leaves the room, he preens and even acts silly.

Have been doing the leg therapy everytime I handle him. Thinking of making some kinda sling (my dad made one for horse that had colic when I was a kid) so he'll use that left leg. Leg can grip but he wont put weight on it, vet confirmed no leg trauma

 

[mauigirl]

Nick the sick one from posts is the darkest one 4 weeks later

 

[mauigirl]

Lil Nick 1/3/2012

12/29/2011
Scoots along really well not able to stand on legs. Took in a 2 day old foster chick will raise with Nick. Chick wouldnt stop peeping so he put his good leg out and pushed chick as far as possible away from him... too funny.

Feeding chick same baby mash as Nick

12/31/2011 Saturday
No celebrating out. Chicks require too much care. Food consumption almost double with Nick and new chick (Dicky). Offered water in bottle cap. Nick scooted over and drank way too much, he ate a little dry chick mash. Still sleeps mostly all the time. Dicky sits on Nicks head and back then Nick tucks his head over Dicky.
Sunday -Put both chicks outside with Nicks broodmates - sun, bugs, dust. Nick actually dusted himself, scooting clockwise but puts a little weight on both legs. Still looses balance and over compensates with flapping wings, then bounces around trying to stabilize. Feeding less slurpy mash, have free access to water and dry chick mash starter. Therapy every few hours - lay on back and uncurl bad foot- make him grab finger and pull a bit to stretch those muscles
Sunday evening washed Nick and Dicky - put the towel in the sink while blow drying and Nick literally ran around the sink bowl with the towel as traction. clockwise of course. Therapy now has my one hand holding him steady and allowing him to use both legs, he's still tender and almost floats along with my hand. Trying to get him to go counter clockwise.
Monday same as Sunday

Tueday - 2nd B1 shot - no change for a few hours - but put him outside like previous 2 days.

reading previous posts I even forgot about the neck jerks.... they are infrequent

 

[mauigirl]

dang i just copied and pasted all kinds of stuff on thiamin ,vit b1, and vit e... and lost it all
basically i did a google search on thiamin deficiency poultry
3 sites were really informative
mercks vet manual - smallstock.info and wikipedia
Vitamin E deficiency (is associated with several diseases including: Avian Encephalomalacia A disease of young chickens due to vitamin E deficiency, in which there is ataxia, incoordination, paralysis, and severe softening of the brain, especially in the cerebellum. Exudative Diathesis Exudative diathesis is a severe edema (the presence of abnormally large amounts of fluid in the intercellular tissue spaces of the body) resulting from an increase in capillary permeability. Muscular Dystrophy Muscular dystrophy in chicks is characterized by degeneration of the muscle fibers, especially of the breast, but also of the leg. )
and VIT B1 deficiency have similar characteristics the biggest difference is the crooked neck (Polyneuritis)

I wont even go into the PANIC he said I could cause by pointing fingers to some feed company factories - I actually feed top of the line medicated mash to my serama chicks - but grandkids were here for holiday with their chicks and apparently fed their generic starter to my chicks -

only 1 apparently got the 'poison' in that generic feed

Will post a vid on youtube of Nicks recovery later this week.
AND add vitb to my chicken toolbox....

 

[mauigirl]

Havn't had a chance to get new vids on Nick. He is still getting around a good bit, a little unbalanced but 100x better than Christmas eve. I put him out with brood mates for an hour or so everyday and it's improvement everytime! I may ask vet for one more b1 shot.

Have got to get everyone in top shape before end of February. Am representing Hawaii in the Hawaiian culture art category at the Philadelphia flower show and will be gone 15 days. Family will have to take care of birds and cant handle anything other than basic feed and water.

 

[mauigirl]

Ok second vid of recovery on serama chick with vitamin b1 deficiency

PT is a must - vet stressed once that foot muscle retracts and is in a closed position it would be too late, it may seem hard to watch him struggle but it really is progress from where we started

 

[mauigirl]

Nick update - he took a turn for the worse and almost put him down. He stopped eating, and couldn't put weight on his legs at all . Vet wanted to do another round of antibiotics and vit b1 in the chest - that was Monday 3 days ago. Spasms becoming worse it seems because now he flaps his wing as that neck contortions backwards - vet said is no worse though. Nutritional ms is the diagnoses - his body is not assimilating the nutrients. Vet wormed him just in case.

Wednesday change to feed - health food store had vitb1 in capsule (open and pour powder into feed) and vit e in dropper form. Still giving ABBA green in soymilk baby vitamins and now the pure form of the 2 vitamins. His appetite doubled today! Thinking of a second opinion so took him to the Hawaiian Healer.

Healer worked on him as we chatted and he made a huge flying poop (Nick did- not the healer) Bula the healer wants me to add Noni juice in formula also. We chatted about his work with ms patients and he showed me how to tap down his spine and down each leg (the hawaiian way) so have added that to his pt routine.

Lil Dicky was taken away when Nick was really sick to bond with other chicks, which he didnt. Back with Nick they are both happier. Dicky insists on eating the 'wet baby food from a spoon' like Nick, snuggles up to Nick and here is what is so fascinating. A split second before Nick seizes he jumps off or moves away since he knows he'll be swept away by the flapping wings. I know when a spasm is on the way by watching Dicky

I wedge Nick between rolled towels and teddy bear and that allows him to sleep peacfully, Dicky watches then snuggles in- they have quite a relationship... will get a vid on youtube after their baths tomorrow.
Going on 3 weeks now, taking the birds with me everywhere, they went to Walmart yesterday, couldnt leave them in the hot truck.

This dis-ease is a new one for me and Im sure someone will be able to gain some insight should they have similar symptoms....If the bird were not eating and bright eyed, alert and responding it wouldnt have gone on this long. I have about 30 birds and would not be able to nurse a sick bird for the rest of his life, but if there is hope there is no limit on time

 

[mauigirl]

Nick doing better everyday. Stands and stretches both legs, left is still gimpy and rarely uses it unless its PT time and he is forced to use it. Spasms are less and less, he gobbles his food about 2 tablespoons now when ever his crop is empty. He preens and will cautiously drink water. Bright eyed, nice poo. Unfortunate with setback but we are on track again. Healers touch did wonders.

Dicky the foster chick is an old english (not serama) very sweet but will probably go back to his own home when he gets older. He insists on eating the mash then blows out of his nostrils constantly. Not sure why he's blowing (not quite a sneeze) because its not too slurpy and he doesnt sink his whole head into the mix.

And Dicky is a hen -well he came from Sonny and Cher thus the sexing issues LOL I gues we'll call her Chassidy

 

[mauigirl]

Nick part 3 on youtube

He is doing amazing!

The healer says the spine is like a river, when the river branches off and gets clogged in a stream it limits flow. Healer worked on Nick for 1/2 hour then showed me how to do the therapy. Tapping from base of neck all the way to tail, then legs, feet and wings- always starting at the top of the spine at base of neck
.
Hawaiian Healing has been a prectised art since Polynesians came to Hawaii - it is quite fascinating and worth doing the research. Bula comes from a long line of healers, he says 'my grandma said no work on humans till 16 (puberty), as a child I worked on animals under her guidance' he does like massage/chiropractic/lomi combined and is currently working with ms and md patients.

I cant wait till the day I walk into the office with this little chicken crowing and running around for Bula to see.