Chick w/ a shoulder injury has stopped walking

[JayBird+16]

I have a 10 -12 week gold laced Wyandotte. A few weeks ago I noticed a large scab on her shoulder. I think she got pecked by 1 of the older hens and it got infected. I do not think it is broken, but with all the swelling it was hard to tell. It was swollen and pusy. I took her inside and rinsed her with warm water and applied a compress. Heat light and antibiotics, the swelling has gone down by at least half.
Last week a new problem arose. When I take her out to change the shavings or outside for some exercise, her wing droops and she is constantly stepping on it and falling over. I tired to apply a “sling,” but she would not move at all w/ it on.
This week she won’t walk at all a just falls over and looks dead, eyes closed and everything. She is alert while in the pen, she eats, she drinks, she has normal poop. Could her legs have atrophied? Does she just need more exercise? How do you exercise a chick that can’t walk? When is enough, enough? Do I keep working to save her or just put her down? What is better for the chick? Any suggestions?

 

[BCMominMD]

Chickens seem to have amazing powers of recovery.
I don't have any experience with this but I'm going to bump it up.
Anyone?

 

[threehorses]

Could you possibly provide a little more information for us? I'd really like to see you get good accurate help, so we need a little back-and-forth with you please to help us help you.

First, if you could answer the questions from the linked post - but answer them into THIS thread, that will help us start to establish a flock history. The more information we have, the more information we can provide back.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3569

By "weight" they generally mean how she feels, though an actual weight estimate would really help.

Also, I'd like to ask where this baby came from - a breeder, home-hatched, hatchery/feed store? Were your babies vaccinated for marek's? What antibiotics did you use on the wound - topical or oral?

Also please rule out parasites (mites and lice) by checking her thoroughly. Look most carefully under her wings and around her vent, against her skin, etc.

Please also tell us exactly what she's been eating (brand and all), if she's in a run/coop, free ranged, etc. When she's down, does one leg stick out behind the body - like she's doing the splits? Does the foot on the leg that's effected curl, or remain straight out?

It's possible that she could have an illness (viral) that causes this. Or alternately it's possible that she had a nutritional deficiency that started with the wing and now has spread to her legs.

First thing I'd do, no matter what, is just isolate her in deep bedding to prevent sores (shavings). Keep food (grower feed) and water in front of her 24/7. Vitamins/electrolytes in the water would help (poultry vitamins/minerals/electrolytles from a package - use as labeled).

You will need to make sure she continues to eat. Once a day give her a damp mash of egg, a little yogurt, her crumbles, and water. Mix a little of the wet ingredients into some crumbles, let it set til it's soaked up - about 10 minutes. Then feed that to her first thing in the day. The yogurt will help with riboflavin as well as replacing good bacteria. The egg will give her a little protein (if she's emaciated - we might remove this soon if tumors or Marek's is suspected), and the crumbles provide her over all nutrition.

You will also want to buy some PolyViSol baby vitamins by Enfamil, the non-iron-fortified (there are two formulas - iron-fort, and not). I got mine at the walmart vitamin section. 3 drops in her beak daily, unless you can get her to eat a tiny bit of bread with the drops on it. It must be in food or in the beak, not in her water for the oil vitamins.

I would also buy a B-complex vitamin (usually tablets) as well as a vitamin E capsule (400-700 IU). You will crush the B vitamin into her daily damp mash, and you will slit the end of the E capsule and give her 3 drop sin the beak daily. E is for neurological issues and will help new nerve paths grow if there was neurological damage or issues now. B is for growth as some growing birds will get low on B and become paralyzed. The polyvisol contain these vitamins, but this bird is down enough to possibly need more if this is nutritional.

Also rule out the possibility that she got into any mildewed feed, fungus, or anything like that. If there was any possibility, please let us know.

So on the wound, would you say it's still infected? Is it possible for you to give her penicillin injections if you had to? Feed stores sell bottles of penicillin of various types - usually in their refrigerator. If you're up for this, you'd get either Penicillin G Procaine, or regular penicillin, 3 cc syringes and 18 gauge needles - about 7 of them. Ask here how to use it. This could help with the remainder of her infection (which could have predisposed her to what is effecting her now, or might have been a precursor of what's happening now - depending on the answers to your questions).

I look forward to your reply.


Summary - until further information provided:
Give polyvisol vitamins once daily in the beak - 2 drops for a week. Reevaluate after a week
1 b-complex vitamin in her daily mash
2 drops of E vitamin (400-700IU) in the beak daily
Yogurt daily in the mash
Free choice: crumbles and water
Isolation in deep bedding