Chicken all of a sudden acts blind, sneaking around, head jerking

[Bossmode]

Hello chicken friends,

Ongoing issues since months... One of my Splash hens has been acting weird for a while now, from one day to the next she was acting strange.

Her head keeps tilting to one side, her eyes are nearly black and has no sense of vision, she walks around as if she was walking at night in the dark in the sneaking stance. It is really odd! Any ideas what this could be? She is the only one who has been acting like that. I separated her as she was getting picked on because of this.

Any help would be grateful.

 

[boskelli1571]

Hello chicken friends,

Ongoing issues since months... One of my Splash hens has been acting weird for a while now, from one day to the next she was acting strange.

Her head keeps tilting to one side, her eyes are nearly black and has no sense of vision, she walks around as if she was walking at night in the dark in the sneaking stance. It is really odd! Any ideas what this could be? She is the only one who has been acting like that. I separated her as she was getting picked on because of this.

Any help would be grateful.

How old is she? Can you check to see if she is blind?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hello chicken friends,

Ongoing issues since months... One of my Splash hens has been acting weird for a while now, from one day to the next she was acting strange.

Her head keeps tilting to one side, her eyes are nearly black and has no sense of vision, she walks around as if she was walking at night in the dark in the sneaking stance. It is really odd! Any ideas what this could be? She is the only one who has been acting like that. I separated her as she was getting picked on because of this.

Any help would be grateful.

Can you get a video of her actions? (upload video to youtube and provide a link)
Photos of her eyes would be helpful as well.

How old is she?
What do you feed, including treats?
Have you tried any type of treatment/vitamin therapy to see if those help?

 

[Bossmode]

She is not even a year old. I use to give my chickens vitamins in water so she should not be lacking any deficiency. Right now I feed them chicken crumble and scratch for treats, my other chickens have no issues in that direction.

I will give it a try and see if I can take pictures/ upload a video if she does her thing. I brought her inside the house as it has been -35 degree Celsius here and oil heater and heat lamps barely keep my chickens warm. Got like 5 of them inside as they are having issues with the cold, but thats besides the point of this chicken. Let me see if I can take a picture/video. I'll report back shortly

 

[Eggcessive]

Since it sounds like she may at least have wry neck, a neurological symptom, I would place her back on vitamins, and give her 400 IU of vitamin E orally.

 

[Bossmode]

 

[Bossmode]

 

[Bossmode]

No Idea... I had 25 chickens die within the last 3 month, Fungal pneumonia. Then Vet told me they had coccidiosis on top and lice. So I treated them with corid for 10 days, to me it appears some might still have coccidiosis. I got rid of the lice but now noticed a couple have it again...

So I am going to retreat for lice again, not sure if I can retreat for coccidiosis with corid AGAIN, and fungal pneumonia well... vet told me to cull the whole flock as that is uncurable. Just have not been able to cull them aslong they are still doing ok... Not getting any new chickens aslong I have these thats for sure.

But again, I am not sure what this hens issues are...? Maybe with the above information someone can figure it out.

 

[Eggcessive]

That neck movement definitely looks neurological. Sometimes Mareks can be a cause, but wry neck and neurological symptoms can also be a result of head injury and vitamin E deficiency. It sounds like your issues are way more than something we can diagnose. Can you ask locally for a permethrin product to treat your lice? It is hard to find permethrin in Canada, but I would try to get some. Fungal respiratory disease called aspergillosis usually does not affect a whole flock unless mold is everywhere. There are a number of common respiratory diseases such as MG, coryza, Infectious Bronchitis, ILT, and the fungal disease. If you lose another chicken, I would keep the body cool, not frozen, and send it in to your nearest government poultry pathologist. Here is a link:
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/...ls-and-crops/animal-health/pathology-necropsy

 

[Bossmode]

We did get an autopsy done as one of our chickens died right at the vet ( we probably brought in 8 chickens since everything started), so they sent her off and we got an autopsy done which resulted in Fungal Pneumonia and Coccodiosis. Coccodiosis we knew as they sampled a turd after that chicken passed and we waited on their results. So we treated them for coccodiosis in the mean time.

We do have Permethrine and I sprayed them with it about 2 1/2 months ago. Lice were gone.

Problem is, I sold chicks before all this happened, and then I asked the lady if her chicks were doing ok because mine are dying. I obviously did not know at the time what was going on.

So I treated my flock with Corid and also sprayed them with Permithrin every 7 days for 3 weeks. There were absolutely no more lice on my flock.

But because of the whole scenario the lady i sold the chicks to didn't want them anymore as she was scared her flock getting diseased... anyways I took her 5 chicks that she had left (3 died of hers) back and now I notice lice on them so I have to retreat my whole flock AGAIN...

Problem is I don't have any Corid anymore, can my chickens that I have treated become infected again? Either way, I will have to treat them with Corid again as the little ones that I got back from the lady never have been treated for the stuff I treated my flock with as I didn't have them at the time.

I don't have any Vitamin E right now, but I did add Vitamin powder in their water and also I will give that Splash hen some Nutri Drench, says there is Vitamin E in it... Chaos.