Chicken can't stand or walk, paralyzed??

[SherrynBill]

So my mom has small mini farm and she has some hens and a rooster. She had a stroke about 3 months ago so we're all trying to take care of her animals for her. My stepdad pointed out that one of the chickens had been laying under the ramp in the chicken coop for 4 days and not moving. On the 5th day, I went out there to check on her and she seems to be paralyzed. I brought her to my house and put her in a crate with some food and water. She is eating some and drinking but she does not move at all so we move her around to different spots in the cage several times a day. We also cut all the feathers underneath her around her vent because her poop had gotten caked on her when she was laying there for several days before I was alerted to the situation. We also have horses and they do go down and eat the horse feed that the horses drop. So I'm thinking possibly she got stepped on by 1 of the horses. I palpated her spine and as I got closer to her tail she squalked. Is there such thing as doing an x-ray on a chicken? I'm an animal lover but never saw myself falling in love with a chicken until we brought her up here and my husband named her Ethel. I've done a lot of reading and I'm thinking Marek's disease. Maybe? My mom has gotten her chickens from different places over the years. She's not a chicken farmer or anything of sorts. She just has a few chickens and collects the eggs. Another thing about this hen is that most of the time her beak is down in the ground but she does have the ability to lift her head. And her head is not twisted like what I read about wry neck. I feel like she's losing weight. I've never really held a chicken to know how their bones feel, but she just looks skinny looking at her breast bone. I have an appointment tomorrow morning for my mother's Great Pyrenees and I thought about taking the chicken with me but I know she will just tell me to put her to sleep. She's a country vet and knows farm animals well, but she's also very conservative. Any thoughts on what I can do to give this girl a chance would be greatly appreciated. Something else I noticed tonight is that when I held her in my lap upside down and stretched her legs, she would try to pull them back, not quickly or with any strength, but there is some resistance there. She has been at my house in the crate since Jan 3rd with little if any improvement. View attachment 3373001View attachment 3373002

Sounds like Marek's disease

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Sounds like Marek's disease

Did you read anything other than the first post, which was made 5 months ago?

 

[Gotalotofpetstoo]

Sounds like Marek's disease

It is. We had her tested and she tested positive. She has been separated from the rest of the flock since she was found in January and with lots of TLC. She is doing really well considering.

 

[Gotalotofpetstoo]

I don't see any obvious reason for concern; it looks like to me she gets a taste of the food and decides the taste doesn't impress her. But I will wait to see what others say.

She still won't eat on her own. She won't eat her blueberry muffins. She won't eat her fruit. She won't eat her mealworms or her crumble. Other than that she is doing great.

 

[BastyPutt]

Did you read anything other than the first post, which was made 5 months ago?

This is one of the best threads on BYC IMO. It is what started me making daily visits and exploring the forums.

I did sacrifice about 2 hours of sleep reading it, but it was better than most action movies I watch.

Ethel to the moon!!!

 

[mrskenmore]

Ethel indeed is an amazing little hen with an incredible story and exceptional parents!!

 

[Gotalotofpetstoo]

Ethel is still doing well. She slowly putting back on her weight. She got down to 3 lb 9 oz and she's back up to 4 lb. 3 1/2 oz. This is tube feeding her three times a day with the Kaytees baby bird formula at one scoop powder per feeding, with her other supplements etc also. Once we add the water she ends up getting approximately 100 and 10 to 120 ml total each feeding. I really think her issue with not eating on her own is coming from her beak. I don't know if it hurts her or if it's because she drops her feed out of her mouth sometimes, just can't pick it up properly? The mobile vet that I messaged nearly 2 weeks ago is not getting back in touch with me after several messages. I don't know what to do about her beak if that is the problem that is causing her not to want to eat. She did eat some blueberry muffin yesterday but not much at all. She is still chattering her jaw when she tries to eat on her own. I don't mind two feeding her at all but I feel like it stresses her out because she pitches a royal fit every single time. AND, I have a trip to Florida planned the second week in October and I know there's no way my husband can tube feed her by himself, so if she isn't eating on her own by then I'm going to have to take her to the beach with me and sneak her into the place we are renting lol. Not that changing her diet is going to make her eat any better, but I am also considering getting a larger tube, and 18 FR thinking maybe I can add water to her crumble and tube feed her crumble instead of the baby bird formula. I cannot feed her the crumble with the tube that I have because it will clog up with anything much thicker than water with the baby bird formula mixed in of course. Any thoughts from anybody as far as changing her to a crumble in a larger tube to get it in her? And any thoughts on her not eating because maybe it is her beak? Other than not eating, she's doing great. Knock on wood. She has not had any episodes of anything in the last few weeks.
@Allsfairinloveandbugs
@mrskenmore
@Wyorp Rock
@azygous

 

[Gotalotofpetstoo]

And just for the fun of it, would anyone like to take guesses on which of these five babies are going to be roosters? I'm guessing that it's going to be the white and the white and red with the two larger crowns. We're getting ready to build a big coop and if I have too many roosters I'm going to have to divide it, maybe more than once. We can't rehome them because as most of you know, we have Marek's here, and although the rooster tested negative, I wouldn't want to take the chance of sending one of the babies to someone else's farm and infecting their chickens if it later turned up positive.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Ethel is still doing well. She slowly putting back on her weight. She got down to 3 lb 9 oz and she's back up to 4 lb. 3 1/2 oz. This is tube feeding her three times a day with the Kaytees baby bird formula at one scoop powder per feeding, with her other supplements etc also. Once we add the water she ends up getting approximately 100 and 10 to 120 ml total each feeding. I really think her issue with not eating on her own is coming from her beak. I don't know if it hurts her or if it's because she drops her feed out of her mouth sometimes, just can't pick it up properly? The mobile vet that I messaged nearly 2 weeks ago is not getting back in touch with me after several messages. I don't know what to do about her beak if that is the problem that is causing her not to want to eat. She did eat some blueberry muffin yesterday but not much at all. She is still chattering her jaw when she tries to eat on her own. I don't mind two feeding her at all but I feel like it stresses her out because she pitches a royal fit every single time. AND, I have a trip to Florida planned the second week in October and I know there's no way my husband can tube feed her by himself, so if she isn't eating on her own by then I'm going to have to take her to the beach with me and sneak her into the place we are renting lol. Not that changing her diet is going to make her eat any better, but I am also considering getting a larger tube, and 18 FR thinking maybe I can add water to her crumble and tube feed her crumble instead of the baby bird formula. I cannot feed her the crumble with the tube that I have because it will clog up with anything much thicker than water with the baby bird formula mixed in of course. Any thoughts from anybody as far as changing her to a crumble in a larger tube to get it in her? And any thoughts on her not eating because maybe it is her beak? Other than not eating, she's doing great. Knock on wood. She has not had any episodes of anything in the last few weeks.
@Allsfairinloveandbugs
@mrskenmore
@Wyorp Rock
@azygous

If you think Ethel's beak is painful and keeping her from eating, your intuition is probably correct. Here is a thread with much helpful info on repairing a cracked beak,, including links within the thread. Are you still not able to use the BYC search function?

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

And just for the fun of it, would anyone like to take guesses on which of these five babies are going to be roosters? I'm guessing that it's going to be the white and the white and red with the two larger crowns. We're getting ready to build a big coop and if I have too many roosters I'm going to have to divide it, maybe more than once. We can't rehome them because as most of you know, we have Marek's here, and although the rooster tested negative, I wouldn't want to take the chance of sending one of the babies to someone else's farm and infecting their chickens if it later turned up positive.

Yes you are correct; the two with the red combs are males. Love their frizzled feathers!