chicken having trouble standing and walking

[flyballgirl]

We have a Polish about two months old. She lives with a frizzle and in the past couple of days the Polish has been having trouble walking and standing up. She lays down a lot but does not seem sick other than that. I am treating for Coccidiosis but don't know if there are other diseases that can cause this behavior. Any help is appreciated.

 

[BantamLover21]

Do her legs just seem weak, or are they partially paralyzed? Press your finger into the bottom of each foot; usually chickens will react to this by curling their toes and yanking their leg away. I would suspect either a vitamin deficiency or Marek's Disease (do you know whether she was vaccinated for Marek's?). To treat a vitamin deficiency, get some poultry vitamins to put in her water or Polyvisol infant vitamins (without iron) and give 1-2 drops to her per day. There really isn't a treatment for Marek's, though some people have had success using St. Johns Wort/Hypericum. Here is a thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/135247/st-johns-wort

 

[Wyandottes7]

Its possible that she has a vitamin deficiency. Vitamin deficiencies, especially vitamin B, can cause trouble walking. Try giving her some vitamins (either special poultry vitamins, or poly vi sol infant vitamins from a supermarket) for a few weeks, and see if that helps. I don't think that it is Coccidiosis, and two months old is a little young for a bird to have Marek's Disease.

 

[SuburbGrower]

One of ours, Caramel, had this problem after I changed their feed. I tried an infant supplement, Pentavite, available here in Oz but there was no improvement after several days. I went and bought the original feed (an hour's round trip) and told the lady in the country store of Caramel's condition. She immediately knew what was going on, even finishing my description for me. "Crush a berocca to powder and mix it to a paste in cranberry jelly" she advised. Two feeds of that on consecutive days and Caramel was back to running around like a maniac. The lady had 19 chooks of her own.

 

[SuburbGrower]

After a couple of weeks, Caramel was struggling again and it became too much trouble to force feed her the mixture every few days. Now I dissolve a berocca in 1.5 litres of water before putting it in their drinker. Result: 3 happy, healthy chooks laying bigger eggs every day. Caramel's eggs used to be under 45 grammes now they are mid-fifties.