Chicken limping...saw old thread...wondered about outcomes

[Chickerbockers]

Greetings, all!

One of our Cochins did not leave the coop two days ago. When I checked on her, she was sitting on the ground. It is cold out, so I figured she was just waking up slowly. When I checked later she was in a nesting box to lay her egg.

Yesterday, she did not leave the coop again and was sitting on the ground. She has had feet trouble in the past (she is huge), so I lifted her to see if her feet needed help. She was able to walk, but was limping. She looks off kilter. When the spouse came home, we got her out of the coop and found she had much poo stuck on her. We gave her a bath, some gree goo, and hoped that would help.

She is still in the coop today. Not moving much. She will eat treats, but is otherwise stoic. The previous thread mentioned I could give her baby aspirin, but no one in the old thread said if their chicken got better after rest. I do not want her to suffer, but if she can get better, I want to make it happen.

Her rooster stayed with her all day yesterday. He has left the coop today, so I wonder if that is a good or bad sign. Her name is Layla. Her rooster is Little Man. He was supposed to be a girl. Ahem.

 

[rebrascora]

More information would be helpful....

How old is she?
Where did you get her.... hatchery or private breeder?
Was she vaccinated at hatch for Marek's Disease? (probably not if from private breeder, usually it's an optional extra when ordered from hatchery)
Do you just have two chickens, a male and female? Is he the same age and breed? Does he mate her often? She could be injured from over mating, particularly if you don't have enough females.... Young males are notoriously rampant particularly at this time of year when their hormones start to surge.

Have you checked the soles of her feet for a bumblefoot infection?
Can you take some video footage of her walking/limping and down load it to You Tube and post a link so that we can see how she moves. The lameness caused by Marek's Disease is more of an uncoordinated stumble due to lack of feeling rather than a conscious favouring of one leg due to pain in the other. Marek's lameness doesn't seem to cause pain, so an aspirin wouldn't help, but there is no harm in trying a quarter of a tablet twice a day and see how it goes.

Has she been laying eggs recently and if so, when was the last time she laid?
Have you checked her for being egg bound?
What does her poop look like?
Is there any abdominal swelling? Check by cupping your hand between her legs and then check a healthy bird to compare. When you say she is huge, I'm wondering if she has some swelling.... I appreciate that cochins are big birds but if the rooster is the same breed and she is bigger then it sounds like she may have ascites or internal laying or something else that would bloat her.
Is her vent normal looking? Is it pulsing?
If she is unable to roost and is sleeping on the ground or in a nest box then this will mean poop builds up under her vent overnight and soils her feathers as she is hunkered down. She will need regular baths to keep her clean or trim her butt feathers and apply ointment to prevent it sticking to the skin.

 

[Chickerbockers]

More information would be helpful....

How old is she?
Where did you get her.... hatchery or private breeder?
Was she vaccinated at hatch for Marek's Disease? (probably not if from private breeder, usually it's an optional extra when ordered from hatchery)
Do you just have two chickens, a male and female? Is he the same age and breed? Does he mate her often? She could be injured from over mating, particularly if you don't have enough females.... Young males are notoriously rampant particularly at this time of year when their hormones start to surge.

Have you checked the soles of her feet for a bumblefoot infection?
Can you take some video footage of her walking/limping and down load it to You Tube and post a link so that we can see how she moves. The lameness caused by Marek's Disease is more of an uncoordinated stumble due to lack of feeling rather than a conscious favouring of one leg due to pain in the other. Marek's lameness doesn't seem to cause pain, so an aspirin wouldn't help, but there is no harm in trying a quarter of a tablet twice a day and see how it goes.

Has she been laying eggs recently and if so, when was the last time she laid?
Have you checked her for being egg bound?
What does her poop look like?
Is there any abdominal swelling? Check by cupping your hand between her legs and then check a healthy bird to compare. When you say she is huge, I'm wondering if she has some swelling.... I appreciate that cochins are big birds but if the rooster is the same breed and she is bigger then it sounds like she may have ascites or internal laying or something else that would bloat her.
Is her vent normal looking? Is it pulsing?
If she is unable to roost and is sleeping on the ground or in a nest box then this will mean poop builds up under her vent overnight and soils her feathers as she is hunkered down. She will need regular baths to keep her clean or trim her butt feathers and apply ointment to prevent it sticking to the skin.

She is two years old and I doubt she was vaccinated for Merek's. We have 12 chickens and have just had five baby peepers hatch. The rest of our flock is the same age aside from three Bard Rocks we got in the fall. Our roosters are both Silkeys and should have been girls. Then again, we would not have had the babies. Her rooster is half of her size...it was hilarious when she tried to hide under him when they were little. (We did not know he was a rooster then.)

We have treated her feet in the past for the start of bumble foot using Epsom salt baths, Vetricin, and Green Goo. Her feet look great at the moment.

Her poo was squished under her since she could not walk, but was solid, not runny.

She just laid her egg yesterday. We trimmed and bathed her last night after checking her feet. I will make her walk again, but when I looked last time, she was limping on one side more than the other.

 

[rebrascora]

I'm concerned to hear that you added the Barred Rocks recently. Were they from a breeder or hatchery? Addition of new birds to the flock can trigger an outbreak of Marek's even if the new birds look and act healthy.
Even with Marek's, there will usually still be a gimpy leg and a good one, so they will still limp on one side, but if you have seen both types of lameness, it becomes quite obvious how different they are. I've had Marek's in my flock for 3.5 years now. It comes in many different guises and rarely do 2 birds exhibit the same symptoms, but you see general patterns in behaviour and demeanour that make you take notice when a bird is coming down with it. Sometimes birds with Marek's will look drunk or fall over and be unable to get back up. They seem confused and frustrated that they can't coordinate their limb properly anymore. Others hock walk on one side and some hop and trail their numb leg behind. Some just hobble and use a wing to balance themselves with.
Hopefully I am wrong and it is something else.

 

[Chickerbockers]

I'm concerned to hear that you added the Barred Rocks recently. Were they from a breeder or hatchery? Addition of new birds to the flock can trigger an outbreak of Marek's even if the new birds look and act healthy.
Even with Marek's, there will usually still be a gimpy leg and a good one, so they will still limp on one side, but if you have seen both types of lameness, it becomes quite obvious how different they are. I've had Marek's in my flock for 3.5 years now. It comes in many different guises and rarely do 2 birds exhibit the same symptoms, but you see general patterns in behaviour and demeanour that make you take notice when a bird is coming down with it. Sometimes birds with Marek's will look drunk or fall over and be unable to get back up. They seem confused and frustrated that they can't coordinate their limb properly anymore. Others hock walk on one side and some hop and trail their numb leg behind. Some just hobble and use a wing to balance themselves with.
Hopefully I am wrong and it is something else.

Ack. That would be terrible. We got the Bard Rocks from a friend who has a large flock. They were laid and hatched by her hens. I will check with her about any issues with her flock. Layla is a huge girl, so I hope (if one can hope for a less worse bad thing) that she has a slight injury which will get better.

 

[Chickerbockers]

Here is Layla's eye. I read there might be gray or blue around the eye. The trouble is, I have never really looked at her eyes before, so am not sure if this is normal. I did give her some baby aspirin as I read about in another thread on limping. Maybe that will help if not Mareks.

 

[rebrascora]

I can't make out her eye clearly enough from that photo. Are you saying that her iris is grey/blue or do you mean the tissue around the eye? Marek's can cause changes to the colour of the iris (usually a greying or hazing) or the size and shape of the pupil or even cause the bird difficulty in opening one eyelid and keeping it open, so any of those can be an indication of Marek's, but many birds with Marek's do not get any of those symptoms. It is a really strange disease to understand because there are so many different symptoms that it can cause but a bird may not develop any of them and it can even cause sudden death with no obvious symptoms at all, or cause secondary infections like coccidiosis or respiratory infections that the bird would normally be resistant to or be able to fight off. Unless you have dealt with the disease for a while, it is really quite hard to comprehend it. It is a bit like the AIDS of the chicken world and in fact it is a very similar virus. You cannot tell which birds are infected or carriers and they can be healthy for a long time before they succumb to the disease or a secondary infection. The final stages are usually the development of tumours, but birds can rally from initial outbreaks having miraculous recoveries and be healthy for weeks, months or even years before the next outbreak, which is usually more severe and prolonged than the first. They have normally been exposed to the virus several weeks or months before you see any symptoms of an outbreak.

I've had some birds that were fine one day, lame the next, floundering on their side unable to get up the following day and then 2 or 3 days later, they were back to normal and you could not tell they had been ill. Others start to go lame and get progressively worse with legs, neck and tail eventually twisted and paralysed and I had another that lost the feeling in one foot and would step on her other foot with it and trip over. That went on for about a week, then she trailed it behind her for a week or two and eventually she learned to pull it up out of the way and hop everywhere. She was a small bird though and very agile. Not a solution for a big girl like Layla.

If she is struggling to stand or stay in an upright position, you might want to create a chicken sling or hammock. They can be constructed fairly easily from everyday items like this....

Some people cut a third hole where their vent is, for the poop to drop through. It is important for the bird to be able to touch the ground otherwise they may panic but adjust the fabric so that it supports the majority of their weight. Food and water pots can also be clipped to the sides of the box within reach so that they can feed and water themselves.

 

[Chickerbockers]

Oh good, her iris is not gray, just the edge of her eye. I think that is normal for her. I was thinking of a chicken sling as well. That looks like what I need to do tonight! Since she just laid her egg yesterday, I am not as worried about that. Thanks for the advice. We have never had this happen in our two years of chickening.