Chicken off balance

[Wolvesry]

It all started 6 months ago, when my young silkie rooster suddenly couldnt move his neck, and died. 1 month after that, a black Easter egger had trouble breathing, wouldn't eat, and couldnt balance. Now, 4 months after that, I have another Easter egger that cant balance, and wont eat much. Cant move both her wings. She flops over when I try to make her stand.

 

[silkiemother]

are they vaccinated for mareks?

 

[nightowl223]

How heavy are they? Is the keel sharp and pointy, or does it have nice muscled areas on either side of it? These symptoms could be a sign of malnourishment (along with other diseases). If they're severely underweight (nothing built up on either side of the keel bone), you need to kick up the level of protein in their diets, adding vitamins/electrolytes like Durvet sells to their water, and adding healthy snacks like scrambled eggs to further encourage them to eat more. Chickens are very good at hiding illness or malnourishment right up until they literally fall over from it. One needs to literally pick them up and handle them regularly to make sure they're not hiding something like malnourishment (or any other issue) because their instinct is to hide any weakness.

 

[Eggcessive]

Unexplained deaths twice, and now a third hen is having neurological problems, I would try to get a necropsy on her body if she dies, to look for Mareks disease. There could be somthing else going on, such as poisoning, mold in feed, but a necropsy would be wise. Here is a link for contacting your state vet to get a necropsy, but the body should be kept cold, not frozen:
http://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm

Here is some info on Mareks disease:
https://extension.umd.edu//sites/extension.umd.edu/files/_docs/programs/poultry/FS-1007 Recognizing and Preventing Mareks Disease in Small Flocks.pdf

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/

 

[Wolvesry]

They have not been vaccinated

 

[farmingchic]

I actually had 2 of my older chickens falling over, off balance etc. It ended up being mites that was causing it. I treated them with a insecticide spay & they gradually got better over the next week or 2.