Chicken w/full body muscle spasms died, what happened!?

[jenAZ]

Hi, we have a 1.5 year old Aloha (that looked a lot like a leghorn) laying hen that came down with walking imbalance, dropping her wing and sitting a lot. No respiratory symptoms that we could tell. We brought her inside and started her on nutri drench and rooster booster vitamins and electrolytes w/lacto bacillus. We’ve always treated our sick chickens with this successfully. Cupcake (our kids named and loved her ) didn’t seem as bad off as other sick chickens we’ve had, as she had no respiratory symptoms, but she started to have violent full body spasms that caused her to flop into weird positions, as well as a couple explosive poops that seemed sandy. We’ve been nursing her for 6 days and she didn’t seem terrible, but just these spasms that only seemed to happen when we tried to pick her up, and she couldn’t stand well. Low energy, but not completely lethargic. We kept her hydrated by syringe feeding her fluids with the above added supplements. We came to check on her this morning and she was upside down on her head and had passed! The closest thing I can find on Google is maybe sudden death syndrome. But she isn’t a young broiler, and did display symptoms before she passed, so I’m not sure that fits. I’m just trying to figure out what was going on and if we could have done anything differently in case our other chickens come down with it. Any ideas?

 

[azygous]

What's your location? That one bit of info can offer lots of clues.

The hen's symptoms are compatible with toxic poisoning. I lean toward a poisonous insect, thus knowing your location can tell me what you have there.

 

[Eggcessive]

Are you in Arizona? Do you have a compost bed or anything poisonous in the chicken area? Can you check your feed to make sure it isn’t getting a chemical odor or green color which might be mold. Have you added any new birds in recent months who might have been a carrier for Mareks? Here is a list of state vets who may do a necropsy to get a diagnosis if you can keep her body cold not frozen:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

 

[jenAZ]

Thank you, yes, I am in the Phoenix area of Arizona. Maybe scorpions or black widows? Do you think it would take a whole 6-7 days before she actually passed? Not mold or foul smells that we can see in their food.

 

[jenAZ]

And no new birds added.

 

[Eggcessive]

It is hard to know what exactly the problem was. @azygous has had some bad luck with chickens eating a poisonous type of caterpillar. I would look around for any possible toxins. AZ is one of the more expensive state for getting a necropsy I think, but I would at least call them Monday am if you keep her body cold on ice in a cooler wrapped in 2 plastic bags. There might have been another similar report of illness.

 

[azygous]

Have you seen a light straw colored scorpion around your place that is slender bodied about an inch long? This is deadly, unlike the big gruesome looking darker colored scorpions that love to surprise you by getting into your bedroom. Chickens usually eat scorpions without any problem, but if it stung the tongue, the venom would do some deadly mischief.

The buck moth caterpillar is also a resident of your location. https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2018/01/21/dont-touch-buckmoth-caterpillars/ Instead of cute fuzz, it has venomous spines that can kill a chicken when it stings the tongue. I've had casualties in my flock. It causes seizures before it kills.

Examine the dead chicken's tongue. If it's white, it got stung.