One of my hens' leg is not working. She is about a year old wyandott. 5 days ago I noticed that she was limping around and only using one leg. I separated her from the rest and checked her over thoroughly. There are no lesions or wounds on the leg. It is not swollen or scaly. Her eyes are clear and her comb is fine. We can move the leg all around and she does not react at all. She does not curl her toes or anything. It is like she has lost all ability to move it (aka paralyzed). Otherwise she is acting normally. Eating and drinking, not loosing weight. She is getting better at moving around everyday and now the leg just drags behind her. She can't roost though and has not laid an egg. The only other symptom is that she has diarrhea. I actually separated her from the flock about 2 weeks ago when I noticed it but put her back in a few days later. Another factor to this story is that we lost a hen ( the only other wyandott in our flock) about 3 weeks ago. She just didn't roost one night and then died the next day. When we picked her up we realized she had lost weight but showed no other sign of illness. When the second one turned up with a paralyzed leg, I thought for sure this was Mareks disease and that perhaps these two of the same breed never got vaccinated since the woman we got them from had chickens from hatcheries as well as ones she (or friends) raised. I thought this chicken would be dead by now but she is doing perfectly fine other than dragging one leg around. Is there any explanation for this? If this is not Mareks, what is it? Can she go on living like this? What should I do about the leg? We can't afford to take her to a vet but I really wish I could. We are pretty new to keeping chickens and would appreciate any advice.
I just found a really helpful thread on Marek's. Maybe this is what she has after all and is just doing really well with it. I don't know how long I can keep her seperated in the garage. It is not ideal and I don't want her to get depressed with out her buddies. Can I put her back in the flock?
