Chicken with walking issues leg/foot problems

Csweaver

Songster
6 Years
Mar 9, 2019
81
131
138
I’m looking for ideas for my hen. She was a normal, healthy chick, that began having lameness when we introduced her to the flock around 6 months of age. I at first assumed it was an injury, and isolated her back away from the main flock. She actually got better, then became lame again, only able to walk on her hocks. I decided to try poly-vi-sol (without iron) and used 3 bottles before giving up/deciding it wasn’t working. I’ve considered Marek’s... my flock is vaccinated but I know it’s not always 100%. She is about a year and a half now, and eats, drinks, lays eggs, roosts, and gets herself around. Is there anything I could do now (it’s been a whole year)? Here’s some pics of her feet/hock and a video of how she walks now. Thanks for any ideas.
 

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In the video, it shows her walking. She now walks on her toes, with toes curled up. Her toes aren’t stuck like that, though, and I can’t detect any pain when manipulating her feet/legs.
 
I am going to tag someone that may have a similar situation going on in their flock. :)

@azygous do you see any similarity here?
 
It may not be exactly like my present case with May my Australorp, https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...update-now-another-pullet-going-lame.1432738/ but over the past years, I've certainly had a few hens that had these exact symptoms, and they were all older as is the hen in this thread.

I'm waiting impatiently for the Marek's DNA test kit to arrive so I can either know it's Marek's or rule it out. Perhaps @Csweaver would be interested in obtaining one of these kits and getting this test done. Contact the lab here to order the test kit. http://www.vetdna.com/feedback

Lameness is one of the most puzzling issues to try to diagnose. Up to this point, I've never been able to do it.
 
@azygous I just read through the thread about May. It’s so heartbreaking. I hope she hangs in there. What a sad story. She’s just beautiful. I’ll check out the Marek’s test. I know the vaccine is about 90% effective, but that means it’s possible it wasn’t fully effective for her. It was my first thought after I ruled out injury.
 

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