clueless listless bird cannot stand or hold head up...?????

[momofdrew]

I have a 7month old female silkie, who is having trouble. I dont see any blood and she isnt eating or drinking havent seen her poop...she is listless and cannot stand on her legs, she falls on her face, she can hold her head up if I am holding her but other wise it plops on to the ground...there is no discharge from anywhere...I held a hand full of food in front of her and she wasnot interested...We hand feed our birds frequently so she isn't unacustomed to hand feeding...this started mid week the birds have been more or less confined to the coop and run because of a snow storm at the beginning of the week [they choose not to leave the run...Her eyes are bright she doent seem to be in pain...I havent a clue if any one here can help I would greatly appreciate it....we have 8 other birds...

 

[Miss Lydia]

you might want to google search Mareks. I wish I could offer more help, just wanted to jump you back to the top. could she have gotten pecked on the top of her head? Read about wry neck also

 

[momofdrew]

If she has Mareks will the others get it too??? could she have gotten it from wild birds??? she was not vaccinated because she was hatched here from an egg of one of my females she is a 4th generation hatch

 

[Miss Lydia]

is some of my collected info on neurological symptoms of crookneck/limberneck:
http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.c … 1160928615

re vit. supplementation:
Please note that vitamin E (at therapeutic dosage) is absorbed only in combination with selenium (the two are interdependent on each other)... if there is a malabsorption issue in general this will also affect absorption and therefore it is a good idea to give a general supplement like Avia Charge 2000 ...
Vit A (in excess ) will negatively affect uptake of vit E so you should not use the Polyvisol in combination with the vitamin E/selenium as a general rule.
here is where I store my links and information:
Dragonflies and Dandelions
Read this and see if this could apply to your Silkie.

 

[Miss Lydia]

There has been discussion on another board regarding Mareks. I think there is a lot of misinfortion out there. I know people on this board have discussed it also. Yesterday, I e-mailed Dr. Fulton at MSU. He specializes in poultry. He was very helpful when we were hit with Mareks last year. This is
what I asked him:

Last year I had a bird with Mareks. You
very kindly advised me about her health issues via
e-mail. I thank you very much for that. I would like
to ask you about vaccinations. I hatched 23 chicks
this year in an incubator and vaccinated all for
Mareks. I have poultry acquaintances that are sure
that having these chicks vaccinated will infect any
bird they ever come in contact with for the rest of
their lives. I believe it is so predoninate in the
environment that I would be crazy not to vaccinate.
As an expert, would you please tell me if these
vaccinated chicks will turn out to be "Typhoid
Mary's." Would you please tell me what the risks of
vaccination are and if vaccinated birds are a real
threat to others?
Thank You For Your Time

He very kindly sent me a prompt response. This is what he said:

Dear Jody:

I understand your and your poultry pal's concerns but you are right in your thinking about Marek's disease. Marek's disease virus is everywhere. In fact, the vaccination of poultry for Marek's disease is a race to see which virus is going to win in the bird.....the vaccine virus or the disease causing virus. While it is true that Marek's disease vaccinated birds are infected with the vaccine virus for life,
I am not aware of them shedding the vaccine virus. The good news is that the vaccine viruses do not cause disease so your chickens are safe and not "Typhoid Marys." The other vaccines used in poultry do not cause
"Typhoid Marys" except for almost all vaccines used to protect against Infectious Laryngotracheitis. Chickens vaccinated with those vaccines can shed the vaccine virus and the vaccine virus will make non-vaccinated chickens sick.

As for vaccinating your chickens for other diseases, I only recommend vaccinating chickens against diseases you have had or that are in your area. In most cases, that only includes fowl pox. Please note that chicken pox is a human disease and not a chicken disease. The virus that causes chicken pox in humans does not cause disease in chickens
nor do humans get it from chickens.

Hope this helps,