- May 12, 2014
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Hi everyone,
I have a Cream Legbar cockerel, T-Rex (named by a 4 year old), I got from a friend a couple months ago. He's less than a year old and I don't think he's vaccinated. About 10 days ago he started limping and progressively got worse. Two days ago he was so bad that he couldn't move his legs at all. When I picked him up his legs were completely limp and when I set him down he would flop forward and just lay there. This video was the day after I first noticed him limping.
Could this be Marek's? I have no experience with the disease at all. One of my 19 hens was limping for a little over a week this summer, but fully recovered. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but she limped the same way as my cockerel.
Quite a few of my hens are skinny. My cockerel has lost weight in the past few weeks as well and has a very prominent breast bone. Most of my flock has been molting this last month so I switched them from 20% organic layer feed to 22% organic grower feed which I typically make into a mash and soak overnight. They get all kinds of food scraps and recently I bought them some scratch to try and fatten them up (Also to give them something to do). They may need dewormed, but maybe it is something viral?
When I first noticed T-Rex limping I confined him to a dog crate, gave him Life-Lytes tablets (lots of vitamins, electrolytes and probiotics) in his water and gave him some B-Complex in his food. It didn't make a difference. He got worse every day, but still ate and drank.
Thursday night (3 nights ago) when he was at his worst I started giving him Saint John's Wort, oregano oil, raw garlic, cranberries, aronia berries and fermented feed along with the B-complex. I also have been using a PEMF (pulsing electromagnetic field) device - Bemer, on him twice a day. It promotes blood flow. On Monday, before I started using the Bemer on him, his comb was turning purple.
The photo below was taken 5 minutes after the Bemer therapy photo above. The points that are still dark are from frostbite the week before. The white on his comb was food, not a disease.
He seems to have bounced back a little now. He is crowing more and stands on his hocks. If I gently stand him up he can balance on one leg for a bit... until he crows. Then he falls back down to his hocks. He'll stand on his hocks for a long time before sitting completely down. This is a video from today.
Any insight of what this could be? Marek's? Something else? I haven't had any related deaths, otherwise I'd have had a necropsy done. I think T-Rex is going to recover if I keep up on my treatment. I can't say one thing in particular is helping him because I tried everything at once. Lol. He was going downhill fast and I'm sure he would have been dead already if I had not. Any ideas about what it might be are greatly appreciated!
I'm guessing that whatever it is was already in my flock and maybe the frostbite stressed T-Rex enough that he succumbed to the illness.
I have a Cream Legbar cockerel, T-Rex (named by a 4 year old), I got from a friend a couple months ago. He's less than a year old and I don't think he's vaccinated. About 10 days ago he started limping and progressively got worse. Two days ago he was so bad that he couldn't move his legs at all. When I picked him up his legs were completely limp and when I set him down he would flop forward and just lay there. This video was the day after I first noticed him limping.
Could this be Marek's? I have no experience with the disease at all. One of my 19 hens was limping for a little over a week this summer, but fully recovered. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but she limped the same way as my cockerel.
Quite a few of my hens are skinny. My cockerel has lost weight in the past few weeks as well and has a very prominent breast bone. Most of my flock has been molting this last month so I switched them from 20% organic layer feed to 22% organic grower feed which I typically make into a mash and soak overnight. They get all kinds of food scraps and recently I bought them some scratch to try and fatten them up (Also to give them something to do). They may need dewormed, but maybe it is something viral?
When I first noticed T-Rex limping I confined him to a dog crate, gave him Life-Lytes tablets (lots of vitamins, electrolytes and probiotics) in his water and gave him some B-Complex in his food. It didn't make a difference. He got worse every day, but still ate and drank.
Thursday night (3 nights ago) when he was at his worst I started giving him Saint John's Wort, oregano oil, raw garlic, cranberries, aronia berries and fermented feed along with the B-complex. I also have been using a PEMF (pulsing electromagnetic field) device - Bemer, on him twice a day. It promotes blood flow. On Monday, before I started using the Bemer on him, his comb was turning purple.
The photo below was taken 5 minutes after the Bemer therapy photo above. The points that are still dark are from frostbite the week before. The white on his comb was food, not a disease.
He seems to have bounced back a little now. He is crowing more and stands on his hocks. If I gently stand him up he can balance on one leg for a bit... until he crows. Then he falls back down to his hocks. He'll stand on his hocks for a long time before sitting completely down. This is a video from today.
Any insight of what this could be? Marek's? Something else? I haven't had any related deaths, otherwise I'd have had a necropsy done. I think T-Rex is going to recover if I keep up on my treatment. I can't say one thing in particular is helping him because I tried everything at once. Lol. He was going downhill fast and I'm sure he would have been dead already if I had not. Any ideas about what it might be are greatly appreciated!
I'm guessing that whatever it is was already in my flock and maybe the frostbite stressed T-Rex enough that he succumbed to the illness.
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