Curled Toes Developed Overnight! Help please.

[KrisLW]

Hi,

One of my young cockerels was perfectly fine and healthy, but overnight he developed curled toes and cannot walk on his feet. He stumbles around though. I really don't know what has caused this. We did have mycoplasma in the flock recently but he showed no clinical symptoms, although he would have received antibiotic treatment in the water anyway. He is a rather big boy for his age and he does not stop eating! I've been told he is a hybrid.

Would anyone be able to shed some light on this please? I was thinking Mareks, but this happened overnight. He still looks healthy with no other symptoms apart from his toes.

Here are pics of him the day before this developed, and of his toes now.

Thanks for any help.

Kris

 

[realsis]

Hi sometimes a vitamin defiency can cause these symptoms.i would give a good poultry multi vitamin and see if it helps. If it does not help I would suspect he might have Mareks disease. Mareks disease is a highly contagious airborne disease that is every where. Was he vaccinated for Mareks? Mareks can come on as subtle as curled toes or a limp to as vigorous as full blown paralysis. If he does have Mareks it does not mean the rest of your flock will be symptomatic but it does mean that they being exposed will be carriers and can infect other birds. Mareks can live on the land for years and any birds brought in should be Vaccinated And kept from outside and adult birds for at the very leat 14 days to give the body time to build immunity and antibodies. If this time is not given although vaccinated they can catch the virus before the body had time to develop antibodies. Vaccine is not 100% but for now it's all we have in the line of defense. I suggest you do some research on Mareks because knowledge is power and can help you move forward in a positive direction if it is Mareks. I hope this helps and wish you the best. But do try the vitamins and see if they help him.

 

[casportpony]

I have a pet name for that form of Marek's, I call it "curly toe Marek's". I'm not saying that it is Marek's, but it sure could be. No harm in treating with vitamins to see if it gets better.

-Kathy

 

[KrisLW]

Hi thank you for your replies. The flock already has multivitamins in their water as they were recently treated with antibiotics for mycoplasma. I read that curly toe syndrome can be caused by a deficiency in B2 Riboflavin. Should I administer this particular vitamin to this cockerel alone? If so, do you know what dose to give please?

Thanks

Kris

 

[Eggcessive]

It would be easier to put poultry vitamins in the water--that way you would give the proper dosages, but Vitamin B2 or riboflavin is water soluble, so any overdose would just be lost in the urine. If you use the B2 tablets, I would think that 1/4 tablet would be about right.

 

[KrisLW]

I've checked with my poultry vet. He said it's more likely to be genetic rather than Mareks or it's the bird putting on too much weight too quickly.

Thanks for your replies.