Curled toes - neurological?

[JimNAZ]

Hello,

We have a hen (Gracey) who has been our "special needs" chicken for the longest time. We have 7 hens including her. Up until 2 weeks ago this one was with the rest. Now we have isolated her. The rest of the flock look and act as healthy as can be. Everyone including Gracey gets the same food, treats and supplements.
We acquired all of these hens as chicks over the course of 6 weeks. They are roughly 18 months old. Gracey was one of the first and as a chick was always the dominant one. Slowly over time she went from top hen to bottom hen. During this time she slowly developed some "oddities" such as walking funny, falling down or crash landing when she jumped off the perch. She did all this subtly and then progressed from there. We have always looked her over and never found anything externally which is why we thought it might be neurological. However, her quality of life seemed ok so we thought she'd just be our little special needs girl. Along with this over the course of this year she struggled with growing back feathers after her molt. It took most of this year before she started growing them back. When she finally did, someone from the flock pulled them all out over night. She also got to the point that if she fell over, she could not get back up. At this point, along with her other issues getting more severe, we decided to isolate her from the others. We live off grid and our main chicken house is not close to our house. We now have Gracey by our house in a little coop. This has giving me a chance to monitor her throughout the day.
Gracey has now started to get her feathers in. She seems much happier. She loves sitting in the sun and preening herself. Because she is by herself I can monitor her eating and drinking. She does both very well. I did not realiz a chicken drank so much water daily! We alternate electrolytes, garlic, oregano and ACV in her water. She gets all the layer crumble she wants along with a handful of sprouts, kale and around 5-6 mealworms daily. Once a week she gets probiotics in her feed. All this has seemed to have a change for the good with her.
However, she still has the other problems and does not seem to be getting better. She walks funny and is unstable. Much of her standing is actually on her lower part of her legs. However she appears to stand normal from time to time. Now that I can monitor her closely I've noticed she curls her toes a lot but not all the time. (Her feet seem normal compared to the other hens.) Her house has a plywood floor with pine shavings and the outside pen is sand. I clean her pen daily (droppings look fine) and always smooth out the sand for her but she still is wobbly. She has layed eggs in the past but nothing since isolation.
I have researched all over and as many of you know, there are dozens of opinions on her various conditions. My wife and I have discussed many times about putting her down but she always seems to be "ok" with her conditions.
Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? We are over 2 hours away from any town and do not know of any chicken vets in those areas. We may not have handled all of this perfectly but we'd like to the best we can do her now.
Thanks
Jim

 

[rjohns39]

Jim, I'm going to follow along and see what others have to say.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would give her some poultry vitamins that contain riboflavin (vitamin B 2) since deficiency can cause curled toes and walking on hocks. It may well be something neurological or even a disease, such as Mareks. She may be susceptible to vitamin deficiency, so I would try the vitamins, or some chopped liver or a 1/2 crushed B Complex tablet in her food.

 

[JimNAZ]

Thanks for the suggestion. Are there actually poultry vitamins? If I use human B vitamins is there a chance of over dosing?

 

[Eggcessive]

B vitamins are hard to overdose, since the excess is excreted in the uric acid. A little B complex or even nutritional yeast can be used. Poultry vitamins are found at feed stores, but Poultry NutriDrench is the only one that does not contain riboflavin. It is found in many foods such as chopped beef liver, hamburger, and others.

 

[rjohns39]

B vitamins are hard to overdose, since the excess is excreted in the uric acid. A little B complex or even nutritional yeast can be used. Poultry vitamins are found at feed stores, but Poultry NutriDrench is the only one that does not contain riboflavin. It is found in many foods such as chopped beef liver, hamburger, and others.

I almost prefer the raw beef liver or brewers yeast as it provides so much more than just the B vitamin. I like the liver for the protein boost it provides as well.

 

[JimNAZ]

Again thank you. I have read that too much protein is bad for them. First, is this true? Second, I'm already giving her mealworms. Should I stop, cut back or no worries. I'm only giving daily for feather growth. Can I continue daily after feathers are in?

 

[rjohns39]

I'll defer to @Eggcessive but since you've got her on a layer, the extra protein shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Eggcessive]

Too much of anything can be bad, so just give a little extra whatever to get some B vitamins and protein into her. Not a lot of extra riboflavin is required.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

You've done a great job bringing her along to this point. Such attentive care and great observations.

I've often read about stumbling chickens, but I never see any videos. You may not be able to upload videos from your rural location, but if possible could you try a short twenty second video of her walking?

Also, do any of the hens seem to get along with her