Does my pullet have Marek's?

[Flying W]

My lavender orpington is about 12 weeks old and she has been this way for about a week. She is curling all the toes on her left foot under and walking/limping on the top of that foot. The left foot also crosses over her right foot and then she steps on it when she steps forward with her right foot. She occasionally stretches the toes out and steps on it sort of normal. I took her to the vet and he suspects it is Marek's but of course can't be sure. She has been separated from the rest of the flock and I have been giving her a vitamin/electrolyte supplement in her water. She is eating and drinking fine. She hasn't gotten any worse, but she doesn't appear to be getting any better. I have read where others have helped treat Marek's with Hypericum and want to start her on that tonight. Most of the descriptions I've seen with chickens with paralysis from Marek's looks much worse than what she is doing. So what do you all think, is it Marek's or something else?

Here is a link to a video of what she is doing.

 

[aoxa]

I am relaying your thread to Leadwolf1. Hopefully she can assist you with this. For now, keep her separated and be very adamant with washing your hands after handling her.

I am so sorry

 

[chickenzoo]

Hummm... To me it looks like some sort of nerve damage. Try this... If you take a piece of duct tape, place her foot with toes out in the correct position on it. Place another piece of duct tape over top of the toes and seal the duct tape around each toe. Cut off the excess... See how she walks when she can't knuckle over.... Might help us narrow it down...

 

[seminolewind]

Maybe there's a broken bone there. It doesn't look like Marek's.

 

[PoultryPedia]

*** Check to see is she may have a slipped tendon in her hock. ***

There is some info on that on my poultrypedia.com website at https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry#chick_crooked_leg

Although that problem often causes a leg to turn outward, I imagine that if the tendon slipped onto the other side of the hock joint the leg could turn inward.

It could have been caused by a fall she had or some other type of injury. The symptoms would make sense to me.

Please let us know if you think that might be the problem. I'm anxious to hear!

 

[Flying W]

The vet checked all her bones and none appeared broken. I tried the tape thing on her foot last night, and she then couldn't walk at all, just kept falling over on her face. If she did manage a step, she then stepped on the left foot with her right and then couldn't pull the left foot out from under the right foot and fell over. The tape did allow her to stand upright for a couple minutes and she gave herself a good preening while standing. I will check on her tendon when I get home from work this evening and see if it's slipped.

If anyone else has any suggestions, please let me know. If it's not Marek's, then I would like to move her, in her cage of course, back into the coop so she can at least have some company and not be so lonely. Her little head perks up when she can hear the roosters crowing.

 

[PoultryPedia]

PLEASE READ THE INFO ON THE LINK RIGHT AWAY!

http://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry#chick_crooked_leg

It is quite likely that she has this problem & you can fix it, especially if you treat it soon!!

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Later edit: I'm sorry--I just reread your last post more carefully & see that you already read the link & are checking for the problem this eve. Sorry I didn't read correctly the first time!
Hoping things will go well with her. She looks like a sweet hen. It's obvious that she is well cared for, too.

 

[Flying W]

I checked the tendon in her leg, seemed to be in place, nothing swollen, and it looked just like the good leg. I stretched it out anyway per the directions, but there was nothing to move back into place, so I am guessing that is not the issue. I am continuing with the vitamins/electrolytes and gave her a dose of the hypericum to see if that will help.

I am completely open to more suggestions.

 

[welasharon]

What vitamins are you giving? I had one curl a foot and then completely loose the ability to walk but still continued to eat and drink. Mine was a B vitamin deficiency. Try add some crushed B complex vitamin and see if that helps...although the longer it has lasted the longer the vitamins take to correct it.

 

[Flying W]

I have given her Life-Lytes and Vita-sol. The labels for each are below, they both have the B vitamins. I noticed that the dose of Hypericum I gave her made her a little worse, so possibly I gave her too many drops. I read that if you give them too much, it will exaggerate the symptoms. So maybe I should decrease the amount of drops or just not give her that at all????

I am really hoping something will work and make her better. She is being so patient and sweet, I just really want to fix her.