DRUNKEN hens!!

[dab045]

I just posted before you something like this but I said wobbly. This morning leg was limp acting then came home from work and she was wedged between the water holder and wall of brooder I picked her up and she is wobbling like both feet wont work or maybe like your describing drunk like. I am sorry I dont have an answer but I hope you get a answer right away. I am sorry and hope the best for you and your chickens. Mine is a 6 week old barred rock banty

 

[Tropical Chickies]

Quote:
Please keep me posted on your banty. Hopefully they will make it and this isn't a quick spreading disease. I went ahead and separated my BO from the rest of the flock. If this was Marek's, then it is airborne and we can only keep our fingers crossed.

 

[babsbag]

Marek's is insidious. I think it kills more birds than we know. It does seem to come on suddenly as there will be internal tumors growing that we can't see and then suddenly they press on a nerve and the paralysis starts. There is a thread on BYC somewhere about treating Marek's with Hypericum tablets. I tried it with one of my hens with no success, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't try it again. I hope this isn't what you have.

 

[DaughterOfEve]

always isolate any sick or "drunk" birds. It is always best to err on caution to avoid others becoming affected.

 

[Tropical Chickies]

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I don't know if I would have time to even treat Hypericum tablets. Where do you get them?

The chicken I lost last week only lasted a day with these symptoms. I am hoping I don't come home from work to another dead one.

 

[babsbag]

You get them in the homeopathic section of a health food store.

I nursed my hen for about 3 weeks before she died. She couldn't walk at all, and I force fed her. She would go into a coma like trance at times. When they did the necropsy she had tumors all over inside. The presumed it was Marek's. Now this morning I lost a roo. He was just acting mopey, didn't eat much, but could still walk. I brought him inside 2 nights ago and started treating him for a slow (sour) crop. This morning he died while I was fixing him breakfast. I sent him in for a necropsy so it is a wait and see. I have 28 chicks that I have raised that have not been vaccinated. Plus 10 other adult birds that have not been vaccinated. This could be touble. I had also lost a hen a few days before my first hen got sick. She had injured her eye and I just thought that it was her eye that was bothering her, until I found her dead. Then the next day I noticed my hen was holding her head in a strange position and that started my 3 week journey.

Please keep us posted. I hope for the best for you and her. Check with you county cooperative extension or vet about finding a lab for a necrospy. I hope you don't need it, but it is better to be ready, and to find out what is happening. IMO

Here is the link to the thread about using hypercium
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=135247

 

[Tropical Chickies]

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Wow this was extremely helpful, thank you!! I will try this tomorrow afternoon asuming my girl is still alive by the time I get home. How much are necropsy's?

 

[babsbag]

Where I live in California, they are free, believe it or not. Glad to see that my taxes are actually going somewhere that I use

(but I would rather not use them, if you know what I mean)

I know a lot of states have animal health facilities that will do them free for the backyard flock owners. Just check with your county ag office, they should know.

Here is another really good article on Marek's.

http://www.firststatevetsupply.com/poultry-health/mareks-disease.html

There is quite a bit of confusion around the vaccine. You will read that people think that the vaccine makes the bird a carrier for life, and that is not true. I wish, wish, wish, that I had had mine vaccinated when I first got them. The breeder I bought them from is a very nice lady, and does things very naturally and has never had any problems. And then there is me.

This disease can cause paralysis, blindness, wasting away, no symptoms, and sudden death, to name a few. So how exactlly do you fight something like that. I feel like I am fighting the Borg on Star Trek. The whole "we will assimilate you" thingy. I feel so helpless.

I did order the vaccine today so hopefully I can stop this before it goes any farther.

 

[Chickielady]

Spring is supposed to be particularly bad for Marek's as well as all avian diseases, as migratory flocks of birds return to the area can bring more disease and pass it amongst them as they are all in such close proximity to each other.
It is even advised to not fill your wild bird feeders in the spring, to discourage the birds from 'meeting up' and contaminating each other.
And I have some new 'feed store' chicks, and also some hatching egg babies that just hatched out, and I intend to buy some vaccine, and inoculate each and every bird I have, against every disease I can.
The disease Marek's is a virus, it cannot be cured.

 

[babsbag]

Are you in Florida? If so look up Eastern or western Equine Encephalitis.