drunken walk, extra big ameraucana chick--cause?

Does she have a head shake/tremors along with this?

 

I am having the same problems with 3 of my guinea fowl. Please see my post from a few days ago. "Help....Drunken walk... guinea hens". My birds do not have head shaking or tremors. Just very unsteady and staggering. I keep thinking it is diet, as they will only eat crumbles. Today I mixed some mealy worms in with their crumbles in hopes I can get them to eat bugs/worms. My birds are about 6 months old. Also, they are smaller in size/thinner than other guineas. Maybe someone can figure this out. Good luck!

 

"she has been bigger from the start and she staggers drunkenly. her walking has gotten more unsteady as she grows. she does not hold herself up when i handle her, she feels different, like she has poor muscle tone compared to the others. she eats and drinks fine and gets around with her stagger, and does not seem to have any abnormal poop."

This was also the symptoms of my new big girl pullet after a couple of days after I bought her as a day old. She staggered and spent most of the time sitting on her hocks. She ate and drank well and had no diarrhea. She got so bad she could not stand and was almost spastic. I separated her from the others.

I found VitaFlight bird vitamins with high riboflavin (see Riboflavin deficiency in poultry) fed to her with a dropper and also in her water has helped and she is back standing now. She seems to be recovering from what seemed like a downward spiral. Try some bird vitamins. Could help, wouldn't hurt.

 

I have tried vitamins. Poly vi sol and liquid vitamin b in their water. I am really at a loss. I hope someone comes up with something I haven't tried.

 

I just thought of this as I was rereading the posts. My muscovy ducks will have unsteady legs when they grow to fast. In ducks, this can be caused by to much protien. Maybe if your chick is growing faster than her legs can keep up, this may be the problem? Just an idea to research.

 

"hmmm, i wonder about the protein...i have them on the medicated chick starter that i got here in austin at callahan's, which i think is standardized amounts of nutrients. "

Yes, I also got my chick starter at Callahan's in Austin also. The pullet I was worried about also got very large for her age within a few days of bringing her home as a day old pullet.

My son and his GF just dropped by and they said they were amazed at the improvement since I started dosing her with VitaFlight and also another multivitamin called Vita Sol. I was putting dropper fulls in her mouth every hour or so. The book said they need 200 mu-grams in the first dose to get them headed back to normal since they are B vitamin depleted or they would not be so wobbly and spastic and showing neuropathy signs.

My son says that just since Friday she is now starting to act like the others -- at least she can walk on her two legs now. It was definately a neurological problem and we got our chick starter at the same store. Even so, it may not be the chick starter. She just may have needed extra vitamins due to her growing so fast.

http://www.vetpathology.org/cgi/content/abstract/25/1/9

http://books.google.com/books?id=qI4XrLhKZFUC&pg=PA467&dq=riboflavin+deficiency+in+chicks#PPA469,M1

As soon as I got some vitamins in her, her curly toes relaxed but she was still sitting on her hocks and toppling over until yesterday. It has taken about 4 days of dosing her with a dropper full of extra strength bird vitamins.

The book says it may not be the feed. It can be genetic and the fast rate of growth was taking up all the nutrients and or some toxin could have interfered with the absorption of the B-vitamins. Whatever caused it, I just know my "Raising Poultry" book suggests multivitamins (not just chick starter) for all baby chicks when raising them. I think I learned my lesson with this pullet. Vitamins for any new babies.

PS: If you have any Brewer's yeast, that is also a very good source of B-2.

 

This reminds me of a few chicks that I got from the Hatchery. Two are Buff Bramahas and one is a Blue Cochin. They have always been wobbly and easily go off balance and fall over. They are a heavy breed and I think it is due to a Vitamin deficiency. I've added Vitamins to their water and they seemed to improve some, they are now about 8 months old and are less wobbly.