Edit: Urgent - Marek's or Injury?

[Rurumo]

Good luck with your poor guy-I like his face a lot! My big boys/girls used to hurt themselves more as they get older by flopping down from their favorite high roost, so you might just consider your roost placement in the future, hopefully for when he heals up. One of my favorites was terribly foolish about hurting herself this way, so I ended up with a bunch of unhappy chickens when I replaced their roost with a single low one. Thick bedding helps a lot though too. I might actually put one of those PVC chicken booster seats just to have on hand, I always like them when I see pics. I hope he feels better soon!

 

[Waterfaery]

I haven't been able to spend as much time observing him the last couple of days due to the chicks hatching. My husband got the chair sorted and has been tending to him. He says he's much the same in terms of his movement but he seems to be in better spirits. He was even crowing this morning, from a sitting position.

All of the chicks hatched and seem healthy so I was hoping I could take that as a good indicator that there's no illness in the flock but I don't know. I tried to find out if Marek's affects hatchability but I can't seem to find the answer. Does anyone know?

I'm still desperately trying to figure out if it's Marek's or an injury. I keep looking at the chicks and wondering if they're doomed.

Here he is in his chair. There are no wheels yet but it's great to get him upright for a while. He seems to like it but he doesn't want to stay in it for too long. He's been getting in it for about half an hour at a time 3 or 4 times a day.

We also tried helping him walk today. My husband held his body and walked along with him and he was able to put one foot in front of the other to walk along, as long as his legs weren't taking all his weight. I think that's a good sign that wheels on the chair would benefit him.

 

[theoldchick]

You are doing a fantastic job. Unfortunately, to determine if you are dealing with Mareks you have to send off the body for necropsy. However, as a side note, I've seen pet birds with damage to the neck/spine after flying into a window/mirror have similar symptoms as this rooster.

 

[Waterfaery]

Well it's been a week and he's a bit different now, better in some ways but worse in others. He's still having his vitamins B and E as well as brazil nuts for selenium and time in his chair. We still haven't managed to get wheels on it.

His legs seem much stronger. He's able to take a couple of steps at a time and stand for a minute or so. His right leg still doesn't go forward in the right way but he's putting weight on it and manouevring around, quite shakily but still getting further on his own than before. He's starting to get fed up with being handled and will sometimes move away if he thinks he'll be picked up whereas he wasn't doing that before. I'm hoping those are all good signs?

I'm concerned about his intake of food and water. He's still eating but he's definitely not filling his crop. I want him to eat his pellets (24% turkey grower) and have offered them dry and in a wet mash but he won't eat much of that so we're offering him a wide variety of foods to ensure he at least eats something. He's been eating a lot of fruit in particular, which I think is helping to keep him hydrated at least.

The most concerning thing is now his droppings are starting to turn green. I have read that green droppings are another sign of Marek's but I'm wondering if it could also be coming from his diet or even starvation or a secondary infection. I should have started tracking his weight sooner but we're starting that now so we can keep an eye on it. He's still not showing any other signs of illness at least.

To be honest, despite the new symptom of the green droppings, I'm actually leaning more towards injury. It just seems to fit better and make more sense. All I can do is wait and hope anyway.

 

[theoldchick]

You are doing a good job. Sometimes dark green feces is from dehydration/stress/ or diet full of greens. You are doing a great job!

 

[Dinoroar]

So sorry you’re dealing with this I agree with previous posters that it looks like an injury but I suppose time is the thing that will tell you for sure. Hope he recovers soon. He is a beautiful boy!

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

How’s your boy doing now?

 

[Waterfaery]

How’s your boy doing now?

Thank you so much for checking! It means a lot. I was going to update but I was waiting to hopefully get a video, which I haven't managed to do yet.

He's actually making some progress. I had him separated in a crate on his own with my laying hens on the other side of the fence. Whenever he was out of his crate, he was just sitting by the fence calling them all day, not really eating much and not moving. I decided to move them and I put him and his crate within their fence and the difference in him is quite amazing. At first, he didn't move far from his crate but after a couple of days he started moving a lot more. Now he's managing to get himself around and even mating with the hens. (It sure is a motivation for him to exercise!)

Then a couple of days ago he made his way up the ramp into their coop so I let him roost with them (he slept on the floor beside the roosts). Since then he's actually been getting himself up and down the ramp a couple of times a day so I've removed the crate altogether and he's now living with them.

I only have the one Light Sussex hen and I had been breeding them as a pair so they are very familiar with each other. He grew up with the other hens but hasn't been with them for several months. Since being back with them again, he's really showing devotion to his "own" hen. She has actually just gone broody and he's decided to sit and brood with her! I guess it gives him a cosy place to rest and they have each others' company. He has been coming and going to eat and hobble around for a while but he keeps coming back to her.

I've continued bringing him extra food and he's still having his vitamins every day. I'm very nervous of him getting injured on the ramp so I'm rethinking my setup so we can build something that accommodates him better, with the hopes that he can stick around as my main rooster, even with a disability.

It definitely seems like he has some issue higher up that prevents him from moving his right leg forwards. He seems to have figured out a way of hobbling along but he's by no means really ok. Marek's still crosses my mind but I have to be hopeful. Even if it is an injury, I worry that he'll never fully recover but my hope is that he can live a happy life if he can be somewhat mobile, eat, drink and mate. He is such a special boy. Here he is with his hen in the nest.

 

[HorseGirlAbby]

Thank you so much for checking! It means a lot. I was going to update but I was waiting to hopefully get a video, which I haven't managed to do yet.

He's actually making some progress. I had him separated in a crate on his own with my laying hens on the other side of the fence. Whenever he was out of his crate, he was just sitting by the fence calling them all day, not really eating much and not moving. I decided to move them and I put him and his crate within their fence and the difference in him is quite amazing. At first, he didn't move far from his crate but after a couple of days he starting moving a lot more. Now he's managing to get himself around and even mating with the hens. (It sure is a motivation for him to exercise!)

Then a couple of days ago he made his way up the ramp into their coop so I let him roost with them (he slept on the floor beside the roosts). Since then he's actually been getting himself up and down the ramp a couple of times a day so I've removed the crate altogether and he's now living with them.

I only have the one Light Sussex hen and I had been breeding them as a pair so they are very familiar with each other. He grew up with the other hens but hasn't been with them for several months. Since being back with them again, he's really showing devotion to his "own" hen. She has actually just gone broody and he's decided to sit and brood with her! I guess it gives him a cosy place to rest and they have each others' company. He has been coming and going to eat and hobble around for a while but he keeps coming back to her.

I've continued bringing him extra food and he's still having his vitamins every day. I'm very nervous of him getting injured on the ramp so I'm rethinking my setup so we can build something that accommodates him better, with the hopes that he can stick around as my main rooster, even with a disability.

It definitely seems like he has some issue higher up that prevents him from moving his right leg forwards. He seems to have figured out a way of hobbling along but he's by no means really ok. Marek's still crosses my mind but I have to be hopeful. Even if it is an injury, I worry that he'll never fully recover but my hope is that he can live a happy life if he can be somewhat mobile, eat, drink and mate. He is such a special boy. Here he is with his hen in the nest.

View attachment 3465045

I’m so glad to hear he’s doing a bit better! I hope he continues to improve, even if it’s just a little at a time. He’s a fighter, for sure

 

[Waterfaery]

I keep putting off updating because I haven't managed to get a video yet. It is just insanely hectic here! I decided I should update anyway because there's a lot going on.

Atreyu has been making so much progress with his movement it's quite unbelievable. He's basically doing everything now except for roosting on a perch.

He still has a severe limp but it doesn't slow him down. He can even run at speed but he just looks so awkward doing it.

He had been attempting to preen all along but it was only about a week ago he started being able to reach back as far as his preen gland so he's finally able to preen properly.

He's also been dust bathing, including kicking with both legs. Yesterday, I saw him put almost full weight on his bad leg to stretch the other one.

He brings the hens foraging and does all the other normal stuff. Sometimes during foraging, he'll sit down for a bit but keep pecking at the grass calling hens and then he gets up again and carries on.

Sometimes he seems like he's struggling more than others. Often if he's been over exerting himself he might be a bit slower afterwards but generally he's full of vigour.

All that sounds great but I am extremely concerned about his health otherwise. He appears to be eating. I often see him at the feeder. However, his crop is never full and he isn't putting on any weight. I'm afraid I never took a healthy baseline weight on him but I can tell visibly that he lost a lot of weight while he was quite bad. Since then, he hasn't put any weight back on and his body condition doesn't look great. He's 4.2kg currently, which is less than my biggest Australorp hen.

His droppings are a normal colour and consistency but maybe a bit small. I never see him doing runny ones and I don't see runny ones around the place, yet the feathers under his vent look very messy. I'm contemplating worming him but I know that can be hard on them so I'm not sure if it's a good idea.

He's still on the vitamins. I wonder how long to keep that up?

Anyway, I'm wondering what all of it means and I'm still terrified. I've also just discovered alarming symptoms in my chicks, which have me right back to fearing the worst in terms of Marek's. Quite a lot of them have suddenly developed crooked toes.

They will be 5 weeks old tomorrow. So far, the toes look crooked, not curled, as in they bend to the side rather than curling underneath. I am going to start a thread about that but I thought it was very relevant to mention it here as well.

Can Marek's look like that at their age or do I have multiple issues going on that are coincidental but unrelated? Since they're bending sideways instead of curling under, I probably wouldn't jump to the Marek's conclusion if it wasn't for Atreyu's issue but the two things combined are frightening. The interesting thing is that none of the Light Sussex chicks have crooked toes. So far, it's only the Bresse chicks - about three quarters of them (13/17) are affected, some more than others.