Epilepsy - seizures during lightning

[Luvs2pugs]

I have a 4 month buff cantalana that recently had multiple seizures during a storm. It wasn't dust bathing, it happened on concrete. She was scratching her head like crazy, but I'm assuming it was from hitting her head on the concrete so many times. I'm thinking she has epilepsy.

Has anyone heard of this? Has anyone had chickens having seizures during a lightning storm?

Overall she's healthy, but she is slower than the other girls. She was dropped on her head by a hawk when she was a chick. She gets confused and always seems lost even though my yard is really small. she did get picked on for a while, but not lately. The girls stopped that about a month ago.

 

[DellaMyDarling]

Fascinating.
Watching for answers.

 

[coach723]

Epilepsy in chickens does exist, I don't know how common it is. It's a recessive mutation. Since your bird had a head injury as a chick and showed other symptoms before this, then I would suspect that the head injury is the ultimate cause, rather than it being genetic. I've never had an epileptic bird, so don't have personal experience with it.
Some reading:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-59259-462-7_5
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4043016
https://michvma.org/resources/Documents/MVC/2017 Proceedings/tseng 04.pdf

 

[Luvs2pugs]

Well she had another one this morning coming out of the coop. Her head hits the ground repeatedly during these episodes. This just started. I didn't notice anything before the storm. It's so sad. I feel like she's just going top eventually kill herself by a head injury.

 

[DellaMyDarling]

Knew a guy who's dog had seizures consistently. Uncontrolled, multiple vets couldn't find the solution.
Eventually they figured out, with significant trial and error, that it was caused by diet.

I have NO idea if chickens could share the same sort of relationship.
Worth a little examination?

Otherwise, I would personally choose to cull the poor dear.

 

[Luvs2pugs]

Taking her to the vet today. She's doing better. She'd not having seizures every day anymore, but i want her checked out. It's gonna be a fun time trying to catch her, she's very timid. I'll post with what the vet says...

 

[Luvs2pugs]

Okay so when i caught her, she had a seizure. On the way to the vet, 2 more. Had one at the vet when he took her out and another during the exam. I told him that she seems to have the seizures now every time she gets frightened, like some type of coping mechanism. The good news...no mites or lice or anything like that. She's been itching her head like crazy, but i think that's because she's hitting it on the ground, so it's hurting. He took blood work and that will rule out infection, kidney or liver issues. He said she was healthy, but thin. No outward signs of disease.blood test results back tomorrow.
Oh, he did say if the blood tests are normal he can prescribe an anti-seizure medication. Who knew they had something like that?

 

[coach723]

Thanks for updating, will be interesting to see what the tests say. There are several medications that can be used for seizures in other animals, I've no experience with treating them in birds. I hope you will continue to update this thread with what they find and how it goes.