First time chicken owner, one seems injured

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shannon0201

shannon0201

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We got 12 chickens and one rooster a couple weeks ago. They were doing great but yesterday morning one of them will not walk. She seems like she can't hold herself up to walk. She is 1 out of 2 of the smallest ones.
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Greetings from Kansas, Shannon, and :welcome! Happy you joined us but sorry it was under these circumstances. The best place to post a medical concern is in the link below. Please be as specific as possible....age of bird, if she's been picked on, nature of injury, if you've inspected her and what you've found, additional pictures if they would be helpful. Just want you to get the best advice possible. Here's the link https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/10/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures
Best wishes to you and your hurt chicken! :)
 
Hi Shannon and welcome to BYC - glad that you have joined us. redsox has given you the best advice and link as to where to post for the best answers.

Fingers crossed!

Best wishes
CT
 
That is a very ill chicken. Try to do a thorough examination on her, move her to a warm, protected place where you can separate her from the flock and give her some TLC.

please do post under emergencies with as much information that you can and hopefully someone can give you advice.

Hope she will be ok, but in my experience when they are this ill they usually don't pull through
hugs.gif


And keep a very close watch on the others, since they are new to you there may be others getting ill.
 
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Unfortunately that is a pretty classic Marek's splits posture. If she is smaller than the rest, that also suggests Marek's. I have had birds recover quite quickly from such an attack after finding them floundering on the ground like that, but I have also had them deteriorate. Place her somewhere warm and safe and offer her moist food and water and poultry vitamin supplement........scrambled egg and a little tuna is good as she needs extra nutrition to support her immune system.
You might want to make her a chicken sling or hammock to support her in an upright position. Unfortunately, even if she recovers from this attack, she will most likely suffer another usually more serious one at some future date maybe months later but quality of life can be good in the mean time, if she regains some leg function. Keeping her in view of the other chickens will help to keep her from depression, so if you can make a hammock for her and put her in a cage in the run, that will help, provided it is warm enough. The others will have been exposed to the virus now, so I don't quarantine my Marek's sick birds but that is a personal choice.

Good luck with her and the rest of your flock. If she dies, it might be a good idea to send her body off for a necropsy to confirm what you are dealing with, but I'm pretty confident from seeing that photo that Marek's is the cause.

Best wishes

Barbara
 

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