Five-month old Australorp suddenly lame. Update: Now another pullet going lame!

[dawg53]

The patient is holding her own. Maybe a tad more. It's warmer today, so I turned off the heat lamp in her hot box and after an hour I returned to find the box empty. The patient had flown.

I will take this as a sign she's getting stronger and may be in less pain. Chickens need a lot of "knee" action to get the lift straight up and out of a deep box, so there's that.

Her appetite isn't all that great, but she's pooping so she must be eating something. She's alert, bright-eyed, but tires quickly. But she isn't declining so far, as the other pullet did.

That's good news. Hopefully she will continue to recover.

 

[azygous]

Still hanging in. So is the pullet.

I lost sleep last night worrying about May losing weight. But although she's boycotting her fermented feed except for a few bites in the morning, she is eating a little of just about everything I offer her. Dry crumbles scattered on the ground (learned this trick to get baby chicks to begin eating), raw squash, rolled oats, cracked corn, BOSS, and of course meal worms. All in tiny quantities, but enough that she's pooping normal poop. She is drinking water with ACV.

The discouraging news is she appeared to be in more pain today, holding her foot up off the ground when she would stand. If she walked, she did so but very reluctantly putting her foot on the ground. Her balance seems good, though.

It may just be a coincidence, but yesterday was the last dose of Valacyclovir. I did find where there have been studies using acyclovir to treat Marek's symptoms, but for no longer than five days. At some point, if her pain seems to be getting worse, I may try another four or five days of Valacyclovir and see what happens.

She's going to be on amoxicillin for two more days. She's getting B-50, E, Nutri-drench occasionally, and today she started getting a probiotic and aspirin.

She spent two periods outside of her box with her mates and nanny hen, who is still acting broody, by the way, one in the morning and a stretch in the afternoon. When I saw her off by herself sitting, I put her back in her hot box. She's under heat at night, too.

So, overall, no real change except she seems in more pain today than she's been since this began six days ago.

 

[-Clementine-]

I recently had a black ameraucana pullet come down with a mystery illness. Fine one day then the next day....I was pretty sure it was Mereks. She was perfectly alert, and when I found her just lying on the ground in the morning, she tried to roll away from me. Upon further inspection, I found she was having a hard time using one of her legs and would still try to walk. she would sit hunched, like your pullet in the photo. Her appetite was still there, though. Sadly, she deteriorated very quickly, and I put her down a few days after finding her like that. I'm not sure of what your pullet has, but Mereks is not outside the realm of possibilty...

 

[Robin'sBrood]

One of my chicks that hatched out in August went suddenly lame in early Oct. She started stumbling around, couldn't stay up on the roost bar, and about a week later her toes had curled under so bad that she attempted to walk on the tops of her feet. It was pitiful and I was so afraid whatever was wrong was going to be fatal. But, her appetite was good and she seemed to have a strong will to live. After a lot of digging online I finally found someone who said he had a chicken that started acting like that and she was deficient in vitamin B-12.
I started feeding her an egg scrambled with cottage cheese and nutritional yeast every day, and I put a vitamin/electrolyte supplement in her water. It took a couple of weeks of babying her but she has completely recovered!
From now on if any of my girls start acting strange the very first thing I'm going to do is try to treat with food & vitamins. Best wishes, she's gorgeous... and looks very much like my girl!

 

[azygous]

I want May to be well NOW dammit. Okay. Got that out of my system.

She's holding steady. I need to take that as encouragement that she's going to beat this thing, whatever the heck it is. She is alert, steady with no balance problems, eats okay, if not her normal amounts, but doesn't want to put weight on her right leg and she strokes it with her beak as if trying to encourage it to quit hurting.

Continuing aspirin twice a day along with the other vitamins, and she's under heat right now in the run, and seems content.

 

[TwoCrows]

I want May to be well NOW dammit. Okay. Got that out of my system.

She's holding steady. I need to take that as encouragement that she's going to beat this thing, whatever the heck it is. She is alert, steady with no balance problems, eats okay, if not her normal amounts, but doesn't want to put weight on her right leg and she strokes it with her beak as if trying to encourage it to quit hurting.

Continuing aspirin twice a day along with the other vitamins, and she's under heat right now in the run, and seems content.

Poor girl. I think you are doing all you can, sometimes a lot of time is needed. Maybe some sort of Arthritis cream you can rub in? I personally use something called Triflora Arthritis Gel. It's all non toxic homeopathic, and really does relieve pain and inflammation. I order it off Amazon here...
https://www.amazon.com/Boericke-Taf...=triflora+arthritis+gel&qid=1607621243&sr=8-3

Just throwing this out there in case you want to try something odd. Who knows, she could have a hair line fracture or something too.

 

[Eggcessive]

Carol, you may be aware that RAL in Texas can do a pcr blood serum test for Mareks for about $20. I believe they send you the material, and you collect blood serum after trimming a toenail. I have no experience with them but several on BYC have used them, and another lab at U of GA.

I hope your hen recovers soon.

 

[azygous]

Carol, you may be aware that RAL in Texas can do a pcr blood serum test for Mareks for about $20. I believe they send you the material, and you collect blood serum after trimming a toenail. I have no experience with them but several on BYC have used them, and another lab at U of GA.

I hope your hen recovers soon.

I wasn't aware. That would be a terrific thing to take advantage of. What does RAL stand for so I can contact them.

 

[dawg53]

With May stroking her right leg, do you think it might be a fracture?
I've dealt with plenty of sprains/strains, never once did a hen stroke the effected area on the leg.

 

[azygous]

Houdini May has flown her hot box. I saw her under the rear coop off the main run. She was squatting all puffed up, and I assumed it was one of the other two pullets since I had placed a heavy wooden rack over the box so she couldn't jump out of it. I though, oh no, not another one coming down with this thing.

But, sure enough, May had the strength to push up on the frame and get out of the box. Dare I take this as a positive sign she could be improving?