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

[azygous]

Interesting. I gave June B and E, then waited until now to give her the Tylan. There was significant improvement just from the vitamins. I also gave her St John's Wort.

This thing is definitely neurological. I wish I knew if it was viral or bacterial.

Treating this thing is like trying to find your way around in a completely dark room.

 

[Byrd gal]

I am so sorry. Prayers coming.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

"Finding your way around in a completely dark room." Yeah. Have u had chance to re-read this thread yet, especially up to your post 96? Just in case anything jumps out at u. Is June's recent wobbly gait the same as when Jules, May & June, first showed symptoms? And the symptoms this time are still Not similiar to early Marek's symptoms, correct? (Just asking, i know u would know).
Yes neurological and demylenating. Under human diseases with those symptoms, the cause is almost always viral not bacterial. Makes the fact that both your pullets Appeared to respond to bacterial meds all the more puzzling.
Fort Collins has an excellent veterinary/teaching hospital. My dog was treated there in early '90's. Just checked; they also have an avian dept. (U probably already know that). Idk if's worth inquiring there or not, by phone or otherwise. My dog's treatment there was cheaper than a normal specialist due to it being a teaching hospital, but still not cheap. (Plus, in the end, she could not be saved.) Many experts on byc are more knowledgeable about poultry than most vets, but if avian vets at Ft. Collins university have broader knowledge than even general avian veterinarians, maybe the case history of your pullets would ring a bell. Idk. But really really sorry u r seeing this again.

 

[Sally PB]

Hugs, prayers, positive waves. For you and June.

 

[azygous]

Cross posted under the Su-su thread.

June tried to roost tonight but fell off the perch. She spent most of the day with Su-su under the heat lamp. June has a problem sharing Su-su and the heat lamp with May, but May continues to be on the mend and doesn't seem to mind.

June improved slightly from this morning, but there's no telling where this thing is going to go. We're treading new ground with this relapse. She laid an egg today, and she can still get around well enough, and she doesn't look crippled when she's just standing.

I gave her two Tylan doses today along with the E and B vitamins and I tossed in some acyclovir for good measure.

 

[azygous]

Ta-da! Big day! May laid her first egg! She got herself into the nest on her own, laid her egg like a big girl, and got herself out of the nest on her own!

Look who's pretty damned proud of herself.

 

[azygous]

June also laid an egg today again. She can still get around reasonably okay. Having floor nests do come in handy at times like this when I have two lame pullets.

June is still behaving like a falling -down drunk in an old time comedy film, although it's really not a laughing matter. She will stumble forward, then wobble sideways, then fall over, then throw herself forward again until she reaches her destination. These symptoms are not the same as she had before and different from May's.

 

[azygous]

We do not know that this is not Marek's. I would be hard pressed to guess how these pullets were exposed, though. I practice bio-security die to having LL in my flock, so I don't track it out to feed stores on my shoes, and don't wear town shoes in my run. I got these chicks within an hour of their crate being picked up at the post office, and they weren't on the show room floor, but were in the back store room. As far as I know, they were dumped into a stock tank and an hour later, I picked them out and boxed them myself and brought them home. The symptoms do resemble Marek's, although the legs of these lame ones have never scissored like Marek's victims do.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

We do not know that this is not Marek's. I would be hard pressed to guess how these pullets were exposed, though. I practice bio-security die to having LL in my flock, so I don't track it out to feed stores on my shoes, and don't wear town shoes in my run. I got these chicks within an hour of their crate being picked up at the post office, and they weren't on the show room floor, but were in the back store room. As far as I know, they were dumped into a stock tank and an hour later, I picked them out and boxed them myself and brought them home. The symptoms do resemble Marek's, although the legs of these lame ones have never scissored like Marek's victims do.

This is nothing more than a guess, but is it possible you’ve had Marek’s in your flock for a while?
Have you ever had any unknown deaths, or anything you assumed you knew the cause of, but weren’t completely sure of?

 

[Araucana Nest]

Wow, @Allsfairinloveandbugs . Thank you for excavating that research. One of the reasons I've followed this thread is experience with a non-ambulatory pet. I didn't share because it was off-thread, but now it seems relevant. One of our dogs was diagnosed with the canine version of Guillain-Barre nearly 2 years ago.

In dogs, it's acute idiopathic polyradiculoneuritis, or "coonhound paralysis." Her case history would take pages, but basically, an active 3-year-old dog lost the use of her legs over 5 days. Research shows prognosis at 90%+ recovery, so we dove into therapy and learned to deal with a dog who couldn't walk.

While our dog couldn't move her legs, and for 2 weeks couldn't lift her head, she could always wag her tail and never lost bowel or bladder control. She could always feel her legs and feet. That version of paralysis is specific to this disease. For some, it spreads to the lungs, but briefly. Different for every patient. Some breeds demonstrate more susceptibility to the condition. It wouldn't take much to find parallels with this disease and the experience with May and the flock.

While onset is "idiopathic," or unknown, the suspected cause is a combo of outside trigger and genetic predisposition. You can easily fall down a deep rabbit hole about demyelinating disorders, but here's quick description of the canine condition:
https://www.vetstream.com/treat/canis/diseases/acute-idiopathic-polyradiculoneuritis

Our case is unusual in that our dog is still not walking (most canine cases resolve in < 6 months) and she's still here. That's a personal choice, and I'd obviously not judge anyone for euthanizing a non-walking pet. In our case, she has an evident desire to keep being here, and our lifestyle is amenable to making sure she has a life worth living. She does daily therapy, plays with the other dogs, has recently reclaimed the ability to dig (inspired by our puppy, whoops), rides the golf cart, swims in her hot tub, is a good chicken sentry, etc. Two years in, she still makes weekly gains, which is fascinating, but we don't know where she's going since she didn't hit the 6-month mark for recovery, and research is mighty thin.

A big reason there's so little research is that many dogs are euthanized at onset. Vets may not know what they're seeing – 2 of the 5 we've worked with didn't – and the first few weeks of care are intense. This is likely happening with severe cases of Mareks, too, because bridge care for chicken tetraparesis has to be pretty rare, yeah?

Omg thank you; you just solved a mystery for me. Eight years ago my American Bulldog suddenly started losing the use of one of her back legs. Two days later we rushed to Emergency vet when both her back legs were paralyzed. Nothing out of the ordinary to report. It was 4th of July weekend and Naturally it was a Sunday. They said it was a spinal injury which I knew it could not have been. Long story short took her to my vet next day. By that time she was pretty bad shape. All told she was a quadriplegic for 12 days before she started to gain very slight use of her legs again. Daily my vet called me to give the day’s report. We discussed putting her down several times but always gave one more day. He never knew what it might have been but mentioned “coonhound paralysis”. It took months for complete recovery. But six months later she was running like her crazy self. That was 8 years ago and she has been fine and healthy ever since. Hoping May and all the flock and everyone’s flock recovers to full health and a happy life.