Golden Laced Cochin not able to stand or move! Please help!

[hillcountrychic]

Went to feed my chickens their scratch yesterday evening and Fleur, one of my golden laced cochin hens (she's about 4 1/2 months old) was sitting in the bottom of the coop by herself, which I thought was strange as she is always mingling with her little flock of golden laced. Picked her up and examined her and didn't see anything amiss other than a big patch of feathers missing n her rump (as if a roo had been @ her). She also had a small patch of feathers missing from her head. No blood or any other noticeable injuries though.

I put her down outside the coop with the others to see what would happen and she just flopped down. At that point I brought her inside and put her in a plastic tub. She drank like she hadn't had any water all day (and it was 100 degrees yesterday). She's also been eating her feed and some scratch. She didn't move all night though.

I picked her up again and reexamined her--still can't find anything wrong. No bumble foot, no clouding of the eyes. Nothing. She's bright-eyed and alert most of the time but just seems paralyzed.

Hoping someone can offer some advice! I thought about Marek's but I have hatched all my chicks from my incubator except for my initial four, which I purchased from Ideal. No one else has ever exhibited any symptoms--in fact Fleur is my first sick chicken!

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me! I have only been keeping chickens for a little over a year and am at a loss of what to do now!

Kelley

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

This probably isn't relevant, but I had the same thing happen to a Golden Laced that was about the same age a few summers ago. It turns out she had some kind of "worm" in her brain, I guess? We gave her some ACV and she got better, but still wasn't the same, like she couldn't ever walk straight. She just seemed really "paralyzed" and just kind of stared into space all day before we got rid of it.

Although with the feathers missing maybe something tried to eat her and it shocked her? I had a rat try and eat a chick that was a few days old, and she did the same thing, I just held her and let her sleep for a day and she was fine. And we've had a turkey get scared to death by a coyote, again she was just paralyzed. I would just hold her (if she is tame) or else let her relax in a safe place for a while. Hope she recovers!