Half of hen seems paralyzed in some way?

[Meredith_800]

The other day, my dad found one of our hens with her legs up in the air. She looked dead or dying, but after picking her up she was very active and was squirming around on her back trying to get up. She could not walk and kept falling over. After giving her some water, she looked a lot better and could move around a lot more. I examined her a bit and it looked like half her body was paralyzed. I couldn't move one of her wings, one of her eyes was closed more than the other, one of her legs seemed more paralyzed than the other. She could move her neck around just fine though. Currently, she is back to walking and eating, although she looks very unstable and falling quite a bit. Her wings still look very strange. I'm able to pick up one wing and stretch it out like normal, but the other wing just seems sort of stuck to her side. Ideally, I'd like to find a way to cure her. My parents don't really believe in getting doctors for chickens so a vet visit is off the table. If she doesn't get any better, then my parents will probably euthanize her via ax. The last time they tried to euthanize a chicken, it did not go well at all. I would hate for that to happen.

Details about the chicken: Barred rock hen; a little older than 2 years; probably the fattest, fluffiest chicken we have; we bought her from some guy that kept a ton of chickens in a very small area (kinda cruel imo) and we bought her with one other barred rock as well as two currently very healthy caramel-colored hens

Details about the flock: We've had 3 other chickens die all in the span of 6 months. They were all around 2-3 years old. One of them was suddenly found with both legs completely paralyzed (unlike the one right now) and barely alive. The other was just all of the sudden found dead, not sure why. And the third chicken was an expected death (she was the other barred rock). She was very sick, underweight, underdeveloped, infested with lice. Very sad. All six of our other chickens look perfectly healthy.

Theories: Marek's disease - a lot of my hen's symptoms seem common with this disease, although I'm hesitant to say it's Marek's because a) our hens are older than the expected age for this disease and b) I don't want to get too hasty because then she would probably need to be euthanized c) I don't think that Marek's disease should be this sudden
Sour crop - I thought that maybe the drunken stumbling was from a sour crop, but this morning I checked and her crop seemed flat and fine
Heatstroke - although the heat hasn't been too bad recently, it gets pretty warm in the roost at night. Since she is the fluffiest of all our chickens, I do worry that she is more susceptible to heatstroke.

Please let me know what you think...

 

[azygous]

The only way to know if this is Marek's is to have a dead chicken necropsied by a lab. There are several different strains of Marek's and that can account for symptoms that appear to vary from the classic signs. The fact that there have been other chickens in your flock with this, points to a contagious avian disease.

Just this past week, I had a pullet that was unable to stand and kept tumbling over head over heals when she tried to go anywhere. I took her, still alive, to my state lab, and they euthanized her and then did a necropsy to find out what she had. I'm waiting for the results.

You might suggest to your parents that it wouldn't hurt to have this chicken taken to a lab near you to determine what disease this is. Depending on where you live, the test may be very inexpensive or even free. Have them call the university extension office near you for directions to your state lab.

 

[sourland]

The only way to know if this is Marek's is to have a dead chicken necropsied by a lab.

You might suggest to your parents that it wouldn't hurt to have this chicken taken to a lab near you to determine what disease this is. Depending on where you live, the test may be very inexpensive or even free. Have them call the university extension office near you for directions to your state lab.

Great suggestion by @azygous . Good luck in defining and resolving this problem.

 

[Eggcessive]

Testing for Mareks by a necropsy done by the state vet is the best way to find out what is wrong. You can also question the state lab when you call to see if Mareks is very common in your area. Even if you don’t get the necropsy done, you may learn some by talking to them. Mareks does affect younger hens usually, but it can be brought into a flock with a new bird. It also can lie dormant in the body, until somethings stresses her and that can trigger symptoms. Mareks is contagious and spreads by feather dust and dander from carrier. It can last for months to years in an environment afeter chickens are gone.

I had a hen with a reproductive infection or canced, and a year before she died, she had a 5 week bout of not being able to stand without falling backward or to her side. She stayed in a basket occasionally standing up, sometimes scooting, and falling down, and needed to be watered and fed several times a day. But she finally got up, and walked around for the next year or more. We never know what can cause imbalance and falling or lameness, but with multiple birds doing that, Mareks seems likely. Here is a link where to find your state vet ro contact:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm