HELP!! 5 month old chicks can't stand without help!

[meganhundley]

Can someone please help me figure out what's wrong with my Icelandic chicks? They are around 5 months old now, when I let them out in the mornings some of them can't stand up, they just kind of lay on there side with their feet out from under them. I don't think it's Mareks (spelling?) disease since after I help them up they can walk on their own without much trouble. It's like temporary paralysis of their legs. What could be causing this? Any advice or answers are very much apreciated.

 

[meganhundley]

I read somewhere that it could be because they don't have enough space, could that be true? There are 6 of them and I have them in a 4x3x3 foot coop, they aren't very big yet so I thought this would be adequate space.

 

[donrae]

How many birds do you have in that space?
What are you feeding them?
do you have other birds, or have you recently added other birds to your property?

 

[meganhundley]

No there aren't any recent birds, the last birds I got were 5 welsummer hens and that was about 5 months ago. There are 6 chicks in the coop, I let them out into a 15 by 30 foot run in the mornings. They are fed Manna Pro medicated chick starter.

 

[meganhundley]

I've tried searching for answers online but I can't find anything that is like this. I've seen videos of birds with Mareks and New Castle and it's nothing like this. They seem paralyzed while they're down but once I pick them up and put them on their feet they can walk fine, sometimes they seem a little wobbly and weak but their legs work. This started a couple days ago but it doesn't seem to be getting worse. I brought the first chick it happened to inside and once he was inside he never had a problem standing up again.

 

[emmachickens13]

Just letting everyone know thanks so much for your support gale has recovered and is back to normal thanks guys for all your help

 

[mg15]

How strange.
5 months old they should be jumping and playing.
Are they getting adequate exercise all day outside. ?

 

[meganhundley]

They used to play alot and chest pump each other to see who's top dog but for the last week or so their energy level has dropped way down. I believe they get adequate exercise. I let them out around 8 and they normally go to bed around 5:30 or 6. The reason I let them out so late is we have alot of foxes around and they're normally out looking for food til 7:30ish so I'm afraid to let the chicks out too early, I don't want them to get eaten. We've been trying to get rid of the foxes but everytime we try they run off and we don't see them for several days.