Going to try to keep this short but detailed:
My Lavender Orpington is 4 years old & very healthy until about 10 days ago. Live in central Texas hill country and it is currently very HOT.
Symptoms started began with staying in the nest, I assumed she was broody. Took her out of the nest twice due to high heat. After that, she then started coming out on her own, but was last one out in the morn and 1st in at night. Moving slowly and awkwardly sometimes. Quiet, which is unlike her. Normally noisy and tries to sound like a rooster. She stayed under the porch a lot during the day, but since it has been so hot here, I assumed it was the heat. The last couple of days she came up onto the porch and would sit on the step. Go down a step and sit, go down another sit. She has spent the last couple of days sitting around in grass or sand not moving around much and when she did she seemed to limp a bit off and on.
Last night, she after watching her waddle down to her coop and I took her up to the house and put her in a dog kennel for the night. She sat in there quietly all night and today, with food and water right in front of her. She took a few bites of food this morning, but nothing since, and just a few minutes ago, 8pm CT, she took several drinks of water. She just pooped once, little bit since I put her in the cage. The door has been open, but she has no interest in venturing out. Besides sitting, she will half stand and then sit down again immediately. She seems wobbly. I examined her last night for being egg bound, but her vent appears normal. Last week she was still laying eggs regularly.
I am worried about Marek’s because her comb has been more droopy than normal and pale and the wobbly, weak leg symptoms. She cohabits with 2 other hens and they seem perfectly normal. I also have 12 pullets and a cockerel between the age of 12 weeks and and sixteen weeks in an adjacent run and separate coop. Everyone else appears very healthy. So far, no integration between the new and old flock.
But could it be from moldy food. I discovered mold in the lower portion of their feed a few days ago. Since have dumped and bought new. Or could it be recovering from heat exhaustion? Our high temperatures have been between 98 and 106 for the last twelve days. Some nights it has been 90 until well after midnight.
Fortunately, the coops and runs are in the shade almost all the time, and we have lots of trees for shade. I put out shallow pools for water for them to stand in and drink from and give them frozen watermelon in the hottest part of the day for a cool down treat.
Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. I plan on keeping her isolated in the house under observation until she starts eating and drinking and pooping regularly and can walk better. I almost lost a hen a few years ago to botulism, and did lose one hen immediately to it, so I do not believe that is it, because the symptoms seem isolated to her legs.
My Lavender Orpington is 4 years old & very healthy until about 10 days ago. Live in central Texas hill country and it is currently very HOT.
Symptoms started began with staying in the nest, I assumed she was broody. Took her out of the nest twice due to high heat. After that, she then started coming out on her own, but was last one out in the morn and 1st in at night. Moving slowly and awkwardly sometimes. Quiet, which is unlike her. Normally noisy and tries to sound like a rooster. She stayed under the porch a lot during the day, but since it has been so hot here, I assumed it was the heat. The last couple of days she came up onto the porch and would sit on the step. Go down a step and sit, go down another sit. She has spent the last couple of days sitting around in grass or sand not moving around much and when she did she seemed to limp a bit off and on.
Last night, she after watching her waddle down to her coop and I took her up to the house and put her in a dog kennel for the night. She sat in there quietly all night and today, with food and water right in front of her. She took a few bites of food this morning, but nothing since, and just a few minutes ago, 8pm CT, she took several drinks of water. She just pooped once, little bit since I put her in the cage. The door has been open, but she has no interest in venturing out. Besides sitting, she will half stand and then sit down again immediately. She seems wobbly. I examined her last night for being egg bound, but her vent appears normal. Last week she was still laying eggs regularly.
I am worried about Marek’s because her comb has been more droopy than normal and pale and the wobbly, weak leg symptoms. She cohabits with 2 other hens and they seem perfectly normal. I also have 12 pullets and a cockerel between the age of 12 weeks and and sixteen weeks in an adjacent run and separate coop. Everyone else appears very healthy. So far, no integration between the new and old flock.
But could it be from moldy food. I discovered mold in the lower portion of their feed a few days ago. Since have dumped and bought new. Or could it be recovering from heat exhaustion? Our high temperatures have been between 98 and 106 for the last twelve days. Some nights it has been 90 until well after midnight.
Fortunately, the coops and runs are in the shade almost all the time, and we have lots of trees for shade. I put out shallow pools for water for them to stand in and drink from and give them frozen watermelon in the hottest part of the day for a cool down treat.
Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. I plan on keeping her isolated in the house under observation until she starts eating and drinking and pooping regularly and can walk better. I almost lost a hen a few years ago to botulism, and did lose one hen immediately to it, so I do not believe that is it, because the symptoms seem isolated to her legs.
Sorry for your loss 
