Help! My chicken was flopped on her back today

[CSolis]

But she is still eating and drinking so far

I lost my little 10 week old blue copper marans last night with the same symptoms. There are times when they have cardiac issues too. It is not always Mereks. I found her the same way in the coop a few weeks back.. Made sure she was eating properly and gave her sublingual b vitamins. She seemed to be getting stronger then last night while roosting on her back flipped over and passed.
I'm sorry you are going through this too. It is heart breaking when they can't tell you what the problem is. I hope you have better luck than I did.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would keep her near food and water, and separate her in a wire dog crate, so that she can get to it. If you have room in the coop, keep her crate where she can see the others. It may not be the riboflavin deficiency, but Mareks. Usually if it is a b vitamin deficiency, they will start to show improvement in a few days.

 

[Gooselover567]

I started giving her the vitamin B yesterday. Hopefully she will show improvement tomorrow, but her toes are getting more curled under now. I can't separate her from her two friends because she gets stressed and starts screaming.

 

[Gooselover567]

If this was Mareks, wouldn't my other chickens have been exposed and show symptoms?

 

[microchick]

I lost my little 10 week old blue copper marans last night with the same symptoms. There are times when they have cardiac issues too. It is not always Mereks. I found her the same way in the coop a few weeks back.. Made sure she was eating properly and gave her sublingual b vitamins. She seemed to be getting stronger then last night while roosting on her back flipped over and passed.
I'm sorry you are going through this too. It is heart breaking when they can't tell you what the problem is. I hope you have better luck than I did.

Sorry to hear that you lost a chick, C. I hadn't read about this on the OFH.

I've read on the internet that common causes of chickens dying on their backs includes heart attack or heart failure. I often wonder if in growing birds the cause is that they have a heart defect and giving their growth rate, their heart just can't keep up.

 

[Eggcessive]

If this was Mareks, wouldn't my other chickens have been exposed and show symptoms?

Mareks can show up around this age. How old are your other chickens? It may show up at different times, the earliest around 5 weeks up to 30 weeks and older. It can be hard to diagnose Mareks since other problems may seem similar, but it can be tested for during a necropsy after death. Hopefully, it is not Mareks.

 

[Chickstarrs]

If this was Mareks, wouldn't my other chickens have been exposed and show symptoms?

Sorry to hear about your troubles. If is is Marek's then your other chickens have been exposed but may not show symptoms. Some may show later (hopefully not) or some not at all. I just recently lost 2 of my favourites to Marek's. They had trouble with their legs and balance and then couldn't walk or stay upright. They never ended up on their backs though. Hopefully it is not Marek's in your flock.

 

[Gooselover567]

The others are about 18-25 weeks old. I researched a little, and the Vitamin B deficiency symptoms are more similar to her than the Marek's. Also, can I give her some nutri drench while she is on the Vitamin B?

 

[Gooselover567]

If it is Marek's, will all of my chickens die? I think it is Marek's now, because she can't really lift her neck very well and her wing is drooping.

 

[Eggcessive]

You should give her the B complex, 1/4 to 1/2 tablet daily, since NutriDrench does not contain riboflavin. But you canngive the NutriDrench orally -2 ml daily for the other vitamins and electrolytes for a few days. If it is Mareks, and none of us can tell you for sure, some of your other chickens might get it, but not necessarily all of them. Some seem to be immune to it. They will all be carriers of the disease, and some could get sick later. So never give away or sell chickens from your flock. There are quite a few BYC members who have it in their flocks, and they find ways to manage it and still have chickens. The more articles you read about it from official poultry experts, the more you will learn. There can be some misinformation as well. The Mareks faq article in post 4 is one of the most comprehensive, and here are a couple more to read:
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/ext...Preventing Mareks Disease in Small Flocks.pdf

http://csu-cvmbs.colostate.edu/Documents/vdl-mareks-disease-fact-sheet.pdf