Hen alive - not moving - but neck appears broken?? **UPDATE @ #14**

[Mtn Laurel]

I found a vaccine on Jeffers that I'll be ordering pronto. No other birds are showing symptoms but this one showed no symptoms, either. Just found her in this condition this morning. Last night she was eating like crazy, chasing bugs, and has been one of my best layers. This came totally out of the blue.

You say you lost several to this - did they get sick at the same time or any show symptoms prior? Was wondering if I have time to even get the vaccine in them. Am almost afraid to go to the coop now!!

 

[FlyHigher]

I found a vaccine on Jeffers that I'll be ordering pronto. No other birds are showing symptoms but this one showed no symptoms, either. Just found her in this condition this morning. Last night she was eating like crazy, chasing bugs, and has been one of my best layers. This came totally out of the blue.

You say you lost several to this - did they get sick at the same time or any show symptoms prior? Was wondering if I have time to even get the vaccine in them. Am almost afraid to go to the coop now!!

I lost them one by one. It's too bad. At that time, I still know nothing about chicken disease. It's all my fault.
However, good news is that ND is treatable, not like Marek's(which probably is the most nasty chicken disease I have ever heard by now).

 

[BuffOrpington88]

Also, biosecurity prevents diseases like newcastle.
Sorry about your hen.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

It's been over 2 weeks since this incident and I decided to post an update as I'm always wondering what finally happened after reading similar illness/injury threads.

I do not believe she had Newcastle or any other viral disease. I think she may have possibly contracted botulism. A necropsy was not done so I have no true diagnosis, this is my conjecture after weighing all the evidence.

WHY I DON'T THINK IT WAS NEWCASTLE: Just got my chickens middle of June. I've never had chickens or any birds before so everything they've been in contact with is new. They've not been around any other birds. No visitors have been in contact with birds. Contacted prior owner and all her birds are healthy. The only way the virus could have gotten to this chicken would be for an infected bird to fly over the coop and poop into it. It could happen but is unlikely.

The time between exposure and symptoms of illness for Newcastle is roughly a week. It's been over two weeks and none of my other hens are ill. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Newcastle normally initially presents itself as a respiratory illness. There was no indication of any type of illness, including respiratory, in this hen. She was fine, even laid an egg, the day before. The next morning she was found under the roost, on her side, semi-paralyzed, with neck twisted backwards.

In researching the twisted neck - which is a hallmark symptom of Newcastle - I learned that it is also symptomatic of total Central Nervous System involvement and shut-down.

WHY I THINK IT COULD HAVE BEEN BOTULISM: This particular hen was my "runt". She was smaller, a bit scraggly looking. She was not quite a year old, she'd had worms and had just been treated for them. I think that she was a bit run down and susceptible to things that might not impact my larger, healthier hens.

I learned that botulism occurs naturally and can be found in our soil and in leaf litter, compost piles, debris, etc. I also learned that it can develop in their food, especially if it gets any moisture on it. And I understand that botulism increases in heat. HEAT!!! When I read "HEAT", that's when my thinking went to botulism.

When this occurred, we were 5 days into a 100+ heat wave. Two day's prior, we had moved their coop to an area with leaf litter as we thought they'd enjoy digging through it. [they did!] I had their crumbles stored in a black plastic garbage can on my back deck. In full sunlight. It came in a paper bag so could have easily gotten wet at some point between the factory - the store - and my place - and I'd not be aware of it.

I know that botulism is usually associated with "limber neck" where the neck just hangs down. However, both Newcastle's and botulism impacts the central nervous system so my thinking is that her response was possibly more severe given her weakened state.

WHAT I'VE DONE SINCE: I tossed the food and scratch that was stored in full sunlight. Bought them new and am keeping it in my house in air conditioning to make sure it doesn't get either hot or wet. I've always kept their coop and run clean but I'm now very vigilant about removing any remnants of "treats" that could go bad - cucumber skins, corn cobs, that type of thing. ACV is in their water. Not much I can do about any naturally occurring botulism in the soil. It's always been there and always will be. It would seem that it normally does not impact healthy birds.

ANY THOUGHTS? Am I off-base in my conjecture? I've been trying to figure out what caused this as I really don't want it to happen again. Thanks for any input!