Hen is down.. Mareks? Or Eggbound?

Egg binding can cause a temporary paralysis of the legs, because of pressure on the sciatic nerves in the legs. I have never witnessed it, but it can happen. Botulism can occur from eating the botulinum toxin produced in dead animals and vegetation after being buried without oxygen. The reason I don’t think that you are dealing with that is that botulism is not a mild illness. It causes first, paralysis of both feet, then legs, then wings, and neck followed by the eyelids in less than 12 hours. It is more of a problem in waterfowl, but it can occur in chickens. There is no treatment this far along, but if treated early an Epsom salts flush can be used. That can dehydrate a chicken, so at this point, it really wouldn’t help. The 3 possible problems seem like either riboflavin deficiency, temporary egg binding paralysis, or hopefully not, Mareks disease. But I am not a vet, just giving an opinion.
 
I suppose I just post a little update on this hen:

She has come along and seems to be improving very slowly. Now she's able to walk and even run, but she has a slight limp still. I still have her in her own area (she can see the other chickens through the fence but is separate from them). I was considered culling, but also really don't want to. I really don't know what caused her issue, I'm hoping it was just an odd egg bound case.. She's otherwise seemingly healthy despite her lameness.

So, I'm wondering just in case if it was mareks, can Marek's affected chickens recover after having a bout of paralysis? Or do they never recover?
Could whatever she have be genetic? I wanted to keep her eggs and incubate, but if there is a risk of passing it down I dont want to.

20200209_144818.jpg
20200209_144815.jpg
20200209_144823.jpg
 
Glad to hear that she is still improving. In Mareks, rarely they can have a bout of paralysis and recover, but then get sick again later. But since she sounds like she wss egg bound, that might be the reason for her temporary lameness. Let’s hope so, but time will tell.
 
She laid an egg in her crate yesterday! :D She seems to be doing better. I think I'll give her some more time out here, then maybe reintroduce her back to the coop.. I think she still has a very minor limp, because when she runs she actually skips instead, but maybe that's just me?
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom