hen suddenly can't walk -- i see no telltale signs why

[chickenannie]

chicknmania, glad to hear Moppit is showing a few signs of improvement...

 

[chicknmania]

Thank you, how is everyone else doing? Just wanted to share that the Terramycin does seem to be helping, though too early to tell yet. She is lots stronger, still balance issues, but eating much better. Still always at the waterer, though.

 

[chicken legs]

tx for update chicknmania...hope time brings good news

 

[TerryW]

Well my rooster is still having the same problems, he's been getting the epsom salts, pedialyte, and pumpkin mix and does seem a bit stronger. Also still adding in the Ionic-Fizz.

I know it's not something inherited, this guy's a few years old and mean as heck. I've had to keep him penned up because he attacks and intends major harm. This came on rather suddenly. I noticed him being off a bit and then a couple days later he was down and unable to walk. All the other chickens are fine.

Sometimes I stand him up and get his toes stretched out to where they're supposed to be. Physical therapy?

I sure would like to know what's wrong and what to do about it.

And if anyone's interested his name is Super Chicken. He was supposed to be a hen when I bought my chicks since I didn't want a rooster - been there done that. As the chicks grew it was obvious he was different. His legs got real long and he came running whenever there was a commotion, with a little red cape Super Chicken was 'the man'. Now I have a total of 4, all penned up. Two attack people and fight each other - the hens don't care for them much either. Two others I recently took in from the Humane Society turned in by city folks, they don't attack people but were getting pretty hard on my hens so into a pen they went.

Anyway, if there are any breakthroughs, please let me know by email - [email protected]
And if I figure anything out I'll be sure to post.

 

[chickenannie]

My hen is essentially the same too. No improvement, no worsening.

 

[chicknmania]

Here's something you can try. Don't know if will help, can't hurt, as far as I know. We noticed Moppit had a bit of nasal congestion; not bad, no discharge, or anything; just stuffy. The ChickenDoctor thought it was possible she might have an inner ear infection, because of her balance problems. It didn't look like that outwardly, but we decided to try her on water soluble Terramycin anyway; heaping Tablespoonful to one gallon water. She showed an immediate improvement, and began eating a lot better. Her balance also improved, and she backed off some on her water consumption. She is nowhere near a full recovery, and still has setbacks, but it does seem to be helping. This is day 5 of 10 days on the antibiotics. Yesterday I noticed what looked like dry blood around her nostrils. She still has a stuffy nose. She is always better in the morning after a full nights sleep; declines in the afternoon.

 

[chicknmania]

OH, also another thing...last year the State of Ohio vet told me that, when you are treating a sick bird, even though antibiotics may not help the condition you are treating for, it will help to combat secondary infections the bird might pick up that will weaken it. I have found this to be true, and, actually, think it might certainly be true in Moppit's case; I doubt an infection is causing her all these problems; it is most likely secondary to whatever her real problem is.

 

[chicken legs]

I spoke with an Avian vet yesterday about my scaley leg mite problem. I learned that scaley leg mites are not limited to the leg. He said that they will migrate to the body and suck the blood out of the bird, making them anemic, until their death! I have read another post :
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=37600
Could it be from anemia ? Balance issues from weakness? Im also wondering because it said in that post that they checked regularly and never saw evidence of mites that if you were able to see them that it's in advanced stages. Just stabbing in the dark here and trying to brainstorm. My thought are with you and your sick chicken chickenannie. Would bringing her to an Avian vet bring some definitive answers/decisions? BTW it took 3 days for vet to get back to me. But he was careful to warn that the scaley leg mite is virulent, tenacious and lethal.
thinking of you...Liz

 

[chicknmania]

You know you might have something, we are going to try to treat moppit again tomorrow; come to think of it she did seem to improve when we dusted her before, she is much worse again now, back to square one. Because of her nosebleeds I googled nosebleeds in chickens; haha; google was mystified; however, nosebleeds in people can be caused by vitamin deficiency or bird flu. I know it isn't bird flu; we;ve had her for months and no one else has symptoms of anything; except....her roo did have terrible mites we noticed after we separated them; we treated him successfully.

 

[chicknmania]

We treated Fuego (her roo) With DE first and later with cage bird lice spray; also his pen. Seemed to work well.