- Jun 3, 2013
- 1
- 0
- 7
Hi everyone, we've got a 7-year-old Araucana hen who is exhibiting symptoms of Marek's (the diagnosis is based solely on internet research). It started out with her just sort of stumbling around when we'd let everyone out of the coop in the morning, and we just sort of assumed she'd slept on her leg funny and it was asleep or something. But as time went on, she started stumbling and having trouble walking at other times during the day. I didn't see it but my mom said she saw her just collapse in the yard like she couldn't walk at all, but then after a few minutes she was back up and about like normal.
This past Saturday morning (June 1) I went out to let them out of the coop and she wouldn't come out. I opened the roof to get a better look and she was sitting in one of the nesting boxes, leaning way over on her left side. She was still bright-eyed and talkative, but when I picked her up and set her down on the ground, she just fell over onto that same left side. We filled a box with some straw and put her in it so she wouldn't just be lying in the yard, and she was still eating and drinking pretty well - she just couldn't walk.
Since Saturday though, she's just tipped further and further onto her left side and now she's just kinda flat on her face with her left wing folded up under her. She kicks and flails around with her right leg and wing - I think she probably feels really disoriented and often appears to be trying to right herself, but if we pick her up and try to get her to just roost like normal, she just falls over again. She's been twisting her head around so she's almost looking backwards over her shoulder, and for awhile I thought she was just trying to sit up, but she opens her beak and blinks rapidly and sort of twitches like she's having some sort of seizure, which would make sense if it's Marek's and nerve-related.
The thing is though, she doesn't seem to be showing any other signs of Marek's other than the paralysis. She doesn't seem to have lost weight, her appetite was still good, and it didn't seem like her comb had shrunk or grown pale or anything. She was "stumbly" for about a week or so before she just plain couldn't walk (it was pretty sudden), and during that time she was still functioning perfectly normal. Even at age 7, she's still been a good layer and just laid an egg on Friday (the day before she couldn't walk). Her eyes still look normal (no discoloring or paleness), but she has stopped talking, which I take as a bad sign because she's always been a very talkative chicken.
At this point she's still quarantined in her box of straw - I'm sure the damage has already been done in terms of spreading the virus, but we only have one other chicken right now and she won't let her into the coop at night. She flails her way around the inside of the box, but she's not eating or drinking on her own anymore, so we've been giving her water with a syringe. She always seems to calm down when someone has a hand on her - I think not being able to feel anything on her left side is freaking her out. She likes to be able to hold on to someone's fingers with her right foot and push against it - it seems like she's actually still got a lot of strength, and even after these couple of days it doesn't seem like she's lost much weight.
I guess I'm just wondering how to best help her. We don't want to kill her because we treat our chickens as pets, but we're just trying to make her as comfortable as possible. Is there anything we can give her to help counteract the virus, if that's indeed what it is? Is there any possibility that she can fight through it? We just don't know what to do and we feel terrible just letting her lay there.
This past Saturday morning (June 1) I went out to let them out of the coop and she wouldn't come out. I opened the roof to get a better look and she was sitting in one of the nesting boxes, leaning way over on her left side. She was still bright-eyed and talkative, but when I picked her up and set her down on the ground, she just fell over onto that same left side. We filled a box with some straw and put her in it so she wouldn't just be lying in the yard, and she was still eating and drinking pretty well - she just couldn't walk.
Since Saturday though, she's just tipped further and further onto her left side and now she's just kinda flat on her face with her left wing folded up under her. She kicks and flails around with her right leg and wing - I think she probably feels really disoriented and often appears to be trying to right herself, but if we pick her up and try to get her to just roost like normal, she just falls over again. She's been twisting her head around so she's almost looking backwards over her shoulder, and for awhile I thought she was just trying to sit up, but she opens her beak and blinks rapidly and sort of twitches like she's having some sort of seizure, which would make sense if it's Marek's and nerve-related.
The thing is though, she doesn't seem to be showing any other signs of Marek's other than the paralysis. She doesn't seem to have lost weight, her appetite was still good, and it didn't seem like her comb had shrunk or grown pale or anything. She was "stumbly" for about a week or so before she just plain couldn't walk (it was pretty sudden), and during that time she was still functioning perfectly normal. Even at age 7, she's still been a good layer and just laid an egg on Friday (the day before she couldn't walk). Her eyes still look normal (no discoloring or paleness), but she has stopped talking, which I take as a bad sign because she's always been a very talkative chicken.
At this point she's still quarantined in her box of straw - I'm sure the damage has already been done in terms of spreading the virus, but we only have one other chicken right now and she won't let her into the coop at night. She flails her way around the inside of the box, but she's not eating or drinking on her own anymore, so we've been giving her water with a syringe. She always seems to calm down when someone has a hand on her - I think not being able to feel anything on her left side is freaking her out. She likes to be able to hold on to someone's fingers with her right foot and push against it - it seems like she's actually still got a lot of strength, and even after these couple of days it doesn't seem like she's lost much weight.
I guess I'm just wondering how to best help her. We don't want to kill her because we treat our chickens as pets, but we're just trying to make her as comfortable as possible. Is there anything we can give her to help counteract the virus, if that's indeed what it is? Is there any possibility that she can fight through it? We just don't know what to do and we feel terrible just letting her lay there.
