I don't know if I should cull my chicken!!!!!!! please help!!!

[kiddo rot]

A couple of months ago, my mom and brother came back from a birthday party with a baby chick. Turns out that the party favours were live baby chickens and my family (along with many others) had happily accepted the gift. I, on the other hand, knew that taking care of a chicken would take some effort and honestly found the whole thing really irresponsible. But the chicken was there so we took care of it. It was always tweeting and running around and pooping and it seemed pretty happy. It slept in a box and during the day we would take it out to the yard. Looking back, we should have taken tweet (the chicken) out for longer time. One day I noticed tweet kind of limping and it just got progressively worse and now he can barely stand up. I did research and came to the conclusion that it was either marek's or a vitamin B defficiency so we switched his food and put vitamin B in his water. We also gave him a pill to deworm him and get rid of any parasites and started leaving him outside the whole day. But all he does is sit down and eat and doesn't move a whole lot. I'm wondering if we should put him to sleep? Like, he doesn't seem to be in pain but he struggles to get around and can't walk very well so please give me your opinions and personal experience!!

 

[biophiliac]

A couple of months ago, my mom and brother came back from a birthday party with a baby chick. Turns out that the party favours were live baby chickens and my family (along with many others) had happily accepted the gift. I, on the other hand, knew that taking care of a chicken would take some effort and honestly found the whole thing really irresponsible. But the chicken was there so we took care of it. It was always tweeting and running around and pooping and it seemed pretty happy. It slept in a box and during the day we would take it out to the yard. Looking back, we should have taken tweet (the chicken) out for longer time. One day I noticed tweet kind of limping and it just got progressively worse and now he can barely stand up. I did research and came to the conclusion that it was either marek's or a vitamin B defficiency so we switched his food and put vitamin B in his water. We also gave him a pill to deworm him and get rid of any parasites and started leaving him outside the whole day. But all he does is sit down and eat and doesn't move a whole lot. I'm wondering if we should put him to sleep? Like, he doesn't seem to be in pain but he struggles to get around and can't walk very well so please give me your opinions and personal experience!!

I wonder if you have a meat bird known as the CX, or Cornish Cross? Is it white and pretty heavy looking? If so these birds are known to often develop leg and heart problems after the age of eight weeks. Usually they are processed for consumption at that time. Sorry your pet is doing poorly. Many do not live to be even a year old. ETA they are also known to be very friendly and sweet.

So I do not think it is either of the causes you mention.

 

[SueT]

X2
What a terrible thing to do to kids! These cute little fluffballs are the cause a lot of heartbreak.

 

[ChickNanny13]

Post a picture so maybe we can decipher the breed. It's always irresponsible giving live animals unless advance notice.

You could make a sling, piece of cloth with 2 holes for it's legs, suspend it so the feet just touches the floor. That way it will be upright & can move it's legs for "therapy".

I've used Poly Visol without iron, 3 drops on the beak daily plus foods high in vitamin B; beef liver, hamburger, salmon, tuna, sesame seed, mushrooms, plain yogurt, spinach, boiled egg yolk; along with it's feed. When I've had to treat my 3wk old chick, it took 2wks, seemed like forever. Another time I gave PV to a pullet that developed a funny neck jerk, it took a couple of days.

Hope your chick gets better.

 

[kiddo rot]

I wonder if you have a meat bird known as the CX, or Cornish Cross? Is it white and pretty heavy looking? If so these birds are known to often develop leg and heart problems after the age of eight weeks. Usually they are processed for consumption at that time. Sorry your pet is doing poorly. Many do not live to be even a year old. ETA they are also known to be very friendly and sweet.

So I do not think it is either of the causes you mention.

My chicken is still yellow in some parts, but the feathers he does have are white so maybe you're right about that? I'm not very familiar with chicken behaviours but he never pecked at us and he's such a sweet boy. I do know of another party attendee that took 2 chickens home and one of them died for unknown reasons a while ago so I really don't know what we could've done to prevent this.

 

[kiddo rot]

Post a picture so maybe we can decipher the breed. It's always irresponsible giving live animals unless advance notice.

You could make a sling, piece of cloth with 2 holes for it's legs, suspend it so the feet just touches the floor. That way it will be upright & can move it's legs for "therapy".

I've used Poly Visol without iron, 3 drops on the beak daily plus foods high in vitamin B; beef liver, hamburger, salmon, tuna, sesame seed, mushrooms, plain yogurt, spinach, boiled egg yolk; along with it's feed. When I've had to treat my 3wk old chick, it took 2wks, seemed like forever. Another time I gave PV to a pullet that developed a funny neck jerk, it took a couple of days.

Hope your chick gets better.

.
Thank you so much for the advice about the sling. Today we noticed that the tip of his wing was scabbed over because he uses it for support so much what could i suspend the sling from? also I will try to add more to his diet in the hopes that it might make him stronger

 

[kiddo rot]

A couple of months ago, my mom and brother came back from a birthday party with a baby chick. Turns out that the party favours were live baby chickens and my family (along with many others) had happily accepted the gift. I, on the other hand, knew that taking care of a chicken would take some effort and honestly found the whole thing really irresponsible. But the chicken was there so we took care of it. It was always tweeting and running around and pooping and it seemed pretty happy. It slept in a box and during the day we would take it out to the yard. Looking back, we should have taken tweet (the chicken) out for longer time. One day I noticed tweet kind of limping and it just got progressively worse and now he can barely stand up. I did research and came to the conclusion that it was either marek's or a vitamin B defficiency so we switched his food and put vitamin B in his water. We also gave him a pill to deworm him and get rid of any parasites and started leaving him outside the whole day. But all he does is sit down and eat and doesn't move a whole lot. I'm wondering if we should put him to sleep? Like, he doesn't seem to be in pain but he struggles to get around and can't walk very well so please give me your opinions and personal experience!!

My main concern is that it's inhumane to keep him like this because of is mobility issues. Should I put him to sleep or let him live out his natural life?

 

[BantyChooks]

My main concern is that it's inhumane to keep him like this because of is mobility issues. Should I put him to sleep or let him live out his natural life?

I would cull him. Sorry.
Let me know if you need advice on how to do that.

I agree with what others have said about the breed. He sounds like a Cornish Cross.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Could you post a picture? It sounds like it's a meat breed. If it's a meat breed, you might want to put in on a diet. If you're able to care for it and it's not suffering I don't see why you should put it to sleep.

 

[BantyChooks]

Could you post a picture? It sounds like it's a meat breed. If it's a meat breed, you might want to put in on a diet. If you're able to care for it and it's not suffering I don't see why you should put it to sleep.

Diets don't work this late. The frame size is already too big. If it's not able to move, then it has low quality of life and should not be kept alive for the owner's benefit.