Is this Marek's or Riboflavin deficiency? Please help :(

[luukasama]

Well, GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!!

Tsubasa has now made a full recovery! It took 2.5 months, but she is now fully walking on her left foot. Jumping out from the coop to the walkout ladder is still a big hurdle to clear, but she is no longer hobbling or walking on her left hock. She not only outlived her companion roo, Hickory, but also an older white brahma hen that succumbed to mites. We unfortunately got to her too late, but her sacrifice was not in vain. Thanks to her, we've dusted all the chickens, cleaned out and dusted the coop, and now we are mite free!

Here is Tsubasa with the rest of the flock:


And here's Tsubasa up close, fully standing up!


I was beginning to think that she would never recover, but it's also quite possible that eventually we over-helped. I do know that us keeping her in the sling, which restricted nearly all movement, definitely helped by keeping her weight off the leg. But eventually, we felt she needed to be put into the coop to reintegrate with the flock. I just had a fear that they would pick on her again, like they did when she was small which started this whole thing, but no. Everyone is getting along swimmingly. I couldn't be more proud!

 

[MrsBachbach]

That is great news! Good work!

 

[Eggcessive]

Great news, and I'm so glad that she has recovered. Thank you for the update.

 

[Chic Lady55]

Hi, I am having a problem similar with a hen 7 months old. she cannot stand on her own. One of my other hens passed tonight, she went downhill fast, she seemed to have developed a respiratory illness along with severe diareah. She was doing well, then all of the sudden had labored breathing and an hour later passed. I was giving Sulmet, vitamins, cooking for them etc. I did everything humanly possible to save her. They are inside my house to recover. Our coop is immaculate, covered run, and shielded from wind and rain too. We have gone overboard with our first time raising a flock. The Leghorn is the remaining one of the two who were ill. Totally alert, eating for me, but has runny watery poop. I can't find what or how you treated your girl. What did she have that caused this? Did you ever find out? I am hoping she survived, I have read the posts and may have missed it. Any help you can give me would be appreciated. ty I am making your hammock for my girl as we speak. great idea...

 

[MrsBachbach]

Hi, I am having a problem similar with a hen 7 months old. she cannot stand on her own.  One of my other hens passed tonight, she went downhill fast, she seemed to have developed a respiratory illness along with severe diareah.  She was doing well, then all of the sudden had labored breathing and an hour later passed. I was giving Sulmet, vitamins, cooking for them etc.  I did everything humanly possible to save her.  They are inside my house to recover.  Our coop is immaculate, covered run, and shielded from wind and rain too. We have gone overboard with our first time raising a flock.  The Leghorn is the remaining one of the two who were ill.  Totally alert, eating for me, but has runny watery poop.  I can't find what or how you treated your girl.  What did she have that caused this?  Did you ever find out?  I am hoping she survived, I have read the posts and may have missed it.  Any help you can give me would be appreciated. ty I am making your hammock for my girl as we speak. great idea...

Do you have any more history you can give on your flock? Where did you get them, what age they were when purchased, did you add any chickens at a later date, etc? Did you follow the directions on the Sulmet to the letter? You don't want to overdose on that stuff. Your birds are at the age when Mareks typically shows up, so I'm wondering if it is that. It can kill them in a matter of days when symptoms show.
If the birds are suffering from diarhea, then it's possible they could be losing calcium or riboflavin rapidly and that could cause the paralysis you are seeing. A bird suffering from a calcium deficiency can also show symptoms of paralysis and can die quickly. Very quickly. Are they laying? I'd get something to address the diarhea and get some extra calcium and vitamins in the bird asap, just in case.

You can look at this link on disease and see if anything describes what you are experiencing. It's very hard to know for sure without tests being run though, since symptoms are so similar for many of the diseases. The best thing you can do to know for sure is send the dead bird in for a necrospy. There is information on this site and people like Kathy that know more about how and where to do that than I.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/

I am editing to add that if you were using Sulmet for possible cocci infection, it would be better to use Corid as it treats more types of cocci infection than Sulmet. However, I have never heard of cocci causing paralysis, but I guess a complication of severe diarhea could cause it.

 

[luukasama]

Hi, I am having a problem similar with a hen 7 months old. she cannot stand on her own. One of my other hens passed tonight, she went downhill fast, she seemed to have developed a respiratory illness along with severe diareah. She was doing well, then all of the sudden had labored breathing and an hour later passed. I was giving Sulmet, vitamins, cooking for them etc. I did everything humanly possible to save her. They are inside my house to recover. Our coop is immaculate, covered run, and shielded from wind and rain too. We have gone overboard with our first time raising a flock. The Leghorn is the remaining one of the two who were ill. Totally alert, eating for me, but has runny watery poop. I can't find what or how you treated your girl. What did she have that caused this? Did you ever find out? I am hoping she survived, I have read the posts and may have missed it. Any help you can give me would be appreciated. ty I am making your hammock for my girl as we speak. great idea...

Hi Chic Lady,

Do you know what exactly has caused the hen to suddenly become disabled? Is this an issue of over-harassment, or could she have possibly fallen off of somewhere? I had two such cases. Coronette, my BR, hurt her leg by jumping off a high up dowel and landed incorrectly. I helped heal her by giving her epsom bath salts for 20 minutes, so that her muscles relax.

In case of Tsubasa, she was getting badly bullied and hurt herself in the process of running away, to answer your question. Her issue was that she would flip out because she couldn't move, in the process removing all the pine shavings and straw, then banging her knees on the wood in an attempt to move around, so for quite a while, she had to be in the hammock. I used my boyfriend's old underwear and made her a makeshift hammock to keep her suspended enough where her legs touched the floor, BUT did not allow her to actually put weight on it. I constantly checked on her because I feared that she would not be able to poop, so you need to make sure to tuck any additional flapping material on the bottom of her so that her vent is free and clear.

Every now and then, I took her out for a breath of air once she demonstrated she could at least stand on her hocks. If you ever let her out of the hammock, made sure there's enough padded straw for additional safety and softness. Trust me, it has helped a lot. Once you put her into the hammock, if you find that any part of her legs is hurt and looks almost as if its bleeding internally, make sure to bandage it. I can try to help you more, but I need a little more information as to what happened that she is not able to walk anymore.

By the way, on the hen that suddenly passed away, did you ever check their butts? It sounds silly, but one of my hens went into a depression and very shortly passed away. It seemed sudden, but I found her vent and the surrounding area infested with mites. This spread to all of the chickens, with the exception of the younger ones. We dusted all with Sevin 5% insecticide and they all died. Your coop and run may be immaculate, but it wouldn't hurt to check either. An example of the Sevin dust is here http://www.acehardware.com/product/...494&KPID=1109429&kpid=1109429&pla=pla_1109429.

I thought that this may have been Marek's, but she surprisingly pulled through and outlived (so far) the deaths of two light brahma's that we had. She's definitely a trooper. Get her off legs for a little while, and make sure she can poop. You may have to take her out and give her a bath every now and then, as due to the position of the elevation, the poop more than likely will stick to her feathers.

Let me know if this helps at all!

 

[Chickem707]

I have this as well, she’s been like this for almost 2 months. I don’t want to give up, but today I found her doing the splits.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I have this as well, she’s been like this for almost 2 months. I don’t want to give up, but today I found her doing the splits.

I'm sorry she is not getting any better.
What have you tried so far as treatment?
What are you feeding her?

It looks like she has curled toes which would be a genetic deformity. You probably won't be able to correct those.
She may have Marek's, it would be hard to know without testing.

With the splits now and her not getting better, it sounds like she is declining.
She is your bird, but if she has been like this for 2 months with no signs of improvement, consideration for her quality of life needs to be considered.

You can try placing her in a sling, adding a good poultry vitamin to her weekly care and see that she is eating chick starter and drinking. A sling helps keep them upright and a little cleaner, but with the toes being like that, even if she gains back the use of her legs, she may have difficulty moving around.

I'm very sorry.