cgoodenough
Hatching
- Jan 27, 2015
- 2
- 0
- 7
Hi everyone. New poster here (although I've come here for information often), and I have a sick chicken. I have scoured the forums here and elsewhere, searched high and low on the interweb, and I keep coming to the conclusion it's Marek's, except that makes no sense, except that nothing else (i.e., botulism) makes sense either.
It started about 2 weeks ago: Julia (that's her in my avatar in happier times) started favoring her right (I think) leg. She was limping and unreliable in landing if she jumped down from perching on top of our backyard chicken tractor. This got worse over several days and she seemed to spend all day sitting, although she could, and still can, stand if she puts her mind to it.
I brought her into the garage in our chicken hospital tub a week ago. She eats a little, drinks a little, poops a little, and clucks happily enough when I go talk to her, but she rarely stands, and doesn't walk.
I take her out to the yard in the afternoons if I'm home (I don't want to leave her out there defenseless so I either stay outside or where I can hear if there is any commotion), and she will usually stand up briefly and flap her wings, then sit for the duration. While sitting she will root around in the grass for bugs.
Her legs seem limp-ish when I pick her up. The main thing that seems amiss is that her claws don't close into their normal, relaxed curl, but stay splayed and straight. Now her wings seem a little droopy to me.
So that's Marek's, right? Except that she's 6 years old, was vaccinated, and everything doesn't quite add up, does it?
Maybe it's just old chicken behavior?
Sorry for the ramble. Any ideas are welcome!
C
It started about 2 weeks ago: Julia (that's her in my avatar in happier times) started favoring her right (I think) leg. She was limping and unreliable in landing if she jumped down from perching on top of our backyard chicken tractor. This got worse over several days and she seemed to spend all day sitting, although she could, and still can, stand if she puts her mind to it.
I brought her into the garage in our chicken hospital tub a week ago. She eats a little, drinks a little, poops a little, and clucks happily enough when I go talk to her, but she rarely stands, and doesn't walk.
I take her out to the yard in the afternoons if I'm home (I don't want to leave her out there defenseless so I either stay outside or where I can hear if there is any commotion), and she will usually stand up briefly and flap her wings, then sit for the duration. While sitting she will root around in the grass for bugs.
Her legs seem limp-ish when I pick her up. The main thing that seems amiss is that her claws don't close into their normal, relaxed curl, but stay splayed and straight. Now her wings seem a little droopy to me.
So that's Marek's, right? Except that she's 6 years old, was vaccinated, and everything doesn't quite add up, does it?
Maybe it's just old chicken behavior?
Sorry for the ramble. Any ideas are welcome!
C