Leg help

[guinealeghorn]

Hi. I have a chicken who had a vitamin deficiency. It affected his leg, making it hard for him to walk. Now he holds the leg out in front of him, his good leg behind him. He sidesteps to walk. I was wondering if I could tie a strip of fabric or something around the two legs so he holds them underneath him. Please help me!

 

[MissNutmeg]

Have you treated him yet for the vitamin deficiency?

 

[guinealeghorn]

Yes, we have treated him for almost a year now. He is doing better than before, and still gets the vitamins in his water.

 

[bflfcoop]

Hey there...I am having issues with one of my welsummer chicks....how did you know what vit deficiency?

 

[bflfcoop]

Basically she has almost no control of her legs, they are like gumby legs. She eats and drinks fine, she will go to a corner to use the walls to prop herself up. If I put her in the middle of the cage she flops and flaps and hurry to a corner to lean on. When I pick her up,her legs just dangle below herm....although he can pick them up and kick and move them....she can stand on occasion, but gives up as the wobbles are too much, her thing to eat and balance...or drink and balance with her gumby legs.....so she just plops down. One day she was flying around....running, acting like everyone else, perching on my arm, and the next day, she had gumby legs.

 

[guinealeghorn]

Mine was the same way. We figured out that he most likely had a vitamin b12 deficiency. You should look I to that. I hope yours does better than mine!

 

[bflfcoop]

@guinealeghorn you've treated it for a year!?!? How bad was yours? This is a chick...about a month old....and the only comfortable position she can be in, where it doesn't strain any other part of her body, is legit doing a split. She has one leg in front and one leg out behind her. I massage and bed her legs a few times a day, because she can not move. Since it happened she has gotten no better or no worse. She just sits in a big clear Tupperware thing and I have food and water directly in front of her. I would do it for however long it takes....but was yours that bad....actually couldn't even move? I've propped her up, ice wrapped a towel into a log and sat her upright and put it between her legs, I have positioned her like a ragdoll, in every position I can think of and when I come nack, she is always in the splits position...and I had to move the water away when I put her in a position, because I came back to check on her 10 minutes later once...and she was practically drowning in a half inch dish of vitamin etc water because she tried to move, and got stuck. So I leave her in the splits, but move her legs and such so they don't get stuff, and also to keep them being able to bend.I am thinking of calling a house call farm vet but I'm afraid he's going to tell me to put her down, where you have been helping yours for a year!! So really my question is, how bad was yours? Was yours that young? A friend of mine said she might grow like that and get stuck like that. She is so sweet...never has been afraid of me I hold her and carry her around so she doesn't get "depressed" just sitting there. I Put her box outside on the deck every day it's warm and take it in in the evening....I don't want to put her down....if it just means serious diligence on my part. I would end her life because it would be "too much work" anytime I had a bird that was hurt, I swear....the more love they get, they quicker they heal. I have chicks from the same clutch eat the same amount of food and everything is the same...but I pick a few and handle them everyday, and they grow bigger faster and are more well rounded. I have no problem helping her for a year...even if I were to have to syringe vitamins supplements into her every day to make sure she is getting enougg....as I don't think k she drinks that much as she isn't doing anything!

 

[guinealeghorn]

Mine was about a month old. He is sitting just like yours, but he can walk. He can even fly a little! When we noticed something was wrong, he was alreadalready having a hard time walking. He is getting better, if we could only get his legs underneath him. I had one that had a lar problem, but wcaught it t away. That chicken recovered fairly quickly.

 

[rebrascora]

Have you researched Marek's disease. One leg forward and one back is quite a classic symptom(Marek's splits posture) . Some strains of the virus are very aggressive and kill quite quickly but others cause paralysis from which they sometimes have partial or full recovery. I've had young birds with it be fine one day, lame and floundering on the ground the next and 2-3 days later, completely recovered and others that took months of supportive care but eventually managed to free range albeit still with a limp. One bird learned to lift her gammy leg up out of the way and hopped everywhere. I've had others that didn't recover and once they stop eating I cull them as it usually means they have internal tumours.

 

[bflfcoop]

@rebrascora yes yes....I have a super detailed post on another thread about this..I was just curious about guinealeghorn and treating the bird for a year!!! But yea, what I had said on the other thread is...she was vaccinated for maereks.disease. although, that doesn't mean anything to me, because it just prevents it from progressing to cancerous tumors and HELPS with immunity AND it's only for the strain vaccinated for. I'm not a fan of vaccinations, but she did get vaccinated. She was with hundreds of other birds, and being a vertical contagion, the other chicks, chickens, roos, everyone absolutely would have come in contact with her dander, shoot, all those other chicks came in contact with HER. Chicks I have hatched out have been in contact with her. The brooder room has rows and rows of baby birds, no one else is sick. There are many other things with 'one leg in front, one leg behind' she isn't doing the splits like maereks.disease, she can have her legs in front of her, and really it's just her left leg that goes behind her. SHE puts herself in the 'splits' because it is the only thing comfortable for her. Her right leg isn't really split out in front...it's bent.....looks more like this....

that is just to show you it, I don't believe this is what is wrong, I can bend her leg joint and I don't feel any "snapping" of the tendon. I feel like it's a vitamin deficiency. I made her a chair to sit in and I put food and water on the shelf, and she eats and drinks from it, but not being active, she isn't eating as much as I would like her to...so I pipe a concentrated amount of vitamins into her, and I pipe in feed that I've dissolved in vitamin water. I always hatch my own birds, but against my better judgement, I ordered a few from a hatchery I won't name. Never. Again. The hens there have no forage and are just fed layer feed, they can be deficient, and pass it on to the chick, it can develop leg deformities, and how are they ever going to know? The average hatchery buying person has no idea. This particular hatchery pushed their vitamin solution. It's practically written on every page of their catalog and they highly suggest it when you call. Well that's weird...I've hatched hundreds upon hundreds of chicks, and I've never had any issues ever...nor do I suggest it to anyone who buys chicks from me or adult birds. I keep in contact with those people, I have them send me pictures and some send me Christmas cards and such!! (To some it might seem a bit excessive but not to me, I want to see what all my stock look Ike as they grow,and be there for the buyers if anything should happen or they have questions. My hens and roosters are fed organic feed and free range. Not free range in a run, but free range all over the farm. They balance themselves....hatchery birds, who knows what their genetics are. Ive seen "blue cochins" with MASSIVE red leakage, like bright red fans on their wings (not like barely visible on one feather tip, I mean massive obvious leakage) and my friend who has them says "isn't he so pretty?" Well yes...but that is the problem, these hatcheries just pump out a gazillion birds and they are NOT breeding for superior genetics and heath. This leg thing has got me fired up. It isn't hard to be a responsible breeder, of ANYTHING. like the German Shepherds of america...crap! Backyard breederso and puppy mills (like hatcheries!!! ) just breed to make babies to make money. With no regard to health. European and German German shepherds are nothing like AKC show shepherds or back yard bred shepherds. They have a higher standard...if the dog doesn't pass certain tests, it doesn't breed! Here...it's like Bob and Susan have dogs, let's breed them because we can. Now the norm, is these crappy dogs. Same with the birds. I've never come across so many 'issues' with chicks as I have when dealing with hatchery chicks. I am having the farm vet out this week to see if he can do anything better, maybe he can give some Badge vitamin injections, or perhaps he will tell me the leg is too far gone. I guess then I'll have to strap her to a remote control race car so she can feel like she can get around (haha joking) but I am hopeful after hearing about @guinealeghorn and how they treated for a year....I would do the same!!the poor girls' leg kind of 'buzzes' she can move them from the hip, she paddles them, but the joint down seems to get locked. She will sit on her hocks, but she maneuvers herself in the one leg under her and one leg back, so she can lay down and so she can reach the food and water (before I made the chair) with the left leg under her at a 90 degree angle, she can't reach the food, her body won't bend that way, so she leans on her side, flings the messed up leg under and back, then rolls back onto it and then eats and drinks. It's like locked at the hock so she can't kean forward, but I can bend it and move it in its normal range, but she can't, so she flings it out of the way, and is more comfortable that way.