Limpin Chicken....

[dlhunicorn]

She might benefit from vitamins (serious vitamin deficiencies can produce serious symptoms and even kill)
Polyvisol Enfamil formulation (no iron) is a childrens liquid vitamin and you can give three to four drops a day for a week then taper off the next.

Do you give a lot of treats? If so then stop. You can mix just enough human oatmeal (cooked in plain water no salt) in with the feed to make it clump.

 

[ChickenBarn]

As for her weight, she has always been the fattest of my reds ( I have 6). Through the last 2 weeks or so since this all started, she doesn't seem to be getting any smaller, trust me I have to carry the little piggy everywhere.....Her diet has always consisted of premium layer feed and hardly no treats at all. She has had a few grapes a time or two and some watermelon once. I am pretty strict with my ladies.

When I set her outside she still picks at grass and flops around the yard to find shade. But for the most part she stays in one spot. We have her in the kitchen and don't even put up a baby gate or anything she just sits.

Her feathers still look good, and she seems very alert, not at all groggy. I have had her on Terramycin for the last 3 days but nothing seems to have changed. She doesn't seem to be in pain at all, and she still talks to me when I walk in the room.

I am really at a loss as to what to do with her. How long do I give her to recover? If I cull her, is there a chance she is diseased, and therefor cannot be consumed.....how horrible to think that I would eat her, but I was raised not to waste......????? I can't bury her around here, to many critters. Do I just throw her in the trash. AAAAArrrgghhhhhhh this shouldn't be so hard.

IF ANYONE HAS SEEN THIS OR SOMETHING SIMILAR.....Please Please I need some input.......

Thanks
Clint

 

[dlhunicorn]

I really think it is some kind of deficiency... try the polyvisol. (There are several things that might have influenced absortion causing deficiency)... If not a deficiency it might possibly be something like viral arthritis?
http://www.worldpoultry.net/avian_curled_toe_paralysis/


http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/5/451
(excerpt)
"....It has been demonstrated that a low riboflavin diet may cause two types of a nutritional deficiency. One of these produces a rapidly acute paralysis characterized as neuromalacia and a more slowly developing form which causes ‘curled toe’ paralysis in the growing chick. These symptoms can be prevented by the addition of crystalline riboflavin to the basal diet. .........."

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/206930.htm
MERCK Veterinary Manual

 

[ChickenBarn]

GoodBye my Sweet HoneyComb

It was a long 3 weeks of hoping, but she never got any better. Her legs were virtually paralyzed and she couldn't defend herself. I had to cull her tonight........

Thats the life of a chicken farmer......