limping chickens. mystery illness!?

French Chicks

In the Brooder
7 Years
May 12, 2012
16
0
22
hi all,
something strange is happening in my garden and i dont know what. i need a chicken guru to help!

so last saturday one of our chickens died. she had been acting tired for a few days. she became slow and lethargic but was still drinking. she would lay down for rests much more often than usual. her poops went white and watery, though maybe since she was drinking lots. i dont think she was laying eggs, we had 3 birds so it is hard to tell who lays what sometimes. i found her face down with her legs in the air which was odd since she had been laying down in her run for some time.
the same day, since we noticed she was getting worse, we had started to give our 3 girls worming treatment in case this was an issue though i hadnt seen any worms in their poop.

on this day the other 2 chickens were fine. i think egg production has been down a bit for a few weeks but they are still laying. at least one of them is, every other day.
today, 4 days later, i notice the other two are both limping. clearly and obviously. from their left legs. they are still having the worming treatment, it is every day for 7 days in their water.

is this likely to be something we could have done?too much worming treatment?! not cleaned their bedding often enough? we do try and keep it all clean but they do still like to poop in their coop. we havent been bathing them, and they do have poopey bottoms sometimes, but is this unhealthy?? apart from their limp they seem fine and active.
i guess i just worry this is the start of the end for them too....


they free range sometimes, but i dont see how they could have both hurt their left legs or feet at the same time?!
their usual run doesnt have anything new or sharp.
we cant see any injuries on them.


would be glad to hear your thoughts....
 
Limping chickens could mean a vitamin deficiency, poisoning or mold, or Marek's.

Some birds flip around when they die.

We need more information. How old, how long have you had them, did you buy them all together, are they on medicated feed, is there something bad they could have eaten?
 
They are just over 2 years old. We have had them 2 years.
They have normal dry food designed for layers. Plus kitchen scraps. Nothing unusual lately.
 
A friends chicken was limping, and then went very weak and wanted to sit down all the time, I separated her from the rest so that she didn't get knocked around by the others and didn't have to get up the ladder to roost ( I did it all as owner wouldn't bother!) I then took advice from this site about vitimins, I gave 1 crushed and vit B tab every day and the contents of vit E capsule every other day for about two weeks, I put her back with the others for short times during the day so that they didn't forget her and she gradually got strong again, she is looking quite normal now except her tail is slightly down and she is not laying as yet, hopefully she will start again
smile.png
 
so we bathed the chickens today and were sad to see they have very red skin underneath. burn from amonia maybe.
we have a chicken house like this inside > http://www.google.fr/imgres?q=insid...w=158&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:74


we had been having some cold weather so had put some straw on the bars during the night. i think this was our mistake. we had been doing it all winter, thinking we were helping keep them cosy. but now i think it is what has made them unwell, it meant the waste couldnt escape and it burnt them. so sad. sorry chickens!
i still do not know why they are limping as such, but we bathed them and applied some sudocrem, diaper cream, to sooth the redness. hoping this will help them.
 
oh i am not sure...let me see if Pearl has gone to bed yet so we can check....i certainly didnt see any big lumps or anything that looked obvious...brb
 

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