lose of balance, appetite, open mouth breathing

[Cellomama2]

Well unless she was really tired because it was so late or she was scared for some reason, I don't know, but I could feel her shivering tonight when I was making sure she got her night time food and water.

 

[rebrascora]

She is showing classic Marek's symptoms. She is the right age for Marek's and she came from a private breeder. You have had other chicks of a juvenile age die..... all of these things point a long finger at Marek's being the cause. My gut feeling is that she has a tumour on her lungs causing the open mouth breathing.

Marek's compromises the immune system so infected birds can die from ailments that they would normally be able to shrug off or have developed resistance to. The paralysis Sassy is showing is more or less a text book symptom, but some birds with Marek's don't develop paralysis. Some die suddenly with tumours on internal organs or develop infections. Marek's birds are usually smaller and underweight and the disease also causes muscle wastage.

I had one that was nearly as bad as that and I nursed her through two attacks of it. The first she recovered after a couple of days, the second took months of supportive care and good food/vitamin supplements to support the immune system, probiotics to support the digestive system and sunshine and grass whenever possible. I would put her out on the lawn in a cage and scatter scratch in and around the cage so that the other hens came and foraged around her and at night I removed the cage and encouraged her to make her way back to the coop. She slowly regained significant use of her legs although never totally sound, but it was hard to watch her floundering during the first few weeks of this therapy.

You could make Sassy more comfortable by constructing her a simple chicken sling or hammock. If you do a search, you will find images of both quite professional but also simple DIY examples made with everyday items. You can clip/fasten little empty yoghurt pots onto the frame and put food and water in them so that she can more easily feed herself. Keeping her upright in a supported position will help both with her digestive system and breathing. I would give her the opportunity to fight it as long as she is showing an interest in food, but be prepared to end it when she will no longer eat as they go down hill quickly after that.

Good luck with her

Barbara

PS. There is every chance that she is feeling the cold even in summer. Sick birds often become hypothermic, especially if she is losing body condition, so providing her with a heat source will make her more comfortable.

 

[Cellomama2]

Well yesterday I was cleaning out the cages of the two girls I have inside at the moment and noticed that Sassy was all of a sudden standing high enough to look out of the box I had her in and once she saw that I was in the room she tried to jump out at me. I had gone to the store not knowing exactly which B vitamin to buy and ended up going with a vitamin B complex. I've been grinding that up and mixing some in with her water for the last three days and she is surprisingly regaining some balance but is not close enough for a decent quality of life if she stops improving.

 

[azygous]

This made my day! Very encouraging. I expect you'll see Sassy continue to improve to have a mostly normal life.

Here is a very good article on Marek's https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/ and ways to test for it and ways to treat a chicken that is showing symptoms like Sassy.

In short, you may be able to have Sassy's blood tested for DNA markers for Marek's, but I suspect it's pricey. Continuing the B vitamins is an excellent way to help repair the neurological damage she's suffered and increase the chances of a full recovery, though she'll still carry the virus, if that's what's behind this.

The article also goes into great detail about things that can produce these symptoms besides Marek's.

 

[Cellomama2]

I actually found and read most of that but I must have missed parts. I'll go back and look at it again today.

 

[Cellomama2]

I had another one of our chickens in with Sassy that had developed a limp and that seemed to perk her up quite a bit but I found that chicken dead yesterday morning and now Sassy seems to be regressing. She still likes to talk to me when I come in but she isn't trying to walk around as much and seems less steady on her feet. I'm going to try to get one of our more social girls to maybe hang out with her for a while to see if that perks her up but otherwise I'm thinking she unfortunately may be at the point that shes done fighting.

 

[azygous]

Please get a necropsy on that chicken that just died so you know what you're dealing with.

 

[rebrascora]

I would say that a second young chicken with a limp that has now died pretty much confirms it is Marek's but I also would urge you to get it tested.

 

[Cellomama2]

Already planned on that.

 

[azygous]

When the results come back, we're here to support you.