Marek's?

[azygous]

That video was very helpful. She is a cute little thing, and it is very sad seeing her struggle so.

Were any the the inflicted chickens, including this one, more affected on one leg than the other? As they advanced in symptoms, did one leg go completely paralyzed before both did?

 

[MotherHen999]

I know, and her tiny little cheep is so cute.

No it doesn't seem like it, it seems both legs and not wings at all. Was just trying to find you a video of the first one but it's on my old (destroyed) phone unfortunately.

Vet gave antibiotics and chicken paracetamol, I did the "feed egg, nutridrench" routine but she never got better.

It's becoming disheartening, I want to chicken math but don't want a dead chicken every few months

 

[azygous]

What about poop? Normal or diarrhea? Weight loss? Did any chickens go completely lame with total loss of leg movement?

Were all of the afflicted chickens over a year old?

I'm suspecting an avian virus, maybe Marek's, but due to the age of this one and if the others were all around this age, five months to a year or older, it may be lymphoid leucosis.

The only way to know is to get a necropsy from an animal testing lab or open up the dead chicken and check the organs yourself. While Marek's is difficult to see the most defining characteristic, an inflamed sciatic nerve, lymphoid leucosis is very obvious most of the time - a grossly enlarged liver, usually dotted with tiny white tumors all over.

 

[azygous]

Are you getting older chickens or baby chicks? Are they all from the same source? Private breeder or large hatchery? Or from hatching eggs you incubated yourself?

 

[MotherHen999]

No, never completely lame just withered away and fould dead in the coop overnight, pretty quickly from onset too. All older than 5 months: about 10m 14m and now this little honey. All different breeds, but all from the same breeder.
The first one had diarrhoea but the other two have just had normal poops.
Lymphoid leucosis - I'll look this up, thank you.
I haven't decided yet, have hatched some last year before all this happened and they are absolutely fine. Any recommendation?

 

[MotherHen999]

My only real option is private breeder as I don't have any large hatcheries for quite some distance near me. The other plan was ex batts as I know they'll be vaccinated

 

[azygous]

I was asking about hatching eggs because Marek's and leucosis transmit differently as far as eggs. While leucosis is passed from an infected hen to her eggs and infecting the embyos, Marek's does not. Both are passed directly from chicken to chicken. If one chicken has it, they all carry it. Therefore, if all of these chickens were hatched from eggs you bought and incubated yourself, this didn't come from the eggs if it's Marek's. It could be leucosis, however.

I have sixteen years experience with leucosis as I have it in my flock. I've hatched within my flock as well as obtained hatchery chicks. There is almost no chance of hatchery chicks coming to you carrying leucosis. But if you bought older chickens from the breeder, they may have flocks that are carrying this virus. The most recent of my chickens to become symptomatic and die all were hatchery chicks brooded by a symptomatic hen. They were infected directly and all became partially lame at between five and eight months. The chickens hatched from my flock have become symptomatic at around one year. All died except for two that are still alive at seven years.

The only other thing that could produce these symptoms is gradual toxin exposure, usually petroleum distillates - everything from pant thinner to transmission fluid. From what I'm already picking up from you, you are not the sort to be careless with those substances in proximity to your chickens.

If her fate is the same as the others, she also will die. You might be fortunate to have an agricultural college or other animal lab that can do a necropsy. Then you will have confirmation of an avian virus or what ever else may have killed these chickens.

Please continue this thread and document what happens. It's a big help to others who may be in similar circumstances.