Hello all. Newer to chickens here. Here is a bit of our flock history for you.
Last May we bought 6 hens from an amish farmer to skip the chick process. All laying well except one, Elaina. From what we can tell she has never laid for us but she is the friendliest hen here...we just love her. By summer we had bought four more from a friend. These were a bit young and turned out one was a roo. All healthy birds and everyone laying except Elaina and the roo.
We homeschool 6 children and adore our chickens so decided to take on the adventure of incubating some of our now fertalized eggs. The entire process went great. I collected and added 18 eggs after a friend told me to incubate a LOT because most would not hatch. HA right 15 hatched...lol. One little one got trampled by the others and died but other than that the other 14 seemed to be thriving. They are 12 weeks old and in the coop now. 5 days ago I noticed one hobbling. We found her foot curled under and she was not walking on it. Thinking I may have stepped on her during all the commotion that takes place with so many young ones I took her in, straightened her foot, made a little splint and wrapped her foot. She is in the coop but separated from the others. Last night I let her out to check on her. She is still using her wing to get around but noticed her other good leg slipping behind her...like she was doing a split at times. Trying not to panic. I did see she was pushing off with that leg so not sure if it was slipping behind her or if paralysis is spreading through both legs. With us hatching them here I am wondering how it would be Mereks. Would I have seen symptoms in my older birds? Is it possible it is in my older flock but they are showing no signs and this little girl is not well enough to fight it off? As anyone would be I am concerned about the rest of my flock. Any advice would be so greatly appreciated.
Last May we bought 6 hens from an amish farmer to skip the chick process. All laying well except one, Elaina. From what we can tell she has never laid for us but she is the friendliest hen here...we just love her. By summer we had bought four more from a friend. These were a bit young and turned out one was a roo. All healthy birds and everyone laying except Elaina and the roo.
We homeschool 6 children and adore our chickens so decided to take on the adventure of incubating some of our now fertalized eggs. The entire process went great. I collected and added 18 eggs after a friend told me to incubate a LOT because most would not hatch. HA right 15 hatched...lol. One little one got trampled by the others and died but other than that the other 14 seemed to be thriving. They are 12 weeks old and in the coop now. 5 days ago I noticed one hobbling. We found her foot curled under and she was not walking on it. Thinking I may have stepped on her during all the commotion that takes place with so many young ones I took her in, straightened her foot, made a little splint and wrapped her foot. She is in the coop but separated from the others. Last night I let her out to check on her. She is still using her wing to get around but noticed her other good leg slipping behind her...like she was doing a split at times. Trying not to panic. I did see she was pushing off with that leg so not sure if it was slipping behind her or if paralysis is spreading through both legs. With us hatching them here I am wondering how it would be Mereks. Would I have seen symptoms in my older birds? Is it possible it is in my older flock but they are showing no signs and this little girl is not well enough to fight it off? As anyone would be I am concerned about the rest of my flock. Any advice would be so greatly appreciated.
