Missing Toe? ( w/ pics)

[Landerb]

My serama frizzle has been sick for nearly 3 weeks now, and among other symptoms, when she tries to stand she leans to the left & falls over. The vet originally said it was bc she was too weak, but last night as I was tube feeding her, I noticed for the first time that she appears to be missing a toe on her left foot. I’m almost certain she had 4 toes before, but we never saw any blood and there’s no sign of a wound on the toe (as best I can tell) so it’s a bit of a mystery.

I guess I’m wondering if (a) if anyone has seen something like this before; (b) could it be causing her to have balance issues; and (c) if it was lost & had an open wound, could she have gotten an infection in it that caused her to get so sick without it showing in the toe (inflammation, etc)?

 

[Eggcessive]

I don’t see any sign of a wound or injury. In northern climates frostbite can cause toes to drop off, but in your location, a crush injury or a rat bite might be a cause of a missing toe. If you cannot see a healing wound, then the toe may have always been missing. Balance issues could be from a number of causes. Was she vaccinated for Mareks disease? How old is she? Does she limp? How does her crop feel very early in the morning before she eats or is tube fed? What do you feed her?

 

[Landerb]

I don’t see any sign of a wound or injury. In northern climates frostbite can cause toes to drop off, but in your location, a crush injury or a rat bite might be a cause of a missing toe. If you cannot see a healing wound, then the toe may have always been missing. Balance issues could be from a number of causes. Was she vaccinated for Mareks disease? How old is she? Does she limp? How does her crop feel very early in the morning before she eats or is tube fed? What do you feed her?

I recently found out she was never vaccinated for Marek’s and I’m scared to death that’s what she has.

She is about 7 months. The problems started when she laid her first eggs on January 2 (a sign of Marek’s from what I’ve read). She had already been acting a bit off, so we isolated her to give her a chance to rest in a warm, comfy environment. Unfortunately, We hadn’t been feeding her calcium bc I had read that if a pullet is late starting to lay, it could be bc it’s winter and she’d probably start when it warmed up a bit. Obviously, that was wrong. She laid her third egg on January 3 and it was soft shelled. By Monday even big when I got home from work she hadn’t pooped all day, was lethargic, and wasn’t eating. I hopped on BYC and after some research, became convinced she was egg bound. Monday night I did all of the things— oral calcium, hot bath, lube, etc but no egg. I didn’t feel an egg, either, but I’m still new, so I thought maybe it was just another soft one.

Tuesday morning I took her to the vet bc she still hadn’t pooped and I was really starting to worry. The vet said she wasn’t egg bound, that she probably had an infection in her reproductive system, and put her on speclinx-50.

Wednesday morning she STILL hadn’t pooped and was showing all of the signs of being eggbound, so I made an appt at a different vet. Then she had a huge poop and laid a soft egg, but we went to the vet anyway since we already had the appt and she was still not eating or drinking much.

That vet did a fecal test and said he found lots of cocci, so he put her on albon for 6 days. We continued to do that, with me trying to feed her with a syringe, but she didn’t seem to be getting any better and sometimes after we gave her the medicine her head involuntarily twitched for a few hours after.

Fast forward to Monday, January 11th, and she was clearly not getting better & was wasting away, so at my follow up appt with the first vet I asked him to teach me how to tube feed her. She had lost 1/6th of her body weight. He agreed and put her on Baytril, still believing it was some kind of infection. He said I should start seeing real improvement in 3-4 days.

We saw tiny improvement, but not much. He was surprised, and when I told him I thought had had lime green poop like her organs were shutting down, he had me bring her back in on January 19th. She pooped at the vet and he said it was fine, just normal diarrhea and the color was a product of the baby parrot food we were giving her and that she still didn’t She was still having all of the same issues, so he added clavamox to her Regimen.

Until today, the only difference I’d seen in her condition was she was pooping a lot more. She went from once a day to 6-7. But today she started intermittently open-mouth breathing (sort of— it’s something in between chickens “panting” and opening their mouths to adjust their crops) and that has me really worried.

And she’s not paralyzed, exactly— she kicks her legs out, flaps her wings, and tries to stand up and get away when we are tube feeding her and will wrap her feet around my fingers when I pick her up. Her eyes look normal. She appears to be conscious and alert. No discharge from eyes or nose. No sounds of respiratory Illness. Her crop fills up and empties like normal.

 

[Eggcessive]

I really don’t know what is wrong with her. I would not assume that she has Mareks yet. She is having problems with shell-less eggs and has had coccidiosis. She might have problems with her immunity, or she may just not be a healthy chicken. It could turn out to be Mareks down the road, but I just don’t know. There is a blood test that can be done by you at home to rule out Mareks, if you wish to do that. It costs about $38. Since you have been seeing a vet and are tube feeding ner, I would continue with that. Here is a link for PCR Mareks testing and their contact info:
http://www.vetdna.com/application/forms/aviansubmittalform.pdf

 

[Landerb]

Thank you for all of this information. Any thoughts on What to do about the open mouth breathing? That really worries me.

 

[nikolairapunzel]

How is your chicken doing now?

 

[Chickenwingwing]

@Landerb

 

[nikolairapunzel]

@Landerb

Thanks! I didn't realize I replied to the wrong person

 

[Chickenwingwing]

Thanks! I didn't realize I replied to the wrong person

Oh no sorry, I just have personally experienced losing notifications for my own threads so I thought it would be helpful to tag the OP