Mostly Lame BR Hen

[Beth K.]

My Barred Rock hen Klutzy has been having difficulty walking for at least a year now. (She's 19 months old.) It seemed that she could not hold her tail up. When she was 6-7 months old I was holding her and she jumped down and crash-landed, plowing face-first into the ground.

The past 2 nights she has slept on the floor of the coop; usually she sleeps on the roost and just waits for me to get her down in the mornings. Today, especially, she seems much worse. She can't more than a few steps at a time using her wings for balance/propulsion. It's so sad to watch her get stepped on because she can't move out of the way. The base of her keel towards the vent is somewhat red and irritated, with intact but dirty feathers from dragging around. Is that just irritation from not being able to walk properly and laying around?

Any ideas what is going on? Injury or disease? She doesn't have any other problems that I can see. Is this a deficiency of some sort?

Here is a picture of her from January 30th of this year.



She is so sweet and a real trooper. She knows not to fight with the other chickens for treats, but to wait for me to give her her own. She likes to be held and "talks" a lot. I'm probably going to put her in the little broody coop so she has a protected space that accommodates her limited mobility.

Thanks for any and all suggestions!

 

[casportpony]

She looks egg bound. Glove up with lube and check! Maybe a tumor? Maybe Marek's?

If you find an egg, read:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/738201/goose-what-is-this-how-did-it-happen-what-do-i-do-about-it

 

[Beth K.]

Could she be egg bound for a year and not die? She poops normally.

I was looking at pictures of her, and in January of 2012, she looked fine. But around March, her bum was drooping. I wonder if it's from the time she jumped off my arm and landed really badly.

 

[Beth K.]

If it is a tumor or Marek's disease, what should I look for?

I can't imagine that she could go downhill so suddenly, plateau for a year, then go farther downhill if it's disease. I'm not ruling it out, I just think it's some unhealed injury from a year ago.

 

[casportpony]

If it is a tumor or Marek's disease, what should I look for? 

I can't imagine that she could go downhill so suddenly, plateau for a year, then go farther downhill if it's disease.  I'm not ruling it out, I just think it's some unhealed injury from a year ago.

I've got to run errands, but Marek's can do that. Just FYI...

 

[casportpony]

If it is a tumor or Marek's disease, what should I look for? 

I can't imagine that she could go downhill so suddenly, plateau for a year, then go farther downhill if it's disease.  I'm not ruling it out, I just think it's some unhealed injury from a year ago.

I've got to run errands, but Marek's can do that. Just FYI...

 

[Beth K.]

Well, I would think if it's Marek's that it would be the neural form. Here's a list of the typical symptoms with Klutzy's symptoms in (parentheses).

• Progressive paralysis, usually of the leg or wing, a typical leg-paralysis victim will have one leg extended forward and one leg extended back. (She shuffles around and mostly sits but does NOT sit with one leg forward and one leg back.)
• Weight loss (No.)
• Labored breathing (I don't think so.)
• Diarrhea (Haven't seen her poo for a while, I'll check.)
• Starvation and death due to an inability to reach feed and water and to trampling by penmates (She is slightly bullied, but it's not that bad. She still bosses my BO, Stuckie, around. She did have some trouble with the waterer today)

I'm really hoping it's injury or vitamin deficiency. I don't want to lose my sweet girl.

Also, she's the only one out of my 19 chickens with any trouble. The other 18 are really healthy.

Could it be Salpingitis? She does stand like a penguin.

 

[Beth K.]

Okay, she is doing a lot better now. I've been doing some "physical therapy" kind of stuff and it seems to be helping. I'm holding her up so she can use her legs normally and remember how she's supposed to stand. Also, she laid an egg yesterday!

Hopefully she'll continue to regain her walking abilities.