Multiple chicks suddenly cannot walk?

[Baggagolers]

About a month ago, I posted about a chick that suddenly could not walk and flopped around. Some helpful folks and research convinced us that is was vitamin deficiency. However after giving it polyvisol (w/o iron) and vitamin E with selenium, it hasn't really improved. It actually has begun to go cross beaked and its growth may be stunted.Now to make it worse, this week we found that one of its half sisters can't walk either. Both chicks share the same father, a silkie, and have sebrite mothers. Is this something genetic or a disease? The chicks are about six or seven weeks old as of right now. We don't want to have to cull them but we're not so sure that they're going to get better. Any suggestions? Anyone have something similar to this?

 

[miraclepooch]

are the chicks in a brooder? if so what bedding are you using?

 

[Baggagolers]

No, they are not in a brooder, but we used straw for the coop they and their mother were in.

 

[Baggagolers]

Anyone?

 

[Eggcessive]

I don't have any suggestions except treating with vitamins and making sure their chick crumbles are fresh (many feedstores will sell old food which can lose vitamin potency fast.) A crossbeak chick will not get better, but you can wet their food and feed out of a bowl with higher side to make it easy for them. Sometimes these problems are genetic and sometimes they can be vitamin or incubator-related. Here is a good site with instructions on many foot and leg problems: https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

 

[Baggagolers]

Update: both chickens have now passed away, one naturally and one had to be put down. We still don't know what caused it and are curious to find out to prevent it from happening again.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry for your loss.