Patrick M Chickens
Hatching
- May 9, 2025
- 1
- 0
- 2
Hello!
I’m curious if someone could identify what may be going on here. I have a flock of a couple dozen hens that are 3 years old and one large dark Brahma began showing signs of lameness about a year ago. She is extremely large for her breed (we thought she was a rooster for quite a while) so we equated the lameness to a potential genetic issue. However, it has been slowly getting worse to the point where she still walks and hangs with the crowd but doesn’t perch at night and recently prefers to lay down when she eats mealworms. While I thought this was an isolated issue I was surprised to see one of our light brahmas exhibiting similar symptoms out of the blue by wobbling around somewhat, dipping her tail, and occasionally laying down to eat today. Does anyone have any ideas on what this could be?
They are fed a seed mix and mealworms as a main diet with access to clean water and a green pasture. They are also dewormed with SafeGuard monthly.
After doing some initial research we considered Merck disease but it seems odd that the first hen has had signs for over a year. We also used to live in an area with a lot of ticks, could it be some kind of Lyme disease? And suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
I’m curious if someone could identify what may be going on here. I have a flock of a couple dozen hens that are 3 years old and one large dark Brahma began showing signs of lameness about a year ago. She is extremely large for her breed (we thought she was a rooster for quite a while) so we equated the lameness to a potential genetic issue. However, it has been slowly getting worse to the point where she still walks and hangs with the crowd but doesn’t perch at night and recently prefers to lay down when she eats mealworms. While I thought this was an isolated issue I was surprised to see one of our light brahmas exhibiting similar symptoms out of the blue by wobbling around somewhat, dipping her tail, and occasionally laying down to eat today. Does anyone have any ideas on what this could be?
They are fed a seed mix and mealworms as a main diet with access to clean water and a green pasture. They are also dewormed with SafeGuard monthly.
After doing some initial research we considered Merck disease but it seems odd that the first hen has had signs for over a year. We also used to live in an area with a lot of ticks, could it be some kind of Lyme disease? And suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
