My bantam Cochin lil peep lost function in her leg last week but mareks wasn’t found in my other two quarantines who passed last month- vitamin b def?

crysticalll

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Aug 15, 2020
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One week ago My chicken sitter sent me a video that one of my girls in the quarantine coop/run is limping and not putting weight on her left leg.
Backstory: I’ve had these three babies in the quarantine coop and run I had to make since august after adopting two other sick birds the same week (I didn’t know were sick) from a ‘breeder’ and after a couple months of trying everything with the vets both eventually passed. Autopsies didn’t show mareks instead it showed inflammation of the liver and a sinus issue they were not able to get over. The culture came back not to be one of the ‘scary’ ones to worry about according to the vet. During this time with the two sick birds they had coccidia and lice also and all five birds were treated with ivermectin though my cochins and lil peep did not have lice but shared space with them. They did have coccidia though that they could not get over and were treated by the vet 3 times with meds. I had been waiting to get the results of these autopsies back to see if I could ever add these three bantam cochins to my regular flock. They have been living together and totally healthy except last Tuesday I noticed was really backed up and had poop stuck to her and was almost impacted but I caught it just in time and gave her a bath and cleaned her up and trimmed the feathers around her vent but i didn’t know what was up. Fast forward to Thursday my pet sitter who comes to let my rooster out in days I work in the city early checked on them and sent me a video of her limping around not putting weight on her foot.
Lil peep is my bird in question now who is limping. She has gone to the vet and had an X-ray that showed nothing was wrong no broken bones she doesn’t have bumble foot and was given an anti inflammatory daily for a week in hopes it would improve. She is about 8.5 months old and has not laid yet.
They suspect it could be mareks but she is over 6 months old and my other two quarantine birds who passed earlier in the year didn’t show signs of mareks instead they showed hepatitis and a sinus infection disease. The vet put her on an anti inflammatory hoping it would help but it didn’t and at our recheck yesterday she said if lil peep keeps losing weight (lost 20grams but is still eating fine and hopping around) we will have to put her to sleep.
I’m waiting to hear from
The vet but they are slammed with covid and don’t have a great response rate so my question is : could she possibly have a vitamin b deficiency effecting her sciatic nerve? She has trouble curling her toes and moving that leg but otherwise is fine.
The vet is having me try gabapentin and the anti inflammatory for another two weeks but can anyone recommend a b supplement I can try and how much would I give? And for how long? She weighs 2 pounds right now.
I emailed my vet about this and waiting for a response also. Thanks for any help she’s such a sweetie and I jsut want her to recover
 

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Sorry about losing your chickens. An inflammation or infection in an organ can cause pressure on the sciatic nerves, and may look like Mareks disease. Were the necropsies on your 2 chickens who died, done by your state poultry vet or your regular vet? Did they send off any material for Mareks PCR testing?

Mareks can cause reduced immunity to common diseases. Does the limper hold the leg up or put it down and drag it or try to walk on it?

Human vitamin B complex, which is found in stores and pharmacies, can be crushed and given in food or a spoonful of water. Dosage is 1/4 tablet daily. Some chicken vitamins also containnriboflavin or B2.

If you lose another one, have your state vet do the necropsy and testing for Mareks. There also is a lab that will do testing on blood taken from a toenail. Here is the contact info and they will send you the collecting material and test for $38:
http://www.vetdna.com/application/forms/aviansubmittalform.pdf
 
Sorry about losing your chickens. An inflammation or infection in an organ can cause pressure on the sciatic nerves, and may look like Mareks disease. Were the necropsies on your 2 chickens who died, done by your state poultry vet or your regular vet? Did they send off any material for Mareks PCR testing?

Mareks can cause reduced immunity to common diseases. Does the limper hold the leg up or put it down and drag it or try to walk on it?

Human vitamin B complex, which is found in stores and pharmacies, can be crushed and given in food or a spoonful of water. Dosage is 1/4 tablet daily. Some chicken vitamins also containnriboflavin or B2.

If you lose another one, have your state vet do the necropsy and testing for Mareks. There also is a lab that will do testing on blood taken from a toenail. Here is the contact info and they will send you the collecting material and test for $38:
http://www.vetdna.com/application/forms/aviansubmittalform.pdf


thank you for the link, I will definitely do that as I am not sure now. I know my vet (Holme's in Walpole) sent them off to UMAINE for necroscopy. I asked for them to test for Marek's but it's unclear if they did a PCR? I didn't know that was the only real confirmation, they did not see evidence of tumors etc. This is what my vet said:
"Moderately mixed population of klebsiella and streptococcus populations were present. These are both "opportunistic" bacteria; they exist all throughout the environment and it is normal to find them in the oral cavity of many animal species. When they get the opportunity to colonize an area of tissue that they don't normally, that is when they become an issue by establishing an infection. I suspect she may have regurgitated/aspirated this normally occurring bacteria into her respiratory system and then it established an infection. This is not a bacteria that needs to be treated within the flock unless it establishes an infection in "atypical" places (like the lungs). The good news out of all of this is that they did NOT see any coryza colonies! This is a bacteria that causes severe respiratory disease in poultry and there is a high rate of transmission and infection to other birds."

the limper just holds her leg up, she hops around she is a bantam and she kind of lays on her side when she sleeps and rests and dust baths and when she went for her recheck they said her grip was worse and she wasn't trying to grip as much as she was last time. when I try she doesn't grip at all. Do you know if I give her that dosage what the percentage or right dosage of b vitamin would b? I have a powdered b complex at home I could give her but don't want to overdo it. she weighs 2 pounds right now.
thanks so much for your help
 
She also said this so yeah doesn't look like they specifically did a PCR which is really annoying since the second bird who passed I specifically asked them to test for Marek's

"I reread through all of the path reports; there were no changes consistent with, or suspicious of Marek's Disease. Although the cause of death cannot be definitely determined, the pathologist was most suspicious of hepatitis (infection of the liver) and secondary sinusitis (respiratory infection).
 

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