My polish girl is acting CRAZY! (pic)

[RedfogsFlock]

Ok so I have a polish girl born 4-20-2010 making her 7 months? For the last few weeks she has been acting weird. I go out to the coops and she is always on her back?

I have to go out at night & actually pick her up off the ground or she will stay like this! If I put her in a nesting box she will stay till morning when she will FALL OUT of the box. It's started getting cold here at night so now I have to bring her in sometimes to warm up, but when she's in the house she will hop right into the laundry basket that we have made into a bed for her.

We come home from work & she's on her back, we go out to feed & she's on her back. Her neck has developed a krick in it from her holding it up while on her back. Her vent area is covered with poo from not being able to fall off. Now we know whatever she's doing is not her being sick or figured she would have died by now. This has been going on now for close to a month! It's as if her wings get in the way of her standing up?

So verdict.....

Is she just rotten & wanting to come in?

or...

Are her wings maybe to big?

or...

is she developing something maybe? lol

 

[BarkerChickens]

Marek's possibly? It can cause paralysis.

 

[RedfogsFlock]

We thought mareks at first too. She's not paralyzed though. She can walk, run, & even hop. She does too. Even when she's in the house she will hop up onto the edge of the laundry basket then hops right in. Then when she's ready to get out she hops right out. Thats how come we ruled out mareks cuz she doesn't exhibit any of the symptoms. We use a wheelbarrow for our mulch, & she flys right up into it with the other birds!

Her appetite has gone down any either, & she holds her own at the feeder!

 

[The Lisser]

Wow, that is really weird! I have only been a chicken mama since March, and I have not seen anything like that. The closest I've seen is when my chickens "dust bath" or sit in the sun they will sit like that. Is she able to walk and get up and down normally?

I do think chickens can develop weird habits, but I don't know if yours has a habit or is "made different". My little GLW that came from a hatchery has a severely crossed beak . . . when her beak started going sideways I started feeding her chicken crumbles mixed with water so it was (hopefully) easier for her to eat it . . . after she moved out to the big girl coop it got harder for me to find the time to sit with her the 45 minutes it took her to eat so I installed a deeper feeding bowl that she can stick her beak down in so she can eat dry food when I'm not there - silly thing still wants to sit on my lap to eat.

If she CAN walk normally, I don't think it's Mareks, but if she cannot . . .

 

[BarkerChickens]

I wonder if she has a ear issue that interferes with her balance.

 

[RedfogsFlock]

Oh she can walk normally!

At first we though she was dust bathing too, but then I realized she wasn't. A crooked beak chicken? I had an EE that came like that too, and we fed her long spagehtti noodles & oatmeal to get her big enough to hold her own at the food bowl. Ya we can't find anything physically wrong with Lotus & thus is why we think it's more of a behavior than a sickness?

We did have some chickens with mareks almost a year ago, & had to cull them all. With our experience with that bouwt i'm confident that she doesn't have mareks.

OK you got me on that! an ear problem now that is one thing that I HAVE NOT checked for! Oh my dog! I have antibiotics so maybe i'll get right onto that!

 

[iluvsedward]

wow she's really in a sorry state