Thank you all for your encouragement!!!!
Dear Shadrach....I read your story of Dandy and Skunk, and immediately started crying....This is so what I am going through right now. My little bantam cochin hen, Mesha, is very sweet and trusting and looks at me with such hope. I am retired so am able to spend a lot of time with her. I am doing a similar approach with holding her up, because she wants to stand so much. I put my hand under her for support and move her legs and wings in an attempt to keep her muscles working. I, too, think that her brain will eventually click and her muscles will respond. She is trying and I can tell she is grateful. Today I am going to give her am epsom salt soak and try to get her to move her legs in the water. I have seen this done with dogs on animal vet shows, so it is worth a try. She is currently on my lap taking a nap. I have her in an old towel and finally figured out to put paper towels under her bum so I can change it out quickly and clean her up, plus not having to wash towels so often.
I do have good news.....my vet called me last night at 7:30pm and said to bring in my sickest rooster, Gregory Peck, and he would get a weight on him and prescribe the antibiotics for him. YEA!!! I was so afraid that I couldn't afford it, but it looks like my vet has decided to help me, since we know, from the state lab, what the illness definitely is.
Greg got very sick last winter and I took him to the same vet practice, but a different vet. And it was last March, so it hasn't been a year since they have seen him, so I think that makes it possible for them to legally prescribe the meds. I have been so stressed, because I've done everything I can think of, and the thought of knowing what the illness is (MG) and not being able to get the meds for my rooster because of a technicality was upsetting. It has been a very emotional experience. Today I feel like there is a glimmer of hope that this illness (MG) can be managed, even though they will never be cured. So I will always have a closed flock for biosecurity.
Dear