Neurological Condition - help needed Urgently!

[Mackie n chicks]

One of my golden lace Orpington Bantams 'Ellie' started backing up into corners last week, followed by limping then total loss of one leg and part of the second leg. She also goes in and out of a trance. the vets have states that 'they don't know about birds or chickens' so have just given her pain killers and an antibiotic, but have said it's unlikely to do anything since it seems to have affected her nerves. She is 'with it' most of the time but just sits there. She has also gone off her food, but that may just be that when she tries to peck she falls over. I hand feed her meal worms and corn which she seems to enjoy a lot.

I am trying to prepare myself to put her down at the end of the week for her own wellbeing but today her best friend, also a golden laced bantam 'Bracken' is backing into corners and staring a lot. As yet she is still walking.

Has anyone heard of this at all??? Has anyone any ideas what this could be and primarily is there any way to help them? I obviously don't want it to get to the other chickens so they have both been separated from the others.

Any help at all would be very very helpful! I live in Banff, Scotland.

 

[drumstick diva]

When you say "backing into corners," do you mean the bird is walking backwards?

It sounds a bit like" silkie syndrome" which is mainly caused by a peck to their head, but in that case they are able to use legs and feet but the head/neck droops sometimes between their legs. Or the neck is twisted to one side or other, head may be thrown back. Sometimes vets have treated it with prednisone believing there is swelling of the brain. IN some cases this works.

Otherwise silkie folks have used Polyvisol infant drops (NO IRON) + some vitamin E squeezed from a capsule believing it is a nutritional deficiency. The birds seem well only to relapse, and need the treatment again and sometimes even a third time. My friend has a silkie roo a few years old, that suffered the worst from this. Every day she thought would be his last one - but, eventually he was back to normal.

Your particular problem has me stymied, some of it sounds like Marek's. some like the silkie problem - which by the way has occurred in several other breeds but, not as often as in silkies. Our your vets familiar with Marek's disease. It generally starts with lameness and progresses from there - birds sometimes continue to eat or allow themselves to be fed.

You may want to put "Marek's disease" in the searchbox, so the symptoms will come up. I'm very sorry I don't know more. In a few hours I expect the other greeters will be responding to you. I just happen to be working all night on projects and needed to relax with Backyard chickens - so I am here.

 

[Tomhusker]

A few years ago I had a Cockrell who had a similar episode. At one point he couldn't even walk. After some research I decided it was a vitamin E deficiency and began treating him with a diet that included large doses of vitamin E. It took several days, but eventually he began to improve and turned out to be a beautiful, healthy roo.

You can give vitamin E drips directly, or mix in the feed and treats. It tastes nasty, so drops will have to be kinda forced down.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would agree that researching Mareks disease and vitamin E/selenium deficiency would be possible answers to the problem. Most poultry vitamins added to the water contain vitamin E, and slenium can be found in eggs, sunflower seeds, chopped tuna, and meat. 25 mcg is the daily dosage. A good thing to do is that if you cull your sick chicken, or it dies, I would send the refrigerated body to your state vet for a necropsy to test for Mareks. In some states it can be free or low cost, and here are some links to help you:
http://www.usaha.org/Portals/6/StateAnimalHealthOfficials.pdf
https://extension.unh.edu/resources/files/Resource000791_Rep813.pdf
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/disea...lacia-exudative-diathesis-muscular-dystrophy/