Off balance chicken, wings hang foward, holds butt high while walking and resting.

[Lafarmette]

I have an Asian Blue (assuming male) 7-10 week old chicken that for the last week has been acting oddly. It started with noticing that he sat on his roost funny with his rear end higher the rest of his companions. I then noticed that he also walks this way with his rear end high in the air. He often let's his wings hang forward. He is smaller than all the other chickens but he is still eating and still drinking. Although he hangs back and waits until all the others are done before approaching the feeder. He does not leave the co-op but stays behind when all the others go outside in the sun. His crop does not seem to be over extended. His poop is normal. He is now limping as is one of the other fellows. I went ahead and pulled both of them out of the flock and isolated them in my garage just in case. I see no visible injuries. Any ideas what might be wrong?

 

[MzGina]

can you show a video of them walking?

 

[rebrascora]

I'm afraid their is a good chance this is Marek's disease, especially since you have two now exhibiting lameness. Unfortunately there is not recognised treatment and it may prove fatal. Keeping them as happy and stress free as possible is important and a good quality poultry vitamin supplement and good nutrition to support the immune system. Access to short grass and sunshine whenever possible in a protected environment has also helped some of mine with Marek's. If one dies, you might want to consider sending it off for a necropsy to establish/confirm cause of death. Marek's is highly contagious and can be carried on the wind as well as clothing shoes and hair and of course directly from chicken to chicken. It is contracted by inhaling infected dander dust from a bird with the disease and being a virus, it can remain dormant for quite some time. Many birds are carriers without displaying any symptoms and some will recover from an initial attack and may appear perfectly healthy for months or even a year before having another attack. Usually secondary attacks are more serious and likely to prove fatal. The disease also compromises the immune system causing the bird to be more prone to illnesses that it should have developed resistance to like coccidiosis. There are quite a few different strains of Marek's and so many different symptoms that some will exhibit and others won't, but becoming unbalanced and/or partial leg or wing paralysis are the commonest symptoms and more that one young bird experiencing lameness within a few days/weeks of each other is a tell tale sign that a flock has been infected with it.

 

[Lafarmette]

can you show a video of them walking?

I tried but it is telling me my file is too large. He is not walking much this evening so I will try to catch a smaller clip and send when he gets up again.

 

[aart]

I tried but it is telling me my file is too large. He is not walking much this evening so I will try to catch a smaller clip and send when he gets up again.

Put it on youtube or vimeo, then link here.

 

[Lafarmette]

Put it on youtube or vimeo, then link here.

Hope this works. I am not very technologically inclined.

 

[Lafarmette]

I have wrapped his bent toe with vet wrap since this video. He straightens it out fine but the wrap seems to give home some more stability.

 

[micstrachan]

Aww, poor guy. I’ve never seen anything like that, but would guess Marek’s. It is nice to see him eating!