Orpington Limping - and it is getting much worse ... I am worried

[AlyssaK]

My Orps are like 2-1/2 months old.

I shot a quick video to show some friends how they were going for the grapes after ignoring grapes as food at all for the first few weeks.

I'd thought a few times prior to this that maybe the splash orp limped, but then I'd watch her and couldnt see anything that I could call a definite limp, and she seemed a little klutzy and her sister is pushy, so wasn';t really sure.

Then watched this video and saw what seemed to be definitely a limp. SO I started REALLY watching her and it has been progressively getting worse.

She and her sister HAVE been vaccinated for Marek's. Trill the roo, we have no idea but I am thinking he has not been (he seems fine, but he and the girls have not yet physically interacted).

Both girls were (and still are a little but they are getting better) a little flighty and werent yet really comfy with being picked up and held ... and the first few times they really squirmed and tried to fly out of our arms and it is possible that we held onto a foot while trying to put them back on the ground before they landed (training technique) by accident and the splash is SO timid that she'd try to fly into a wall to get down at first because she wasnt paying attention ... so its possible that she wrenched a foot, hip, leg, etc.

Same for landing on it wrong.

It bothers me a little because she does have vision problems I feel, she doesn't seem t coordinate her beak and compute spatial distances and depth very well, though she can eat ... she does seem to have some hesitation that her sister obviously does not have as you can see in the first video, lol.

She is also thinner than her sister I feel.

Here are two videos, the first was the one where I realized I caught a slight limp a few times and the second was today and you can see the dramatic difference.

 

[polarbearpilot]

My hen that died from Marek's Disease started out just like yours. She was a Delaware but she was smaller than a normal Delaware, so she was a runt. She limped a bit at first and I didn't notice. And when I did I thought she had a cut at the bottom of her foot so I just wrapped her foot up. Then a week or more went by, her limp got worse to the point she couldn't walk any more. She stopped eating, too. I had to feed her using a syringe. I then read up on her condition and realized that it was MD, but unfortunately, she infected another chicken. I separated them from the flock. After a week, I had to cull them both.

I highly recommend that you keep her separate from the flock until you know what it is and whether it is contagious. MD is very contagious and not treatable. I suspect you already know that.

 

[AlyssaK]

I do, but my flock is her and her sister and my roo - and the roo hasnt yet had physical contact with either of the girls.

The girls were vaccinated for Mareks, and we think the roo has not.

We know that a small percentage of vaccinated birds will still get Mareks and develop the full disease, so I cant rule it out, no.

I've been checking her eyes regularly - but I cant remember what they looked like when she arrived, so I cant tell yet if there has been a change.

In any case, no point in separating the girls since if one has it then they both do and if Trill gets it, well, Id like to vaccinate him but hes so old it might be pointless anyways. Any birds I actually buy will be vaccinated, as my pullets were.

But not sure yet it is Mareks either. It *could* be a dislocated hip I suppose but NO idea how to help and not hurt them worse if that is the case.

 

[polarbearpilot]

You mentioned that the hen was thinner than her sister, maybe she is a runt just like my hen. I don't know for sure, but I read a post from a seasoned chicken keeper that runts fall for this disease more easily than the bigger stronger birds.Her sister and the old roo might be resistant to MD. Let's hope they don't catch it. And let's hope she'll get better, too.

 

[AlyssaK]

She is such a sweet bird ... I hoipe she does recover.

I was holding her this afternoon ... and it feels like one leg juts out further from the hip than the other side does.

I tried massaging it gently to see if it might "slip" back into place if that was the issue, but it didnt seem to.

If she does have a hip out of socket, how do you tell and how do you get it back into place?

 

[polarbearpilot]

I don't know how to fix it, but maybe you can find something useful in the link below. It's mostly for chicks but probably can be used for older birds, too.

https://sites.google.com/a/larsencreek.com/chicken-orthopedics/leg-braces

 

[ten chicks]

Chickens can suffer from a condition called Bumblefoot,is there any signs of a wound or lump on the bottom of her foot?

 

[AlyssaK]

No cuts at all.

When feeling her hips (I think) ... the bad leg seems to jut out farther than the good leg up where it attaches to the body. If it is a dislocated hip, not sure how I can fix it ... I tried massaging it but it didnt seem to help at all.

 

[AlyssaK]

so her leg is much worse -- now she is almost always on the hock and when trying to walk - extends the leg straight out in front of her and then brings it down in a clumsy step and then her hock hits the ground when she puts weight on it.

Finally contained her to a rubbermaid tub with chicken wire over the top and she's in the shower ... not really sure what else that I can do for her though.

 

[polarbearpilot]

I doubt she will get better. So sorry.