Out of the blue - muscle spasms, trouble walking, strange wing carriage, panting/wheezing

[Chickeneering]

Hi you all, I wanted to see if anyone could help me diagnose what might be wrong with my hen. She's around 2, half cochin half favarolle, lowest on the pecking order in a flock of 4 hens + 1 roo, and was in good health up until this morning, when I found her under her perch, not interested in breakfast, and acting strange. I've been keeping chickens for the past 14 years, and haven't seen these symptoms before:

-muscle tremors, fairly constant
-some diarrhea
-panting/slight wheezing (might be due to pain)
-difficulty eating/drinking - doesn't seem to go down properly, but she is trying
-can walk a few steps, holding her wings out to the sides and half-limping, but promptly sinks onto the ground, not sprawling but in a resting position, almost a mating position what with the way she holds her wings

Her bones seem ok, feet are ok, no wounds that I could find, crop is small but has some food in it, breath smells normal, vent looks ok aside from slight diarrhea, comb is normal color, eyes are clear but she seems a litle out of it/in pain and lets me handle her with little resistance, can't feel anything in the abdomen - no egg. That pen hasn't been laying at normal capacity, so I'm not sure if she's been laying lately. I checked under her feathers, and did find some black patches of something unexplainable attached to the skin, but I don't know if that's related. She eats all purpose poultry crumble, with oyster shell now and then, and her waterer is made of metal and has begun to rust (replacing it ASAP), so I'm not sure if something like that could be causing problems or not. About two weeks ago another hen in that pen was acting weird, sort of dazed, and her crop felt sour, so I isolated her, gave her ACV and bread/oil for a day, and she has been back to normal ever since. That flock does have access to the compost pile every few days (the last time was two days ago), and I have a few dead mongooses in it, so could botulism be a possibility if they're eating the maggots?

Any ideas?

 

[azygous]

Yes. Any decaying matter, especially rotting animal flesh, may contribute to a botulism explosion, and your chickens can become infected. Botulism toxin produces the symptoms you describe. You need to treat with amoxicillin as soon as you see these symptoms, and get rid of the mongoose carcasses and block off the compost pile until you can aerate it well to kill off the toxic spores.

If you have any antibiotic on hand start this hen on it ASAP. Or call around to pet stores for fish amoxicillin. 25 mg once a day for ten days.

 

[Chickeneering]

Yes. Any decaying matter, especially rotting animal flesh, may contribute to a botulism explosion, and your chickens can become infected. Botulism toxin produces the symptoms you describe. You need to treat with amoxicillin as soon as you see these symptoms, and get rid of the mongoose carcasses and block off the compost pile until you can aerate it well to kill off the toxic spores.

If you have any antibiotic on hand start this hen on it ASAP. Or call around to pet stores for fish amoxicillin. 25 mg once a day for ten days.

Thanks for the advice!

Seems strange to me that I've had mongoose out there for months, but only now I would be seeing issues. Do you think it could be Marek's (never seen it here), or more likely botulism? I was reading, and I read about the tumescent feather follicles, and my hen does have some weird black things around some follicles. I recently (oh so stupidly) released my mealworm colony in the henhouse, thinking they could eat the larvae on occasion, and not having read about the darkling beetle being a potential vector for Marek's. Fortunately, we had torrential rain the day after that, which totally flooded the coop, but there still might have been exposure, though I had the mealworms in clean substrate indoors for about a year prior.

 

[azygous]

Meal worm darkling beetles are not the same as the wild darkling beetles that sometimes carry disease. Meal worm darkling beetles raised in colonies indoors are harmless. I raise them myself. As for darkling beetles carrying Marek's virus, I've never heard that. I've read lots about both major avian viruses, and while they might be contaminated superficially coming into contact with soil that has been exposed to Marek's virus shed, I haven't heard that any insect hosts the Marek's virus.

The symptoms of botulism toxin poisoning and Marek's may be very similar. It's not possible to know which you might be dealing with without extensive lab tests on tissue samples from your chickens. So, with a predicament like that, and you want to try to do something to increase the chances of your chicken to get better, you will logically conclude you will treat possible botulism with an antibiotic because there is a chance it will cure the chicken. Marek's, there is no treatment or cure.

 

[Chickeneering]

Meal worm darkling beetles are not the same as the wild darkling beetles that sometimes carry disease. Meal worm darkling beetles raised in colonies indoors are harmless. I raise them myself. As for darkling beetles carrying Marek's virus, I've never heard that. I've read lots about both major avian viruses, and while they might be contaminated superficially coming into contact with soil that has been exposed to Marek's virus shed, I haven't heard that any insect hosts the Marek's virus.

The symptoms of botulism toxin poisoning and Marek's may be very similar. It's not possible to know which you might be dealing with without extensive lab tests on tissue samples from your chickens. So, with a predicament like that, and you want to try to do something to increase the chances of your chicken to get better, you will logically conclude you will treat possible botulism with an antibiotic because there is a chance it will cure the chicken. Marek's, there is no treatment or cure.

I read it on a site about raising mealworms for chickens, and not to release them into the wild, but the article might have been incorrect, or talking about the other species that does carry it.

I am absolutely going the antibiotic route - that was never in question. Just thinking through the possibilities. Thanks again!

 

[Chickeneering]

Update: the hen is fully recovered after three days of the symptoms in the original post. I gave her a little over a teaspoon of ACV in one quart of water, since I couldn't find any fish amoxicillin anywhere, and she drank the whole quart during those three days. I gave her shredded bread mixed with coconut oil the second day, and had to hand feed it to her in tiny bits because her beak wasn't working well (wouldn't fully close and let her rip things). She laid an egg the second and third day, despite not being able to stand for more than a second or two, and today I went out in the morning and found her pacing back and forth and waiting for breakfast - back to normal with no residual symptoms.

 

[azygous]

That's terrific! Other things that produce similar symptoms as your hen had are hypothermia, shock, and dehydration.