Pekin bantam loosing use of legs

[Muso31]

Hi all, we have a near 2 year old pekin bantam who is usually very active. However, around 6 days ago she started to struggle to walk. She would often stumble and sit down to eat etc. She seems well otherwise, she eats well, her poop is normal, and there appears to be nothing physically wrong and her feet and ENT appear fine.

5 Days ago I started a vit boost but 3 days ago I switched to antibiotics (I had some from a previous treatment), 3 days ago I also started a worm treatment with flubenvet.

She can walk in small stints but she cannot reach the perches at night now. She's stopped laying but recently laid some soft shelled eggs, which in the past she has done before due to what seemed to be low calcium.

Its horrible watching her stumble, if I pick her up and put her down she usually stumbles backwards. So far the antibiotics haven't done anything though there's 2 days to go, should I complete this course before looking into vitamins? Or switch now? If so are there any specific supplements that could help with this? There don't appear to be any avian vets local, sadly we've just moved house from a location that had a local vets

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry about your hen.

Do you notice any swelling/bloat or fluid in her abdomen below the vent between her legs?

Since she's stopped laying and has had problems laying soft shelled eggs, then she may be having some reproductive problems. You can try giving her extra Calcium to see if that helps.

Vitamins that contain E and B1 would be a good idea. Aim for 400IU Vitamin E daily.

 

[Muso31]

I'm sorry about your hen.

Do you notice any swelling/bloat or fluid in her abdomen below the vent between her legs?

Since she's stopped laying and has had problems laying soft shelled eggs, then she may be having some reproductive problems. You can try giving her extra Calcium to see if that helps.

Vitamins that contain E and B1 would be a good idea. Aim for 400IU Vitamin E daily.

Hi thanks for this. She doesn't appear to have any swelling at all. She's otherwise well, this morning she laid another soft shelled egg. Here's a video of her sitting to eat this morning, and stumbling a little:

She's still happy eating and drinking, but is struggling to get around. I was hoping to try the following https://www.nettexpoultry.com/products/nutrition-health-and-wellbeing/poultry-power-drops/

Would this include the relevant doses of E and B1? Many thanks

 

[Wyorp Rock]

You'll have to look at your label of Nettex to see what the analysis is.

Does she have really long nails or Scaly Leg Mites?

 

[Muso31]

Looks like it has vitamins. Her nails and legs are fine, everything else is good and this is a bit out of the blue. The only thing I can think of is she's always been prone to soft shelled eggs so she should have been given vitamin supplements sooner- also, most days she was given a few sunflower hearts and I may have found out too late that these cause a liver problems in hens. I have her on supplements now, but don't hold much hope as shes been wormed, had antibiotics etc, and the other hens are absolutely fine so its nothing contagious.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I hope she starts to improve with the antibiotics and vitamins.

 

[Muso31]

She wasn't improving. My in law is a poultry farmer and he came to visit so we had him put her out of the pain. Also opened her up to find a tumor about the size of a large grape, everything else looked well.

...edit here's the info if anybody experiences similar in future https://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/ovarian-cancer

Seems surprisingly common in laying hens

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry to hear about your hen.

It's good that you were able to take a look and find the tumor. Yes, reproductive disorders and cancer are quite common in laying hens. I've found cancer in a quite a few of mine.