Please help. Vet has no idea

[Kiki]

Yes, the straight hypertonic legs can happen with vitamin E deficiency. I have her on vitamin E, thiamine, selenium plus Polyvisol. My bird vet has never seen chickens with legs like this. This was a sudden onset. Is it reversible? How long would you treat?

IF it is vitamin related you should see improvement in a few days.

 

[Kiki]

She’s been on organic chick starter/grower. All other birds are fine including the 2 others from the same breeder/same age. They also get rooster booster in their water and mealworms.

What is the brand name of the feed?

 

[pugspigchicks]

What is the brand name of the feed?

They were on a locally made chick starter from our feed store in Austin. I ran out of the food and I ordered some from Amazon 2-3 weeks ago (see pics) Now back on local food. She’s been on vitamins for 5 days- very alert, good appetite, flapping wings, moves legs a lot and tries to sit up but otherwise legs are still straight out.

 

[lena_]

I'm sorry to hear about your bird, it doesn't really sound like wry neck to me(Unless I've missed something and her neck is bent under her body. Unless your vet did a fecal test for Marek's then I wouldn't rule it out completely.

Keep going with the vitamins, when one of my pullets broke her leg I put in her a chicken stretcher . Just make sure that her legs being back in the right position doesn't cause her to much distress, and if you do choose to go the stretcher route, then make sure that the fabric is VERY well attached to the wood. I'll add some better quality stretcher pics later, I have to go out for a little while
(siblings are going to dance lessons)

 

[casportpony]

Sorry your bird is sick. Did the vet say why he didn't think it was Marek's?

Can you post a video?

 

[Kiki]

I'm sorry to hear about your bird, it doesn't really sound like wry neck to me(Unless I've missed something and her neck is bent under her body. Unless your vet did a fecal test for Marek's then I wouldn't rule it out completely.

Keep going with the vitamins, when one of my pullets broke her leg I put in her a chicken stretcher . Just make sure that her legs being back in the right position doesn't cause her to much distress, and if you do choose to go the stretcher route, then make sure that the fabric is VERY well attached to the wood. I'll add some better quality stretcher pics later, I have to go out for a little while
(siblings are going to dance lessons)

I have never heard of a fecal test for Marek's ...is this new?

 

[lena_]

I have never heard of a fecal test for Marek's ...is this new?

A friend of mine had one done for one of her show bantams, I don't know very much about it except that she had to send it to lab. Perhaps it is an experimental thing? Sorry, I'm not sure really...

 

[rebrascora]

There is a specialist poultry practise here in the UK that has been offering a Marek's test on faecal samples for several years now. It is only about £17 if I remember correctly. I have not made any enquiries as to the accuracy or what the testing involves, so I cannot tell you more than that.

 

[rebrascora]

As regards this bird, everything points towards Marek's. The wry neck and leg issues and the age of the bird and the extremely common and widespread nature of the disease. As someone who has experienced many birds with it over the past few years, it has every appearance of being Marek's to me.
I too would be interested to know why the vet has ruled it out and does the vet have any experience of Marek's to make that call?

 

[pugspigchicks]

She was vaccinated for Mareks. From my understanding Mareks is usually asymmetrical paralysis usually of the leg and wing (often presents as split legs). The tumors are on the sciatic nerve which gives it the asymmetrical presentation. She can move her legs, flap her wings and also use her neck to eat. Her legs are spastic and hypertonic. He said he’s never seen Mareks present this way.

I’m having a hard time uploading a video. They all say too large.