Possible Rickets or Mereks

[ska5758]

Our 6 month old Crested Polish Rooster started to fall down when eating. Found him on the ground, really weak legs - but not paralized legs (he uses them to scratch and tries to stand). Took him into the vet and they said he didn't have any infection, but we did 7 days of antibiotics and anti-inflamatories. He is eating and drinking fine, and sometimes tries to get up. He likes to stand and eat but has to lean on his box to do it. He has energy - just not the leg strength. One of the vets thought it was Mereks and the other didn't. I am really wondering about rickets? I noticed his feet are a little swollen, but he doesn't have any injury. He has a vision problem because of his crest - it's crazy thick and blocks his vision. I wonder if that has prevented him from eating as much as he should. The vet said he was a little skinny but not bad.

I read about giving them children's liquid vitamin drops. I could only find Pedia Essentials Mult-Vitamin Drops. They don't have any iron in them and I am hoping I can use those? Any other suggestions?

 

[ska5758]

Please! Any assistance would be GREAT - we love this guy!

 

[horsejody]

It could be a mild case of Marek's, and he might be going into remission. Thers's not much you can do if it is. Just separate him for a while in a small cage to keep him immobile while he recovers. Give good food and clean water. I hope it isn't Marek's.

 

[ska5758]

Thank you, I hope it isn't Merek's also! He has been in a crate in our bathtub for 10 days. Do you know how long it might take? He crows and has his witts about him, just really weak legs. What about the vitamins?

 

[Guinea Goonie]

May you not have Marek's disease.

Here is a link:

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/disviral.htm#mar

Please read this, if you THINK you have this it is very important that you realize what you are up against.

 

[horsejody]

Marek's can take weeks, but don't just assume it is Marek's. Hopefully, it is something else.

 

[ruth]

It never hurts to increase their food and vitamin intake. If you can't find Poly-Vi-Sol by Enfamil, Gerber makes an identical product which is a liquid baby vitamin/supplement. It sounds like what you bought may be the same thing, just by another competitor so I would give the weak bird some drops directly in his beak and add some to a small amount of drinking water. Also feed it some scrambled egg. Give it some diced up lunch meat. Basically just try and keep him warm and well fed and extra vitamins and see if it isn't just a vitamin deficiency.

Did he normally get to free range? If not, what were you feeding him? Did he get extra protein sources?

Also, I would trim his crest if it's affecting his vision. He needs to be able to see.

Finally, when was the last time you wormed him? If never, you might want to add some Wazine to his water.

Good luck and I hope he gets better.

 

[soonerdog]

I had an ameruacana bantam rooster several years ago showing some symptoms that you're describing. This rooster could eat and drink okay. He sometimes could walk just fine and at other times he just turned rolling flips when he attempted to walk. Sometimes he would seem completely normal and other times he was completely out of control of himself. I too thought Merecks disease.
I took the bird to North Georgia Poultry Laboratories for evaluation. The poultry veterinarian kept the bird for a week of evaluation. He performed all sorts of routine tests for all poultry diseases and came up empty handed. He contacted me about putting the bird down for internal findings through an autopsy. I gave permission and he and the other poultry scientists could not find any abnormalities. They reasoned the condition to have been some sort of inherited neurological condition.

 

[ska5758]

Yes, he has been a free range chicken and I keep a feeder full of layer pellets in the coop. I let them out in the morning and put them to bed at night. He was also getting some corn for a snack every few days.

I am wondering if he can't eat from the feeder because his beak is short and his crest very large. He doesn't like anything around his head, and if he bumped into the feeder I could see him not going to it much. Of course then I have to wonder about his water intake since both the feeder and the water are very close in how they are built.

Since taking him inside he is drinking and eating out of a bowl. He seems to be doing fine with that, but for the spilling! Today he had yogurt for the first time ... not sure what he thought about that.

How do you trim his crest? Do I just cut it like hair?

 

[ska5758]

I hope this image works ...