Questions about AE

[emmasmama]

Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has experience with AE? I have a 2 week old chick who developed strong neck twitching 2 days ago. Then her leg went limp and curled, and she's not walking properly, just limping. She doesn't move much, and sleeps a lot.

However, just when I think she's looking really bad she jumps up and starts pecking and acting fine - except for the leg. The neck tremors/twitching has now stopped. I have read that with AE you need to quarantine the bird, but I'm wondering for how long. If she does recover, how/when will I know, and when can she be reintroduced to the flock? She's currently in a separate box within the larger box containing our other 5 chicks.

Any info would be appreciated! Thanks.

 

[DraigAthar]

Could it be a stargazer? Have you got your chicks on feed with amprolium in it?

 

[emmasmama]

She's a little buff Polish. I had her on the organic chick starter, which doesn't have anything extra in it, but the owner of the shop where I bought her suggested I switch to medicated feed, so I picked that up yesterday. I put a little sugar in her water too (per a suggestion from the internet), and she does seem to be eating and drinking okay.

 

[DraigAthar]

It's probably not stargzaing from amprolium then, if you only just now switched to the medicated feed. I don't have any experience with AE myself, sorry. It just sounded similar to a chick I had once with stargazzing issues that turned out to be an issue with the amprolium.

 

[emmasmama]

Thanks for the response! Silly me - I thought "Stargazer" was the type of chicken! As you can see I'm an absolute beginner... . The chick is actually doing much better, so I'm guessing it's not AE. The medicated feed seemed to help. She still sleeps a lot more, and limps a little, but is seeming much healthier than she was.