Reposting my original question with a video added showing the pullet I’m concerned about alongside an older pullet from the same flock, as she’s walking funny again this afternoon:
I’m a first time chicken owner, trying to balance my paranoia about chickens randomly dying (as I’ve been told repeatedly they will do), with the wellbeing of the chickens - in this case, I don’t want to isolate a POL pullet for no reason.
I have a pullet who, for the last couple of weeks, has seemed to have some kind of issue with her legs. Aside from this issue, and frequently runny poo, she’s otherwise completely normal. The best way I can explain it, is that she has sometimes appeared like she has no strength in her legs or that her joints aren’t holding her up. She sometimes looks like she is squatting/ waddling when she moves around, looking a bit unco because she’s not lifting her feet much and has her body so low to the ground. She will often end up just sitting down and pecking at the grass, like it’s too much to stay standing. How bad this is varies significantly, and randomly from what I can tell.
This morning I was convinced she was seriously unwell, I went and got antibiotics etc., preparing to isolate her this afternoon. However, this afternoon, she’s FINE. Walking normally, upright. Feathers aren’t fluffed up like they are when she’s doing the squatting stance…she’s a different chicken.
So my question is, could the issue still be Mareks if the symptoms come and go so drastically? Any ideas what it might be if it’s not Mareks?
I have a pullet who, for the last couple of weeks, has seemed to have some kind of issue with her legs. Aside from this issue, and frequently runny poo, she’s otherwise completely normal. The best way I can explain it, is that she has sometimes appeared like she has no strength in her legs or that her joints aren’t holding her up. She sometimes looks like she is squatting/ waddling when she moves around, looking a bit unco because she’s not lifting her feet much and has her body so low to the ground. She will often end up just sitting down and pecking at the grass, like it’s too much to stay standing. How bad this is varies significantly, and randomly from what I can tell.
This morning I was convinced she was seriously unwell, I went and got antibiotics etc., preparing to isolate her this afternoon. However, this afternoon, she’s FINE. Walking normally, upright. Feathers aren’t fluffed up like they are when she’s doing the squatting stance…she’s a different chicken.
So my question is, could the issue still be Mareks if the symptoms come and go so drastically? Any ideas what it might be if it’s not Mareks?
