MyCircusMyMonkeys
Chirping
- Jul 28, 2025
- 28
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Hello friends! I've contacted my vet (who I think tries to be emergency-only on weekends) but thought the fine people here have seen a lot of limping chickens and might be able to shed some light.
Our rooster, Prince, is 10 months old and has started limping in a quite pronounced way:
He hasn't been exposed to any new chickens, but he was interacting with two of his brothers more during the cold and could absolutely have landed funny getting out of their way. This being said, I don't feel any swelling, can't find a cut or wart/mite/etc, and he doesn't seem to be in pain. His appetite is great and his droppings look normal. In addition, I've been worried about a slight mismatch in eye color for months now, though it's hard to capture both eyes in the same lighting:
I'm sure you all know what I'm worried about here. Does this look like Marek's to you? I read somewhere about green droppings, which I haven't seen, but I know the disease can be a grab bag of symptoms.
We're keeping him separated, though full biosecurity is going to be hard to achieve, and are adding nutritional yeast and kickin' chicken supplements to his food in case it's a vitamin deficiency.
The reason I think it could be Marek's is because we brought a chicken home six or so months ago and—idiots!—didn't quarantine immediately. She was in rough shape (worse than we realized) and passed soon after we got her. The other chickens we brought her home with had some respiratory issues but recovered just fine after a course of antibiotics. So there was a possible infectious event ages ago. We had a young hen die last November and did a necropsy, but her diagnosis was reproductive issues followed by bacterial infection. There was no mention of Marek's in the necropsy results, but I don't know if that means anything.
Please lend your expertise if you can! Thank you for your time.
Our rooster, Prince, is 10 months old and has started limping in a quite pronounced way:
He hasn't been exposed to any new chickens, but he was interacting with two of his brothers more during the cold and could absolutely have landed funny getting out of their way. This being said, I don't feel any swelling, can't find a cut or wart/mite/etc, and he doesn't seem to be in pain. His appetite is great and his droppings look normal. In addition, I've been worried about a slight mismatch in eye color for months now, though it's hard to capture both eyes in the same lighting:
I'm sure you all know what I'm worried about here. Does this look like Marek's to you? I read somewhere about green droppings, which I haven't seen, but I know the disease can be a grab bag of symptoms.
We're keeping him separated, though full biosecurity is going to be hard to achieve, and are adding nutritional yeast and kickin' chicken supplements to his food in case it's a vitamin deficiency.
The reason I think it could be Marek's is because we brought a chicken home six or so months ago and—idiots!—didn't quarantine immediately. She was in rough shape (worse than we realized) and passed soon after we got her. The other chickens we brought her home with had some respiratory issues but recovered just fine after a course of antibiotics. So there was a possible infectious event ages ago. We had a young hen die last November and did a necropsy, but her diagnosis was reproductive issues followed by bacterial infection. There was no mention of Marek's in the necropsy results, but I don't know if that means anything.
Please lend your expertise if you can! Thank you for your time.
