Round two of previous issue

MurKay

Chirping
Mar 7, 2018
48
40
69
i posted a few weeks ago about a down chicken I had. She just stopped using her legs. After research, I thought maybe she had a b-vitamin deficiency so I started feeding her nutritional yeast flakes for a a week or two and her legs came back to life. They were completely normal and functional (they were all crooked toes). Yesterday, I found her down again. Same symptoms. I separated her again and started the flakes. My question is, has anyone experienced this? Will she always need the supplements? She’s about five months old now.
 
I'm afraid, at that age and it reoccurring, this is almost certainly Marek's Disease you are dealing with and not a vitamin deficiency. That said, I would give a broad spectrum poultry vitamin supplement rather than just the B vitamins to support her immune system as the disease lowers the immune response and birds with it are prone to secondary infections. Sadly there is no recognised treatment for Marek's Disease itself and it will usually become fatal at some point but they can appear perfectly normal in between outbreaks if they are strong enough to fight it.
 
What type of feed are you using, and is it fresh dated? Vitamins can leech out of feed if it has been open or sitting on the shelf for a long time. But Mareks does sound like a good possibility. Rebrascora is a better person to teach about Mareks. If you lose her, I would get a necropsy by your state vet to confirm the disease, and the body would need to be refrigerated. Here is a good article to read about Mareks disease with a lot of good info:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/
 
Can you take a short video of how she tries to walk?
Upload it to Youtube then link it here?
 

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