Sick Chicken w/ bad balance

[liltorg]

I have a 8 month old barred rock that is very sick. She can not stand on her own and seems to rock back on to her butt to sit. She can not lift her neck and keeps it tucked in. Other than that though she appears healthy. I have been giving her poly-vi-sol and vitamin E thinking she might have wry neck... Any suggestions?

 

[PeepersMama]

If she is not isolated she needs to be asap. The first thing that comes to my mind is mareks. If you notice other chickens with the same symptoms or coughing/sneezing, take extreme biosecurity measures: only wear one pair of shoes out to take care of them, don't let any one outside family in their yard, don't go into any other chicken's yards, etc. Mareks isn't fun at all; we had to cull half the flock in october due to what we are pretty sure was mareks. There were 3 chickens that all showed one of the symptoms you described. Poor balance, neck issues, and one died while she had a problem with her foot, but she was in perfect health otherwise, so it could have been something else.
Keep giving her vitamin E. If wry neck is the problem, then that will help.
Hope she doesn't do anything stupid (like die)!

I hate when I here another story like mine.

 

[liltorg]

Can I give her anything to treat that??

 

[PeepersMama]

I always avoid using medecine wherever possible, so I don't know anything to treat her besides the vitamin E. If it is mareks, then there is no treatment, which sucks. Since she's eating and drinking, then just don't give her any reason to move. You could try building a sling for her to sit in so she can preen her feathers. I wish we had done that for our roo that couldn't stand well; it would've made his life so much better.

In hind sight, we should've culled the sickies way sooner. It would've stopped the disease's spread though the flock, and ended Arrow's miserable last few days. Once we culled the sick ones, the disease pretty much resolved itself. One chicken had a runny nose for a while, but she recovered on her own. As long as there aren't any other signs of sickness in the rest of the flock, you could keep her around and try to treat her, but I don't know medicines very well. Hopefully someone else sees this thread.

 

[Eggcessive]

I have a 8 month old barred rock that is very sick. She can not stand on her own and seems to rock back on to her butt to sit. She can not lift her neck and keeps it tucked in. Other than that though she appears healthy. I have been giving her poly-vi-sol and vitamin E thinking she might have wry neck... Any suggestions?

She could be dehydrated or have any number of illnesses. How long has she been like this? Does her neck seem stuck down, droopy, or just drawn back into her shoulders? Can you check inside her vent with a finger 1-2 inches for a stuck egg? Feel of her crop for something stuck (impacted crop) or to see if it is empty. Check her poops for blood or diarrhea. Look her skin over around the vent and elsewhere for tiny buggs like lice or mites. Put some SaveAChick or other brand of electrolytes and vitamins in her water, and feed her with a dropper or spoon to get her drinking. Poultry Cell or NutriDrench can be given instead 1-3 ml by mouth daily, plus her water.

 

[liltorg]

One of my other birds just came down with the same symptoms...

 

[liltorg]

But it looks like her bum has a red rashy type of thing with a scab

 

[Eggcessive]

What was the outcome with the first chicken you originally posted about? How old is the newly sick one? What are the symptoms? Can you post a picture of her bottom? Has she been pecked by another chicken? Is she eating and drinking if you feed her some chopped egg? How do her droppings look?

 

[liltorg]

My other two died after about a week. She is only about 9 months old. She was squawking up a storm a couple of days ago and now she sits on the back of her legs and can't walk. She has very bad balance. But other than that looks healthy. She has been drinking some. I checked for a stuck egg and there is none. But she keeps trying to clean her butt. She has not been pecked at.

 

[liltorg]