Sick Silkies- 1+ to 3+ year old silkies having trouble walking all of a sudden

[arazla]

Reading this post now and wondering if you learned anything new or have any updates? I have one hen who also suddenly has difficulty walking, but she is a spindly leghorn mix and I suspect a sprain from rough mating, so hoping it's not nutrition related. Can't find any signs of bumblefoot so far.

I find it hard to think of things like cabbage and pumpkin seeds as doing much damage a few times per week. Almost all poultry feeds are just corn, soy and wheat. It seems like it's creating ravenous hunger in my chickens and since I know how corn affects humans, I often wonder if this is really so great and "balanced." Despite the fact that chickens have been bred for centuries, they aren't actually that biologically different from jungle fowl according to the research I've done though most BYCers say differently.

 

[SilkieChickensLove]

Reading this post now and wondering if you learned anything new or have any updates? I have one hen who also suddenly has difficulty walking, but she is a spindly leghorn mix and I suspect a sprain from rough mating, so hoping it's not nutrition related. Can't find any signs of bumblefoot so far.

I find it hard to think of things like cabbage and pumpkin seeds as doing much damage a few times per week. Almost all poultry feeds are just corn, soy and wheat. It seems like it's creating ravenous hunger in my chickens and since I know how corn affects humans, I often wonder if this is really so great and "balanced." Despite the fact that chickens have been bred for centuries, they aren't actually that biologically different from jungle fowl according to the research I've done though most BYCers say differently.

Hi!
Not a ton of changes so far unfortunately. We are giving the b vitamins by dropper several times a day with poultry cell in the water as well. The other two silkies that are having trouble walking are doing about the same as of now.
They are both together-one girl and one roo and they seem to be bonding- which is sweet and we are hoping maybe that will give them a boost as well. The girl can get around - though not like walking she is more scooting- but we find her at different areas of their pen several times during the day and she has hopped up onto a bale of hay a couple of times. Our roo isn't walking yet- he is just laying there. When we try to get him to move, he can move his legs and take 'steps' as long as we hold his body up. One leg seems to be stronger - so keeping fingers crossed the other follows and he gains strength in them both. So far, thankfully, no other chickens are having an issue. It has now been since the weekend of December 9th that my daughter first noticed the roo struggling to walk while we were out of town. He did have a mite infestation at that time - which is what she noticed when she got a closer look while sitting with him. We have treated everyone several times and sprayed the building for the mites several times over the past couple of weeks and are keeping an eye out for the mites. I am not sure if we can just treat the chickens 2x a month indefinitely with permethrin so also have ordered some of the essential oils, garlic, etc to make a spray that will hopefully help in between treating them. Since it has been almost a month- does it might mean it isn't likely to be mareks that the birds have?

The two birds having trouble walking have good appetites and have been eating a lot of their feed but do not seem to want to drink too much water- maybe it tastes bad with all the vitamins. We have been giving them a few blueberries dipped in rooster booster as treats- and we started putting out watermelon for the water content.
We have cut back treats for the flock. They honestly hardly eat the chicken food so we tried making the mash with adding scrambled eggs- they were not crazy interested but did pick the eggs out haha. We tried a different food and they do have the seeds bird mix and oyster shells mixed in- it is pecked at but honestly barely eaten by noon. If we do give a treat - it is not often and later afternoon after they have eaten and just some scrambled eggs or a handful of leaf lettuce, fresh corn or berries for them to share. They are not too happy with the year - new them diet - but I suppose I feel the same about cutting back on my favorite treats too lol.

 

[SilkieChickensLove]

Reading this post now and wondering if you learned anything new or have any updates? I have one hen who also suddenly has difficulty walking, but she is a spindly leghorn mix and I suspect a sprain from rough mating, so hoping it's not nutrition related. Can't find any signs of bumblefoot so far.

I find it hard to think of things like cabbage and pumpkin seeds as doing much damage a few times per week. Almost all poultry feeds are just corn, soy and wheat. It seems like it's creating ravenous hunger in my chickens and since I know how corn affects humans, I often wonder if this is really so great and "balanced." Despite the fact that chickens have been bred for centuries, they aren't actually that biologically different from jungle fowl according to the research I've done though most BYCers say differently.

We did wonder if it was an injury also- especially since the hen has gone back and forth with seeming to be getting around okay and then not again. She does usually live with other hens and a roo so wondered if she was injured.
Even our young rooster that isn't walking right now- same thing. He runs in a bachelor flock and they basically are like brothers- they love each other and love to bug each other as well and they are younger roosters. But since Theodore who was one of the 3 Amigos was an older rooster who also stopped walking and has since passed unfortunately- it makes it less likely to be an injury with 3 birds affected.

I hope that your hen recovers quickly and is back to her usual self soon!

 

[arazla]

It sounds heart wrenching. Seems like you're trying everything possible. I don't know much about Marek's, but obviously seems like something systemic in the flock. I'm sure you considered consulting a vet, maybe that was mentioned somewhere, but I know avian vets or even just vets that will see chickens are few and far between. I haven't been able to find anyone where I live. We had a livestock vet come out once and it was $500. A couple phone calls later and my conclusion is I don't think he really knows much about chickens. We did several rounds and types of treatments for mites, lice and worms and while it's probably less, not sure whether we conquered it or not. We've quietly settled on denial until the weather warms up.

My hen is walking slightly better and we've put her back in with her main flock. But that's partly due to necessity since we have some other evolving situations that require the additional pen, i.e., rooster fights that must be separated, an overweight meat bird that will eat herself to death if left around feeders (she and many others defected to our camp from the neighbor's) etc. But as far as nutrition goes, we gave our stumbling hen small pieces of meat everyday and various healthy seeds such as sprouted soaked lentils in addition to her feed. Tried some colloidal silver in the water for a few days, but I don't feel that confident about the dose so stopped, did a couple epsom salt baths and vetericyn on the feet just in case there was some type of infection. After another hen partook of the silver and increased protein, she suddenly started laying again (it had been around 3 months), so thinking one of these things must have helped someone somehow.

 

[SilkieChickensLove]

So glad that your chicken is doing better and is back with the flock- that is encouraging!
No chicken vet here unfortunately. We have tried to find one many times to no avail. Even our vet that we have for our goats won't see chickens.
Both of our affected silkies seem to be sitting upright a bit better than before-not walking or standing yet. The roo seems more energetic than the hen- she is quite skinny though I did see her preening and eating more today. He seems like his legs may be gaining a bit of strength, hers are not as stiff as they were but don't seem like they have any strength in them. We realized were doing the b vitamins for poultry and the poultry cell but not enough of the b2 was included. We ordered that and have been dissolving the capsule and giving it to them.
I am wondering if anyone knows of a b2 supplement that is the 400mg and is not in the powdered capsule form? They really are not loving that and it doesn't seem to dissolve very easy to give them in a dropper.
We also picked up a liquid b complete that is a sublingual for humans- they seemed to really like the taste of that one but it doesn't have enough of the b2.
If anyone has any suggestions- would appreciate!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Is there a B2 of the right strength that comes in capsule, caplet or pill form that you can just pop right into the beak? Remember, a chicken can swallow a mouse whole so a pill is no problem at all.

 

[arazla]

I came across this in another thread and not sure if it was already explored as a possibility. https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poul...xt=The more severely affected birds,of 1%–10%.
I wasn't aware that it could cause both respiratory issues (which can sometimes be asymptomatic) and tendinitis. In our case, we've been seeing a lot of respiratory issues, in our flock and in the neighbors. Lately one of their turkeys that's been wheezing all the time is having trouble walking and now one of our roosters is limping, possibly others, though slight. Not sure if it's just the cold though, or maybe increased injuries from running around on the ice.