Silkie paralysed legs

[Squirglederk]

I have been away for 2 weeks. The morning I left noticed a 4 year old silkie hen using a wing to support herself. I penned her separately. My adult daughter has been caring for them. 6 of 8 of them have been vaccinated against Mareks, wormed with Nilverm and powdered against mites. I came home last night and she has no use of either legs, my daughter has been giving her pentavite, childrens vitimins. Drove 50km round trip to vet, who advised shes not good with birds but gave us ph no. Of a bird vet. They wanted a consult fee of $120, more than double our vet. We have opted to euthanase tonight so this is a cry for last minute help. Due to unwanted bird visitors, a few months ago purchased a treadle feeder for their layer pellets. The older ones still cannot use it and wait for the youngsters to open it. As she is at the bottom of the pecking order I've been wondering that maybe shes not been getting her pellets and just been free ranging. Thought I might try Vitimin B. My question is, should I try this? Might it work? How long before I would see improvement? And how much and what sort of Vitimin B should I use. I'm in Australia. Thanks in advance

 

[heatherlaw]

Is she eating and drinking? Any other symptoms?

 

[Squirglederk]

No other symptoms. She seems in ok health. She has lost weight, possibly because she cannot get to the feed. She eats if I hand feed her today. I mixed some salmon and cooked egg so I could put the only Vitimin B I had which was a human effervescent tablet. She had a feed of that. I'm going to have to hand feed her if this is the case. She hasn't drunk, but the salmon was quite liquidy. She will eat layer pellets from my hand. I just don't know if I should euthanise, or give her a chance now I'm home. If I knew it was Mereks, I would euthanise her, but for the life of me, I don't think it is. Any suggestions would be appreciated. thanks.

 

[heatherlaw]

Keep doing the baby vitamins. Also try small doses of selenium and vitamin E. If you can get poultry vitamins there then buy some of those. I live in the US so we have different things sometimes. Most important is water. If she isn't drinking you may need to tube some into her. Just offer it frequently if she will drink on her own. Try adding a little apple cider vinegar to the water. It's good for her and may make her want to drink. Mine will trample each other to get to the water when I add ACV. So long as she seems in no pain then giver her a couple weeks on the vitamins to see if she improves. If it is a vitamin deficiency it will take a while before you start to see results but as long as she's happy and not in pain it doesn't hurt to try.

 

[Squirglederk]

Thanks, I will try these.