Silkie Rooster can't stand up.

[country]

For what it's worth, I've had 3 Silkies with the same symptoms. One was a roo, 1 1/2 yrs old, but I think he had something serious going on. His eyes were runny along with the loss of balance & he had lost some weight before I noticed that he wasn't making it to the feeder. The other 2 were beautiful young birds, 1 roo, 1 pullet. With both, the first symptom was laying on their side. I propped them up in a small container & hand fed & watered them. Also gave lots of yummy yogurt, which was all they would eat at first. Within 3 days the pullet was back to normal & is doing great. The roo died in 2 days. They didn't seem to me to have any head trauma. It was more like they were too ill to sit upright or walk. I still don't know what was going on with them, so I'm really hoping for an update on your roo. I'm hoping for the best for you & your Silkie boy.
Country

 

[Buster]

Sorry to hear you are having troubles. I've never experienced anything like that with my birds but I will watch for updates so I can be informed. Good luck LCRT.

 

[SpottedCrow]

How's he doing today, LCRT?

 

[LittleChickenRacingTeam]

He was still going downhill as of yesterday. I had decided that I was going to put him down today.

He passed away last night. Almost like he knew I would have a hard time doing it.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=90655

 

[seminolewind]

LCRT, I am soooo sorry. My thoughts are with you. I'm sure he went to that serene world where they send all pets. It's never easy, is it. --Karen

 

[SpottedCrow]

So sorry...

I wouldn't have been able to do it either...:aww

 

[hschweitzer]

We have had several silkies of various ages with the same problem, and I would love to know what it actually is. Currently I have one young silkie with the "dropsy"... legs sprawled out, wings sprawled, can't hold head up and just lies there breathing. I thought she was a goner yesterday but she rallied in the evening. Still breathing this morning, I'll try more vitamins-- just had electrolites in water until now. If I can I'll get a video and post it so we can all have a reference... maybe it will help diagnose in the future. Seems with the dropsy that if you catch it early they rally easily, but am still waiting to see if little girl gets over it.

 

[seminolewind]

Wow, you really had to dig deep to find that thread! That was a long time ago. LCRT was an interesting man. Talked tough, but his chickens lived in his mud room during the winter. He had a bantam he used to race pulling a Kentucky fried chicken bucket.

Anyway, with Marek's usually the older ones waste away and the younger chickens (under 8 months or so) have the paralysis.
Since my first chicken got it 2 years ago, I had a chicken waste away about every few months. Never knew what it was till this past summer when all ten hatched chicks died with paralysis. Classic pose is one leg forward one leg behind. But the legs can be in different positions than that.

I hope it's not Marek's. Did you try vitamins, especially B? No bad food?

 

[hschweitzer]

Oh good, from the sound of it ours don't have Mareks Have the little sick one on my lap, tucked in a cashmere sweater, and she's getting that camphor smelling stuff for her congestion, and drank 3 ml of superwater with vitamins etc... dissolved in it. I have some Baytrol but am not sure if it would help or not, and I don't want it to make her more stressed. Is Baytrol good for respiratory issues? It seems that might be the culprit, and that she is just really knocked out from that? She can move and get up, but just might be too weak?

 

[seminolewind]

Well, another bad thing about Marek's is that the symptoms don't follow the rules all the time.