Silkie thread!

[kaveman]

Miss Kitty sitting on her eggs

 

[kaveman]

Rusty and Elvis.....

Buster...

 

[emvickrey]

Wow thats so odd. The lil blue chick was the only one who I saw his toes effected. The chick that got wry neck was walking fine and it was literally over night. The chick I have now that is limping, i figured could possibly be a mistake, maybe she was dropped but not sure. I just bought a huge bag of purina medicated feed. Is there something wrong with the medicated?. Ive been told forever that I need to keep them on it so im confused. How do I know how much Vit b to put over their food? I just use an auto 1quart feeder and they just all eat throughout the day. How would I manage who would get too much or too little of any vitamins I put on it? Doesent those Vit-al powders have vit b in it?

I looked through that websight you posted at each of those diseases and the symptoms for each and couldnt find out that directly sounded like any of my sick chicks. All of mine, were all different problems but im sure they are all related to vitamins de

I bought several adult birds from a well known breeder and upon arrival a couple of them where sick. Without an avian vet I was left to find information online and ask for help from others on here. I lost the first bird just 2 weeks after he arrived, another a few months later. He just slowly withered away no matter what I tried that I had access to. I had a necropsy done on him and it was mycoplasma. They just wither away slowly, he apparently did it slower than normal. The last one that died did it last winter. He was an adult and never had any interest in breeding. He got dirreah and I treated him for it but had no luck and I came home from the store and he was dead in the cage. After that we got an avian vet at our local veterinary hospital thank goodness. I have 3 of the 9 birds left that I had bought and they are doing fine.

I have had birds show symptoms of 2 diseases and it only be one. My house hen is a white sizzle and she has a defornity of her sinus on one side and also blind on that side. She has been otherwise healthy the past 5 years even though I bring in any birds that get sick. This winter was hard on my silkies and I had several that had to go to the vet. Then George my house hen got sick. She stopped laying and would molt then stop then molt again. She also turned white, skin, beak, comb, feet. She looked like that boy on the movie Powder. She was also showing depression. That could have been Mereks or Ulcerative Enteritis. She didn't have the runny poops of the latter or the paralized limbs of the Mereks. The treatment for the latter was simple. Give her duramyacin for a week. So I tried the one I could cure with the meds I had on hand and she was cured. She is back to her feisty self and has grown all her feathers back. Chickens are hard to diagnose I"ve noticed. Some things are clear cut what they are but the more difficult diseases are a real buggar to figure out.

I posted a few pages back where I thought I had a mereks outbreak and I had lost the first one after trying to help her myself and I had a necropsy done. While I was waiting for the results I had 2 more do what she did. I found them still in bed with their legs out in front of them, head down and wings out. They litterlly couldn't move hardly at all which is a Mereks sign. So instead of trying to fix them I just took them out and culled right away. Oh I did find alot of mites on the first one and treated everybody in the juvie pen and the pen in case it was that. Then the other 2 came down unmoveable. I was devastated because I had bought 6 in hopes of getting mostly girls. I ended up with 2 girls and 4 boys. The first one that died was a girl, the second and third where boys but one of the boys was one I wanted to keep. I had a hen get a bacterial infection in her lungs and she went to the vet. Thats when I found out we had an avian vet. Then another boy came down with the not being able to move much. He wasn't as bad but I took him in anyway. The vet said he is showing signs of Mereks but he wanted to try something. He had somebody bring him a bird that showed signs of Mereks and they put the bird down and had a necropsy done. The results was worms. They could have saved the bird so he wormed my bird in case it was that, he also gave him a shot with vitamins with steroid. The vitamins where in case it was a deficiancy and he gave me a bottle of vitamins to give him everyday and the steroid was in case it was a brain injury and if he had any brain swelling it would help but he would have a long recovery. Well that bird is still alive and doing well. He was having a problem with when he would stand his legs would slide sideways, and he would take his steps as if he couldn't feel where the floor was. So I took a look at his feet. His feathers on his feet are so thick that he was actually walking on them. So I gave his feet a hair cut. When he is on the ground he walks just fine. When he is on our wood floors he slides and does the high stepping. He has even made friends with my house hen and they now share a pen.

So not all diagnoses are definate to what the "book" says they are. There are like underlying things that should be kept in mind. When I have birds that are sick I bring them in and they stay in the living room where I can watch them closely for how they act and what they do. From how they move to how they eat to how they poop. I monitor it all. It's hard to diagnose a chicken when it's outside and it don't get the 24/7 monitoring. It's alot of work to keep the house from stinking like a barn but to me it is so worth it to be able to save my feathered friends and keep them healthy.

 

[emvickrey]

Rusty and Elvis..... Buster...

I have an Elvis, and a Pricilla and a Lisa. lol They are all girls though

 

[roostercantrell]

roostercantrel, Do you know the breed of the 2 chicks in the 3rd pic? They looks to have feathered legs and feet. From what I can see they look like Porcelain d'Uccle. Regardless of the breed I would say they are porcelain in color.

supposed to be silkies at least that is what i was told when i bought them

 

[roostercantrell]

roostercantrel, Do you know the breed of the 2 chicks in the 3rd pic? They looks to have feathered legs and feet. From what I can see they look like Porcelain d'Uccle. Regardless of the breed I would say they are porcelain in color.

is porcelian a rare or not too comon color. igot them coz they were a pretty color

 

[Sylvester017]

I had a scare this winter. I had 3 juvies that showed symptoms of Mereks. The first one died and when I had 2 more show signs of paralyzed legs I culled them trying to prevent anymore form getting it while I waited for the necropsy report. In the report it said she had phneumonia. She had no symptoms of it at all. I had a 4th one come down with it and he went to the vet. He wormed him first then gave him a shot of steriod and vitamins. The steroid was in case it was a brain injury, vitamins in case of a d eficiency and wormed him for the obious reason. He said that he once had a chicken patient that presented with classic Mereks symptoms and when the necropsy report came back it was worms.

They where fine one day and the next morning they where down and didn't make it out of their bed. Their feet where out in front of them and they couldn't hold up their heads or move their wings. Classic Mereks sign. It only happened with the ones I bought and I kept them in the juvie pen with some I hatched from my stock. They grew up all together since they all hatched the same time. Two of the 6 I bought never came down with it. So I lost 3 out of the 6.

The one boy that didn't come down with it did develop a crooked cross beak. He is very pretty and I don't think he can hang on to breed.I really don't need another roo so he is up for grabs to anybody willing to take him in as a pet. I can't ship because I have no box. If anybody is interested in him let me know by PM. I'll take pics tomorrow.

I understand that there are a lot of ailments/diseases that can behave like Marek's. I lost a juvie to worms with the same symptoms you describe and by the time the breeder returned my emails to suggest treating her for it she was already dead. Why do breeders not worm their chickens is a mystery to me especially if they are shipping them out as an order? Anyway we have put our 4 girls throughout the year on a worming schedule, lice/mite preventative schedule, and scaly mite preventative schedule including their coop. Plus Poly-Vi-Sol no iron children's vitamin drop (1 drop not dropperfull) 2-3x/week. Such a life-saving easy schedule to prevent such senseless losses.

Hope you find a home for your roo - the boys are such sweeties but we're not zoned.

 

[Iluvmysilkies]

Oh yeesh... Yeah. I would say this is definitely an issue with that breeder. How horrible, I hate that
I'm so sorry. You gave those poor babies a fighting chance and saved the ones still alive. There are so many irresponsible breeders out there. I have a Maine Coon cat that I bought from a cattery run like a puppy mill, because I felt I had to get him out of that environment. I then called the humane society on that person, it was terrible conditions. This poor cat took a year to get him back to health. It makes me so mad when people do that. If those babies are doing well, I'd give that brooder a good clean and fresh bedding daily for a few days, just in case. I'm so sorry, what a terrible experience.

Thanks, I feel on edge every morning to check on them now, almost just expecting to find another dead. So far they all seem fine except for the one limping Just makes me feel so hopeless and angry.

 

[Iluvmysilkies]

The amprolium in the chick starter is a thiamine inhibitor . Do you have marmite or chia seeds? Both good sources of thiamine. The marmite dissolved in hot water and added to feed would be one way of administering B1. I feed medicated feed to my chicks so don't get me wrong I'm not condemning the product . Coccocidiosis is hideous too.

So I should be returning the medicated feed to get non-medicated and crush up vitamin b and put it on top of their food? But wouldnt it just fall through the crumbled feed? Is thiamine vital for silkies? I am just confused about this whole thing. I never had to stress so much about my silkie growing up. He ate the cheapest stuff cause we didnt know any better. He was healthy and happy. Its sad im having all these issues with these babies when its suppose to be a fun experience with my kids

 

[Fancychooklady]

So I should be returning the medicated feed to get non-medicated and crush up vitamin b and put it on top of their food? But wouldnt it just fall through the crumbled feed? Is thiamine vital for silkies? I am just confused about this whole thing. I never had to stress so much about my silkie growing up. He ate the cheapest stuff cause we didnt know any better. He was healthy and happy. Its sad im having all these issues with these babies when its suppose to be a fun experience with my kids  

There is no reason not to feed the medicated feed to healthy chicks, but if you are having wryneck symptoms then you would be better to feed unmediated feed.
Mix a bit of marmite in with some scrambled egg for the limping chick. Or If you already have polyvisol then continue to use it. You seem unsure about how this one got the limp, as you say it could be an injury. I find scrambled egg is the easiest thing to mix meds or vitamins into and I haven't met a chicken yet that doesn't like scrambled egg.