Silkie with troubles walking

[Ruby243]

Hi,

I recently re homed a couple of 3 year old silkies. When I collected them I was told that one has some troubles walking, and that they took her to the vet who said it was likely due to splayed leg as a chick. However she doesn’t seem as perky as the other silkie… lies down a lot and tends to eat and drink more when you put the food right under her. She does eat and drink well but again not the same as the other silkie. I can’t see anything wrong with her legs, other than they seem to tremble a lot, and she seems to try and balance herself with her wings… when she does walk it looks very normal though. Just wondering if there is anything else it could be.

 

[Debbie292d]

I raise silkies, but out of probably a thousand silkies I've hatched, only two have had a minor form of splayed leg, which I treated, and 3 days later they were perfect. My understanding of it is it's a muscle weakness that they soon overcome if caught early. If not, I suppose they'd walk weirdly for the rest of their life? I don't know what makes the vet think something that MAY have happened when they were chicks would affect them 3 years later. They had 3 years to strengthen their legs. Unless he thought their legs were deformed when they hatched, I'd look at something else as generally, splayed leg isn't a permanent affliction.

The first thing I think of (as do most silkie owners) if there's a problem with a silkie, it's probably a vitamin deficiency. We use Rooster Booster granules that we add to our silkies crumbles occasionally which helps bump up their vitamins/minerals.

I've never had an issue with any of our adult chickens, but I keep Poultry Cell on hand just in case, and that's what I would try on yours.