Sitting chicken? possible injury please help!

[kychilds]

so i have a 5 week old RIR that i hatched myself in an incubator, along with 11 other brothers and sisters. last week there was an untimely death so now we are down to 11. then there's this poor baby, i included pictures of the way he keeps sitting. he sort of scoots around and he CAN walk, i have seen him get up and walk but for the most part he sits around like this. this morning when i went out to let them out of their coop everyone ran out besides this one which was laying on his side panting almost. i picked him up and noticed his ears were bleeding so i took him inside and sat him next to a bowl of water to make sure he could stay hydrated and then i cleaned up the blood on his ears and i have him secluded by himself with food and water closeby because i'm worried if he has too much room to roam that he will get too far away from his food and water and not be able to get to it. one last thing, when i first picked him up i set him down outside of the coop so i could give the other babies more food and water, one of the other chicks jumped on top of this one and it almost looked the way it does when roosters mate with the hens and it was just so shocking to me and i have no idea what any of it means!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

He's a bit young but Mareks comes to mind.

I've seen chicks do that to each other, jumping on them and pecking or pretend mating, it's all dominance behaviors, especially towards smaller or weaker ones.

It's possible he took a bunch of good pecks to the head due to the blood, which can sometimes cause brain injuries.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I must concur. That is the classic presentation of Merak's but then again Botulism and Marek's Disease both involve paralysis.

 

[kychilds]

He's a bit young but Mareks comes to mind.

I've seen chicks do that to each other, jumping on them and pecking or pretend mating, it's all dominance behaviors, especially towards smaller or weaker ones.

It's possible he took a bunch of good pecks to the head due to the blood, which can sometimes cause brain injuries.

is this something that can spread to my other birds?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Well generally if one has it they have all been exposed at some point. In my experiences with Mareks it is hit and miss, and it's basically everywhere. So yes more than one chick can show symptoms, but many become immune to it or are unaffected by it.

 

[ChickNanny13]

Think the bloody ears was from being picked on, other knowing it's not up to par. It's good that you separated it, less injury & in case it is something catching. Could it be a vitamin deficiency; riboflavin? What are you feeding the chicks? Is it eating, drinking & pooping? How did the other pass, was it ill?
I had a 3wk old chick (out of 38 chicks) start off with what I thought was splayed leg, then it's toes curled so I treated (advice from BYC member) with PolyVisol without iron, taped it's toes flat with bandaid tape, boiled egg yolk with it's crumbles & vitamins/electrolytes in it's water. Daily moved it's legs to keep it mobile, took about 2wks although seemed longer, he was walking.
The way yours has it's legs in the picture, I first thought splayed leg. I'm not familiar with Mareks (don't want to be) nor had to deal with Botulism (thank goodness). Good luck and hope he gets better. Keep a close eye on the rest.