I had had a horrible day. I found two of my little 5.5 week old Cream Legbar cockerels paralyzed this morning. One was able to move some but the other could not. I removed them but could not get them to eat or drink. I did some research and a guy who bought cream legbars from the approximate same hatch date as mine posted that one of his arrived sick and the other became sick the following week. I was in a panic about Marek's so I took both of them for euthanasia and necropsy at UC Davis. I just got the preliminary report back and there is no evidence of Mareks or anything else that would cause paralysis. They suspect riboflavin deficiency. These guys have been on Purina Medicated Chick Starter since I got them, in fact from the same 50# bag. I am just devastated and wonder if I could have saved them had I known more about what was wrong.
Here are the findings:
No significant gross lesions were found at postmortem. Given the clinical signs the most likely cause would be riboflavin (vitamin B2) deficiency, however at this time this is just a presumption. Unfortunately we cannot check for vitamin B2 in tissue samples. If no other cause for the leg paresis is found after all of our testing is completed, and riboflavin deficiency is still suspect, Vitamin B supplementation would be recommended. We could also try to find a lab that could test feed for riboflavin levels but there would definitely be a fee charged by any outside lab for this testing.
Histology and several diagnostic tests are underway to try to better characterize the problem. An updated report will follow.
I just got the report. Does anyone have experience with this? How do I supplement and how much? Right now I am just going to add some vitamin and electrolyte solution to the drinking water because I have it on hand.
