Still won't walk at all, occasionally stands, sorta....

[juliawitt]

Okay, my Dominique has not walked even one step since Tues. I am very worried. She is eating and drinking. She is still laying eggs. When I pick her up, she does not seem to ever put any pressure on her left leg. She does not act like she is in pain. There is no obvious injury to either of her legs. She does not have an impacted crop, and she is doing all her personal business just fine. Since she will not, or can not stand, this means I am now cleaning a chickens butt feathers to make sure she doesn't get maggots in her vent. She is very alert, her color is good, but she absolutely can not stand!! I thought she heat stroked last Sunday. She was very hot and would not walk then, but came back around on Monday. She was fine until Tuesday night. Now, she has not improved at all. She is a favorite because she is so well tempered. However, my husband has given her until Monday afternoon to pull out of it. I am giving her extra protein, watermelon, cottage cheese, peaches and keeping her water fresh. I am taking her out of the house and letting her rest under a shade tree with water and food. My husband is serious because we both must go out of town next Tuesday and we can not expect someone else to baby her around. He will not let me have a parapeligic chicken....So, any ideas!! Time is getting short.

 

[cracked_egg]

I know this isn't much help, but I had a horse who got heat stroke due to fliees and just being black. We were out of town for my grandmas funerral (they had shade stupid horses)... Anyway, I gave her iv fluids, and she come around but she never was quite "right" after that... Trouble standing and getting up and down. We put Her down that fall before hard winter hit and she had to fight the snow when turned out (plus I was worried she die in a stall overnight, not good)...

Hope someone else has better ideas...

 

[chickbird]

Quote:
probably has marek's.

 

[juliawitt]

Thought of that, but she has been vacinated, so I don't think that is it........

 

[ranchhand]

Any chance she got into some wet, moldy feed in the past? It can cause permanant neurological damage very similar to Marek's, but isn't Marek's. The leg paralysis and good appetite make me think of it. My vet and I each lost chickens to it last year, they were eating food out of the cracks in the coop/run, that had gotten moldy after the rains.

 

[juliawitt]

Very interesting.....Yes, there is always that chance. We had caught her digging in an old trash sight, that we did not know about until her scratching and digging uncovered some of the old bottles etc. This morning when we took her out for her time in the sun, my husband and I decided to cull her tomorow morning. This afternoon, I took her some fresh peach to nibble and she stood up for me. My husband took her some fresh chard, and she stood up for him . This evening she was eating like a little pig. Her "waste" is nice and firm, and her color is great. She is very perky and she is talking. So, again, we are giving her more time to recover. She is just such a sweet chicken. She loves to be picked up, carried around and cuddled. She comes right to you, and she is always polite to the other chickens. She is the princess and obviously, we just can't cull her yet. We will see what tomorow holds, for all I know, she run to meet me, or she may not be trying to walk at all. My fingers are crossed.

 

[chickbird]

Quote:
i bought chicks 5-5-10 from ideal and had them vaccinated for mareks, i've had one to die with leg paralysis and i have two more with paralysis...one with paralysis of one leg. the other with only one foot paralysized...i have been told that they can still have marek's even if vaccinated, usually a lighter case with survival.

 

[juliawitt]

I appreciate all input, so I spent quite sometime yesterday researching Mareks. She doesn't have any other symptoms except her leg problem. She is laying everyday, eating, drinking and isn't loosng weight. What started everything, was last Sunday, I let them out to free range in my yard. She went running off to her spot (the afore mentioned trash dump) and then after an hour of intense digging and eating where there was glass, motor oil etc. she didn't not return. I found her laying under a tree with possible heat exhaustion or stroke. I'm thinking it was stroke-it makes sense. She recovered, and I let her free range again on Tues. She went to the same spot, and I found her under the tree unable to walk. So, all I can think of is, she ate something really, really bad for her, or she has stroked out. But at least she appears to be recovering....slowly. Even though my husband and I have to go out of town, we have figured a way to do different days, so we aren't going to cull yet. We are just so silly---But we really like this chicken. Oh, one more thing. She has always been my weakest chicken. She has been nursed other times in the last year. She appears to just not be as robust as the others.......