Three year old hen, progressive limp and new tremor in leg

[FarkerFarms]

I have a three year old Welsummer hen. For the last couple of weeks I thought I noticed her limping on one leg. Yesterday I noticed her standing on one leg and the leg she was holding up was shaking. She is now more noticeably limping on that leg. I know Marek's is a concern, but my understanding was that older birds should be less likely to be afflicted. It also doesn't seem to have the fast progression that is typically seen in Marek's. So far the only other thing that may be occurring is weight loss. I noticed a week ago that she seems smaller, but I haven't been weighing her so that may only be in my head. We did pick her up and there are no visible signs of injury to her foot or leg. The rest of the flock seems super healthy as well. Anyone have any ideas? Any help or advice would be appreciated!

 

[fried green eggs]

I would quarantine her from the others. She may have a mild Mereks case and be shedding. Or she got injured? If she doesn't have to move to get to feed and water she may do better. You can give her Childrens Asprin 3X a day for pain or treat her with Corid for mereks. Hope she gets feeling better.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would quarantine her from the others. She may have a mild Mereks case and be shedding. Or she got injured? If she doesn't have to move to get to feed and water she may do better. You can give her Childrens Asprin 3X a day for pain or treat her with Corid for mereks. Hope she gets feeling better.

Corid is a medication for coccidiosis, not Mareks disease. I'm not an expert on Mareks, but I was under the impression that a chicken could catch it at any time when exposed. Could it be that she was exposed more recently by a newer chicken in the flock?

 

[fried green eggs]

Corid is a medication for coccidiosis, not Mareks disease. I'm not an expert on Mareks, but I was under the impression that a chicken could catch it at any time when exposed. Could it be that she was exposed more recently by a newer chicken in the flock?

Thank you for correcting my error

 

[Eggcessive]

Thank you for correcting my error

No problem, I wasn't being picky, just wanted to correct it in case future readers see this.

 

[FarkerFarms]

Some of the things that make me hope it isn't Marek's:

1.) the foot isn't curled and she is using it, just limping
2.) very slow progression, i have noticed her limping over the course of a few weeks and although it seems worse, it isn't drastically so. From my frantic Marek's research it seems like an overnight paralysis that is usually way more drastic than what she is presenting with

Am I crazy for having hope? We did add a couple birds a while back, younger pullets. They made it though the 4 week quarantine period and look fine. She does seem to be moving around and eating, just limping. She was even out free ranging with the flock yesterday. Maybe I should separate her It just seems like a lot of extra work and she would be super sad to be by herself!

 

[Eggcessive]

I have had hens who limped for 5 weeks from a sprain, so while feeding her vitamins I would hold out hope that that is all it is. There are other diseases to research such as tenosynovitis (viral arthritis) and mycoplasma synoviae. Here are some links:
http://www.poultryhub.org/health/disease/types-of-disease/viral-arthritis-tenosynovitis/
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/99/mycoplasma-synoviae-infection-ms-infectious-synovitis

 

[FarkerFarms]

Thanks! That gives me some hope! I am hoping she just injured it jumping from the roost.