Urgent- paralysed chicken

[hello123]

HI. I am a new member and joined because one of our chickens is paralysed and breathing quite heavily. She was found paralysed sitting in the grass but we gave her some food and she seemed fine. I thought it might be marek's disease but apparently they have one leg foward and one leg back and both hers are facing backwards. Also she was paralysed suddenly and not over a few days. I think mareks comes about slowly? She started breathing more heavily yesterday. She is still eating and drinking but seems to be a bit more unwell today. I would feel really bad if I put her to sleep if their was an easy solution but my parents will not take her to the vets unless there is a proper diagnosis etc.,
PLease please help if you have any ideas about what it might be,
THanks.

 

[Dar]

when mareks hit my coop we lost 3 VERY fast!

one did have one leg forward and one leg back but the other ones just flopped and were dead within hours with both legs backward

 

[hello123]

Did any of yours survive? I don't know whether it would be kinder to put her to sleep will give an update on how she's doing later on but I expect it will be much the same. What would you do in my situation? THankyou so much for your time in helping me it is really appreciated,
Thanks.

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

I strongly suggest you invest in taking this one bird to the vet tomorrow. Not with the goal of saving this bird, but with the goal of saving your flock.

I suggest you google Marek's. It is VERY common.

PLEASE also take this bird to the vet. Get a determination and instructions.

I'm sorry you're going through this. I hope the good can be found through gaining more knowledge about keeping chickens.

Please do let us know what you find out and good luck!

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

Quote:
Yikes! It doesn't sound like Marek's though -- Marek's disease wouldn't hit and kill 3 chickens so quickly. Maybe something they ate instead?

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

Quote:
She could have Marek's, but could also be botulism. There are also other diseases that can cause a chicken to become paralyzed. Here's a link to some charts with symptoms you can check out:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

If you are able to take her to a vet, you'll need to find an avian vet - your local veteranarian may be able to refer you if they don't treat birds themselves.

 

[Dar]

Quote:
Yikes! It doesn't sound like Marek's though -- Marek's disease wouldn't hit and kill 3 chickens so quickly. Maybe something they ate instead?

the first one was confirmed by the OVC (ont vet college) they wanted the body for student work... and when they called with the results they said the other 2 were most likely affected as well but because I already buried them I was not going to dig them up for testing... ewwww

 

[hello123]

Thankyou so much for the page of common chicken diseases. It really sounds like botulism which is great because it can be cured!

I will try to persuade my parents to take her to the vet which they might do if i agree to pay the expense. I don't know where she could have eaten the infected food seeing as no other chickens have it so it can't be grain or pellets. However we do feed them food from the kitchen which could have gone off? Thankyou so much for your help,
Eloise

 

[CityChick15]

Any news? One of my chicks just died on Friday and the vet said it was not botulism because the entire body was not paralyzed so I sent her off for a necropsy.
I hope you have a good outcome!

 

[tammye]

in an older hen sudden onset of leg paralysis can be caused from a vitamin deficiency, may be worth a try to give them some chicken vitamins, took two weeks for mine to get better, but she is fine now, keep her separated from the others until she gets better