Vet said Marek's, I'm not so sure. Help?

[oakhavenmama]

Excellent! I had this same situation a few months ago. Coach723 really helped me. You've got great help here already but if the situation continues to be complicated, I recommend getting help from Coach. I treated mine for Coccidiosis and for sour/impacted crop. She almost made it. Unfortunately when a large ball of straw that had been in there for about a month starting coming out of her mouth, she aspirated. Azygous has written alot of warning about aspirating danger. Fingers crossed that your lady is on the mend!

So sorry for your loss. Especially since she had started to improve.

 

[Kaleido]

Hey, I wanted to update about the hen. She is doing great, and I think I figured out what was going on with her. So while the vet said maybe Marek's, the hen wasn't display the splayed leg problems (she was just very weak), and after taking her home and removing her grain feed, she started doing a little better. This all made me think it wasn't Marek's. I then thought perhaps sour crop, and many helpful people on this forum told me to treat for Coccidiosis (she did look pretty ruffled, which can be a sign), so I bought Corid liquid. I had been massaging her crop (gently, never enough so she would regurgitate) and gave her a direct dose of Corid (the Corid drench mentioned as a link in the forum) and added it to her water. At this point she was only getting hard poached eggs, mashed up. She had improved and wasn't as weak, walking around much better, but her crop still wasn't emptying overnight. I gave her a very small amount of grit, which she gobbled down, but I could feel it still in her crop when I massaged it the next morning. I also added kefir to her eggs for the probiotics.

I had been reticent to try getting olive oil down her throat because of the risk of aspiration, but was at my wits end, so I thought 'why not?' I had a syringe for her and followed the instructions posted on this forum, also recommended by another kind person. I gave her maybe a teaspoon, two times that day. Lo and behold, the next morning she had a large poo and her crop was empty! That was 3 days ago! I have moved her onto her regular feed again today (still with the probiotics) and took her off the Corid. She is looking almost normal and acts perky. I am hoping to move her back outside with her flock in the next couple days (with ample supervision), but as of right now she's looking great, I'm just hoping to give her time to get back to full strength and gain some weight. The only weird thing left is that she holds her tail slightly to the right (muscle weakness or learned behavior?). Regardless, she's back to being a normal happy chicken! Hopefully this won't happen again, but I am better prepared and know the signs of a crop impaction now. Also, I plan to continue to give all my chickens probiotic supplements.

Thanks again to all the wonderful people who helped! I will get a picture of her outside once she's reintroduced.

 

[Kaleido]

I almost wonder if she’s from the hatchery, I had the same problem with 3 hens and almost a 4th! Deworm them all and treat for vitamin B asap. I was told Polish are naturally deficient and on top of the B complex (it’s mostly the thiamin they need) to also add a selenium supplement too. I found one of my alive one’s had tapeworms and seen the layers did too. The 4th one bounced back after the deworming and vitamins… Hope this helps! I lost 3 with no access to a vet.

I'm so sorry you lost your chickens, that's so sad. I wish there were more avian vets with chicken experience. I couldn't find any other vet that would take mine. This forum has helped me a lot and I hope it does for others. Thank you for your advice!