Vitamin B deficiency/Curled toe paralyasis...any hope for recovery? Help please

[cluckey]

I found my chicken hobbling around on her knuckle on Saturday. I called the vet and she gave me Vitamin B complex injections to give her for three days. I dont see much improvement at all. Does anyone know if this damage will be permanent? Would a Boot or brace help her out? I hate to put her down but I'm worried she wont be able to get around to the food and water with all the other chickens in the coop. I have her isolated in the garage now and am feeding her scrambled eggs and yogurt hoping she will improve. Also any suggestions on Riboflavin supplement to add to the feed I have? I'm worried if one is deficient, that the others may be as well. Everything I read online is pretty vague about recovery for this. Thank you!

 

[Chickem707]

I'm curious if anyone has had a grown chicken actually recover from this. My hen Sophie is completely imobile. She's getting the b2 she needs but I'm not seeing any improvement. She's been like thhis now for two weeks.

Any pics? My little chick has been like this for about a month now, she’s began walking a bit, only on her hocks but after a month that’s a lot of improvement. She has a lot of human multivitamin tablets in her water, and egg everyday. I just didn’t give up on her.

 

[Chickem707]

Update! My little one is running around! She will never recover I don’t think, but she’s absolutely adores attention, and can run/flap 5m in about 10 seconds to get to me if she wants. She gets around, but i know she’ll never be a normal chicken. She’s on her own in a wired off part of the field at the moment, until i can get her a tiny friend. All the big chickens can see her, and when i put the cockerels away at night, i let her out to play and she is extremely bossy with the hens if they come near her meal worms, so that’s shows she’s feeling well. She’ll get very angry if she can see me feeding treats to the big chickens without her, and will pace up the side of her area until i let her out. I think she feels quite well, as she certainly acts very spoit!

 

[Brahmachicken240]

I’ll try and get a video tomorrow, but mine has never walked like that. Is she getting better? I think mine must have been some sort of deficiency.

She was the bottom hen in the pecking order and was very light when she got like this,she’s been gaining weight and growing slowly ever since I’ve been giving her the extra attention, still a lot lighter than the others though.
When she first got like this her toes were curled and she couldn’t move them. She can move them now and she doesn’t hold them curled anymore. She still walks the same but her walking distance has improved, she’s trying to get around a bit more when I Have her out off her roost.

 

[Chickem707]

 

[Chickem707]

Could you post a video of her walking around? I’m curious to see how she gets around.
My hen that I believe has been suffering from a Riboflavin deficiency walks around like this

She’s been back with the flock for 3 weeks now, she spends most of the day on her roost with her food and water in a basket beside her.

Here’s a video of her having a dust bath

I’ll try and get a video tomorrow, but mine has never walked like that. Is she getting better? I think mine must have been some sort of deficiency.

 

[chooks4life]

I found my chicken hobbling around on her knuckle on Saturday.

How sure are you that it's a deficiency not a break? The only time I had this happen to me, it was a break, and she didn't recover but that was my fault, I didn't intervene in time. She would sometimes put her foot down the right way and I thought she'd heal quickly as other bone breaks had in my chooks, but in retrospect I should have put a bootie on her foot that held it in the correct position.

I called the vet and she gave me Vitamin B complex injections to give her for three days. I dont see much improvement at all.

Only three days... That's a bit short a time period to expect results in, IMO. It's enough for some species and some deficiency issues, but lameness due to deficiency generally takes longer than other deficiency diseases to recover almost no matter the species.

There's a lot of things that can cause deficiency, and recovery can be rapid or very slow. She may be taking in enough vitamin B's but not synthesizing it correctly, or she may have other health issues basically hogging her intake.

Either way three days is unusually short a time to treat it for, as far as I know; it took a long time to reach the stage it's at, if this is indeed deficiency, and generally around a week is a safer time estimate for a workable treatment to kick in if it's going to.

If she's deficient but still laying, she will be then putting more nutrients into her eggs so a more sustained dose could be necessary due to that alone. Some hens put everything they have into their eggs, at the expense of their own health, others put less into their eggs when supply is short to remain healthier. After all a dead hen broods no eggs so it's not a survival trait the species would naturally retain; super-healthy eggs are useless without a healthy mother to brood them. But commercially that's no use to us since we rarely brood naturally, so when breeding for good laying traits we often prefer hens that deprive themselves to provide better eggs on the cheapest diet possible, before burning out prematurely aged and dying young. What quality of eggs a hen provides is partially genetic in basis, not just dietary.

Does anyone know if this damage will be permanent?

At this stage, no, it's impossible to say.

Would a Boot or brace help her out?

Probably. You'd need one that not only holds her foot in the right position but also holds it at an angle she can use to walk on, if it's limp, so, one that goes onto the shin as well. This could make resting difficult for her, so it might need taking off at night, but the more time her foot spends in the wrong position, the more likely it is to get stuck there, particularly with injuries but also with deficiency caused issues.

This site has lots of useful info about bird booties etc: https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

I hate to put her down but I'm worried she wont be able to get around to the food and water with all the other chickens in the coop. I have her isolated in the garage now and am feeding her scrambled eggs and yogurt hoping she will improve. Also any suggestions on Riboflavin supplement to add to the feed I have?

Red meat is a good one, sometimes I give mine raw pet mince with no additives since plant based nutrients never do as well for them as animal based ones. They're not designed to be vegan yet that's how many people keep them. Some plant sources of B's are good but I wouldn't bank on them generally... Brewer's yeast is one people use a lot for leg issues in poultry, that one's got a good reputation for working.

I'm worried if one is deficient, that the others may be as well. Everything I read online is pretty vague about recovery for this. Thank you!

It's a logical concern for sure, and generally you can't trust normal commercial layer feeds to be any use for true long term health. If you can get her onto a breeder feed instead, and all of them, they will be both healthier and produce healthier eggs. The B vitamins etc in normal layer feeds are too low to support embryo life, so while a small percentage can hatch from eggs from hens kept and bred on layer diets, most won't hatch and the ones that do hatch often suffer deficiency diseases from hatching onwards. Other than that, fermenting or soaking grains helps them digest much more nutrition from them. You can tinker about with chook feeds to find one that suits them. Not all hens do equally well on the same feeds. I hand-mix mine but am still experimenting.

Best wishes.

 

[Eggcessive]

If your vitamin supplement was B Complex, that should contain riboflavin. Riboflavin-rich foods are egg, salmon, liver, beef, pork, spinach, nuts, and sesame seeds. Nutritional yeast is also a good source. You might try making her a shoe to stretch out the toes. Curled toe paralysis can be permanent if not treated early, but also can be a sign of Mareks disease. I hope she starts to improve soon.

 

[MrsBachbach]

I would try some trimmed popsicle sticks under each toe, then wrap with athletic tape part way up the shank. It's possible that just wrapping each toe with enough vet wrap may also help stop the toes from curling. I'd start at the shank then cross the pad and work my way around each toe. You could use the vet wrap instead of athletic tape as it's much easier to work with.

 

[chooks4life]

Good idea there, should also remain flexible enough for the chook to rest without having it taken off overnight, unlike the harder/solid booties I was thinking of.