What is wrong with my little Barred Rock Pullet??

[steffpeck]

One of my little Barred Rock Pullets looks so strange. She is eating and running around and she acts fine, but she looks weird. She is really small also. She is easily 1/2 the size of the roosters and smaller than my other pullets. It is almost like she has little stumpy legs. Can anyone tell me what they think is wrong with her? I think I may have had Mareks go through my brood, as I have lost a couple of other pullets in her brooder and now I have a roo that is limping. Is this a sign of Mareks?

She is the one in the front....

 

[omelette'smom]

I can't help you , sorry! Are they all from the same breeder? Maybe it's part bantum? Are the toes deformed at all? She looks healthy and sweet as pie in the picture-good luck!

 

[speckledhen]

Steff, I have no idea. Never saw one with short legs from my flock. Perhaps, just one of those flukes where you get a runty bird. It happens on occasion. Though her legs seem a bit short, she looks like she's healthy, just small.

 

[minna]

Is it her legs, or is she hunkered down? I'm not sure what it is, but last year I had several chickens kinda hunkering down, starting to look like little balls, then I lost a few, so I asked a neighbor who has raised chickens all of his life and he said it was a common thing with chickens and a dose of medicated feed would cure it. Sure enough, I fed them 25 lbs of whatever he told my hubby to buy, I can't remember for the life of me, and they perked up.
Has she always been this way?

 

[speckledhen]

Medicated feed wont change anything here. This is just something that happens on occasion, even in the best lines. Not every human baby is perfect, no matter how beautiful the parents are. Same with chickens.

 

[Smartie_Pants]

I have a partridge rock that looks just like that. I was worried and someone on here, I think it was Mikarod, told me that it was a deformation of the egg laying tract. She will still lay and be just fine, but her life span might be shortened a little and she will look like a little funny.

Here is the link to the thread I posted when I saw that mine looked that way:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=96878


You can see Mikarod's response and the pic of my girl.

 

[speckledhen]

Steff, the only thing I can think of, besides the fact that an occasional runt will happen, is that her grandfather, Hawkeye, had legs a tad too short. His son, Dutch, has the proper height, but it's possible she is taking after her grandfather plus some. Also, I have two of her sisters, Zoe and Margaret, both the daughters of Hawkeye with Amanda. Zoe is a big, stocky girl. Margaret is a petite little thing, though she does not have short legs like that. I dont think it's anything to worry about. There has never been any disease in my flock--I really think she's just fine, though small.

 

[steffpeck]

Thanks. She acts perfectly normal, but she has got the shortest little legs. One more question I have, I was just out there holding her and she was breathing really heavy, not congested, just like she had ran a mile. What does that mean?

 

[speckledhen]

She may have been a little stressed for some reason.

 

[maymiegirl]

Well I noticed she is pale. I would supplement her with some carnitine. It is just a wild guess and a longshot but I was studying (which I do on occasion) and reading about breeds such as this one and learned that sometimes they lack carnitine which, yes, results in shortening their lifespans. It causes a condition which the liver is overloaded and the blood is unable to move through due to pressure, causing bloating.

The supplement is healthy and can't hurt. You may see improvement in a week or two but It would be my instinct to add that supplement to this bird's diet. It also may not hurt to give her a little red cell since she is a dark egg layer. (I think) Red Cell at one tablespoon per 5 gallons is good for them but NO MORE. The amount must be exact. It contains selenium.

If not Red Cell, Poly Vi Sol--but not both, for that would be too much for fowl and cause the runs.