wobbly weak legs, falling over, why??

[zenstarling]

I have two 3 1/2 year old hens we’ll call Miss Barred and Miss Buff, that are showing this symptom: off balance, weak-looking wobbly legs, stumbling and flopping over and using their wings to steady themselves. Standing in one place seems okay, but they are having trouble getting around.

They are both near or at the bottom of the order, both have had prior chicken ER issues in the past (one sour crop, one respiratory).

Beyond the balance issues they don’t seem ill necessarily. They’re both eager to eat, to be active and do chicken stuff, but stumbling attempting to do so. They have alert bright eyes and their comb color seems normal for off season. However Miss Buff feels noticeably light and wispy in a not-normal way like she lost substantial weight, compared to picking up my other buff who feels heavy and robust compared. Ms Buff is currently soft molting.

I have a closed flock of 12, the other 10 ladies look totally fine. We don’t have any exposure to other flocks or chickens.

These two ladies have been separated from the flock as of yesterday. Ms Barred started symptoms earlier a week or two ago and seems steadier now, Ms Buff who I noticed struggling only yesterday is even more wobbly today. Every step she takes she is off balance and she is struggling to stay upright except when she just stands still.

Someone on my local fb chicken page suggested they might be being bullied and blocked from eating with the rest of the flock. When I brought them inside together yesterday afternoon I offered them scrambled egg, sardines and wet feed mash, and they were STARVING and both ate a TON. I sprinkled electrolytes on the egg and got Ms Buff to take yogurt with electrolytes. This morning Ms Buff took a couple Nutri-drench drops on egg pieces. She wanted to drink water, but struggled to get herself over to it and balanced enough to reach down to scoop her beak.

I am letting the two of them continue to rest in my garage with as much food available as they want. I am continuing to hand-feed Miss Buff in my lap as she’s having such a hard time balancing enough to peck food herself. She had a big appetite and ate lots more egg and yogurt. She looks alert and seems to want to be active.

Does anybody know what this could be? Could it simply be weakness from not enough to eat? A particular vitamin deficiency? A sign of illness?

Thank you!

 

[CCsGarden]

Yes, most likely the are starving and are weak from not eating. The longer they go without eating and drinking, the weaker the will get until they die, if not taken care of fast. Good for you for bringing them in! Keep on feeding and giving them water and Nutri-drench! If need give them extra vitamins, B complex and E in some yogurt.

 

[zenstarling]

Yes, most likely the are starving and are weak from not eating. The longer they go without eating and drinking, the weaker the will get until they die, if not taken care of fast. Good for you for bringing them in! Keep on feeding and giving them water and Nutri-drench! If need give them extra vitamins, B complex and E in some yogurt.

Thanks for your reply! Great, I’ll keep doing this routine. I gave each hen a half a B complex tablet this morning. You really think it sounds like they’re being starved?? This is so crazy to me.

 

[Eggcessive]

They are so low in pecking order, the others are not letting them eat. I would take them aside in the am and just before roost time, and feed them separately daily, but then let them out with their flock to remain members. Separating them will probably cause it to become worse. If they can have their own separate area from now on they might thrive, but that would be a headache to many of us. Here is a good article on how to help bullied chickens regain their confidence:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

 

[CCsGarden]

Thanks for your reply! Great, I’ll keep doing this routine. I gave each hen a half a B complex tablet this morning. You really think it sounds like they’re being starved?? This is so crazy to me.

What is there weight? and what do there droppings look like?

 

[MROO]

Going forward, try adding a second feeder and waterer to your set-up. Make sure they are separated, so your lower-ranked hens can get to them while the bullies are at another station. Some sort of visual block would help, too. I have a large stump in my lower run. The second feeder is behind it, beyond the line-of-sight of the main feeding station. It gives my youngsters a chance to grab a bite before any of the big girls even see them.

 

[zenstarling]

They are so low in pecking order, the others are not letting them eat. I would take them aside in the am and just before roost time, and feed them separately daily, but then let them out with their flock to remain members. Separating them will probably cause it to become worse. If they can have their own separate area from now on they might thrive, but that would be a headache to many of us. Here is a good article on how to help bullied chickens regain their confidence:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/

Thanks so much! I’ll think this through and see what I can do. Do you think they’ll be able to recover from the wobbly-ness with just the food and vitamins?

 

[zenstarling]

What is their weight? and what do there droppings look like?

I don’t know their weights other than Ms Buff is much, much lighter than she normally is and her keel bone is very prominent. Droppings look pretty normal, maybe more watery than typical yesterday because they hadn’t been eating enough.

 

[Project Blue]

I would look into botulism. It's very possible the lowest in the pecking order might have to eat less desirable decayed food. I think if it were starvation, they'd pick up very quickly with what you are feeding them. Botulism with chickens the legs get wobbly and they kind of flap about. I had turkeys poults get a deficiency that caused a similar weak behavior but I was using way too much commercial feed. It sounds like your chickens are extremely well-fed so it's unlikely l they are suffering from starvation or deficiency unless you routinely run out of food in the coop. I have much lower ranking chickens living with bigger birds that just eat when the bigger birds get busy elsewhere. However, like the others said, feeding in different locations is always a good idea, especially in a small coop.

 

[zenstarling]

Going forward, try adding a second feeder and waterer to your set-up. Make sure they are separated, so your lower-ranked hens can get to them while the bullies are at another station. Some sort of visual block would help, too. I have a large stump in my lower run. The second feeder is behind it, beyond the line-of-sight of the main feeding station. It gives my youngsters a chance to grab a bite before any of the big girls even see them.

Great ideas. I have two stations set up but probably ideally need 3 or 4. I have one heated dog bowl for winter water. We’ve had such cold winter weather here I haven’t been up there much and they haven’t been out tractoring like they had all fall. Something must have started up recently that I didn’t see happening. I noticed the first hen getting wobbly just about 3 weeks ago.