Young hens walking shakily, wobbly, losing balance

[the5ksinusa]

Hi
we have a little flock of 8 young chicken (3 months) and one older hen. Two of the young ones (hens) have started having trouble keeping balance, walking wobbly, shaky legs. One had this since about a week, the other since 2 days now. A third one today we were not sure of.
They eat and drink and are alert, just lie down a bit more . We separated them from the others, first within the coop, today I removed their pen from the coop. They were on medicated grower feed but a few weeks ago we switched to to non medicated grow feed. We now have switched back and also started giving all of them vitamins. Otherwise they get grass/clover and fruit/vegetables from the garden or the kitchen. They have a big house with pine shavings as bedding and a run.
Any ideas what this could be, how to treat it ourselves and how contagious it might be????
Thanks!

 

[welasharon]

I would do what youare doing with the vitamins and maybe also add crushed vitamin B complex tablets in their feed. The vitamins I would put one drop in the beak once or twice a day for a few days to get them started. If this doesn't help then at least it won't hurt.

 

[TeamChaos]

I'm taking a shot in the dark and will suggest you read up a little on botulism. You'll know best the likelihood of their exposure, but it might not hurt to add apple cider vinegar to their water or consider a molasses flush in the meantime. Best of luck to you and your flock!