Rickets???

[Nick]

Hello again,
My little chicken (pronounced fit and well and of a good weight by the vet) is now really struggling to walk. She stumbles around and then sits down basically by pitching forward onto her beak, then settling back into a little mound. If I pick her up and feed her from the palm of my hand she wolfs it down. No dribbly nose, she seems perfectly alert.
Doing a little digging, I note that there is a 'fairly common' problem with yound chickens called Rickets. Not sure if this is the same as rickets in humans, seems like it might be..
Suggestion is a Rickets diet, which I plan to attempt today,
Rolled oats, egg yolk, yoghurt, honey and multivitamins
Does this sound familiar?
There is also the suggestion it could be mareks - which I dont want to think about....
Any advice - suggestions??

Nick

 

[chrismahon]

Sounds like a joints problem. Rickets is when the leg bones remain soft and bend under weight isn't it? Your diet may help joints as well anyway. I'd give her a 1 mL shot of Cod Liver Oil with Multivitamines, 7 Seas we use at .5ml per Kg bodyweight -just the one shot mind, too much makes them ill. Poor little hen. Mareks is so rare and regularly mis-diagnosed anyway I wouldn't give it a second thought Nick.

 

[Nick]

Something else to go on the shopping list!
Thanks for the extra ideas!
She is such a dear little bird, I really want her to pull through.....
I kind of want to bring her down to the house and nurse her in the warm, but I'm worried it will just make her task of integrating into the flock take even longer.....
Maybe I could let her sleep with the others at night, but bring her down here in the day......

 

[foxy]

If she has previously had no problems with walking, and has had a well balanced diet throughout ,then I very much doubt there is a nutritional deficency. Standard poultry diets have enough minerals and vitamins to prevent problems with bone growth and muscle development. You can try with supplements, they certainly will do no harm at the moment.

Neurological diseases are those which interfere with the nerves supplying motor function to the legs. Diseases which cause these are those that form tumours, one of which is Mareks. Mareks symptoms present commonly in young birds coming up to POL.

Unfortunately with Mareks "type" diseases the birds can appear fairly well, eating an drinking quite normally at the beginning, and even appearing to recover, ultimately the disease is fatal.

A hen which is egg bound, can also have similar symptoms as the egg causes pressure on the nerves, although this would be a transient nerve problem.

 

[foxy]

I meant to ask Nick, how old is she now?

 

[Nick]

She is around 18 weeks I think.
We got her 8 weeks ago, and IIRC she was around 10 weeks then....

 

[Chuck]

I agree with Foxy in that it's unlikely to be rickets if she has had a good well balanced diet. I would try one of your experimental treatments at a time so you don't overload her and you will be able to see which one works.

 

[podstable]

------what breed is she ?

 

[Nick]

She is a speckledy hybrid....
What are your thoughts on removing her from the flock and treating her in the house (and therefore having the problem of reintroducing her later). She is now just stting in the nest box all day anyway....

 

[Marigold]

i suppose at least it would remove the possibility of her infecting the others, if she hasn't already done so and it is infectious or contagious. As for reintegration, you could just do this as normal for a new hen when she's ready.

 

[cuwiar]

When my Light Sussex was poorly recently we ran an extra piece of chicken wire across the bottom of the run so that she had a small section of the run to herself (with her sickbed/cat crate for shelter if she wanted it). We took her into the house at night and during the day would put her into her section of the run for a couple of hours here and there so that the others could still see her. They were dying to get to her but I didn't trust that she could cope with the queen hen if she picked on her.

Once she was recovered enough I reintroduced them all while free ranging and her and her little pal were back on form like nothing happened and the top hen just ignored her until it came time to go to bed and then she tried to stop her going in the house. I just put the poorly one into the house before top hen went in for the night and when they all came out in the morning it was like she'd never been away.