Hello all you chicken experts!
I have a problem I have never had before with a new chicken(silkie) I always isolate new birds for a few weeks before adding them to my other birds. I have had this girl for about a week now and yesterday I found her lying on her side and kinda gasping. When she breathes she opens her beak. It's like her legs are paralyzed straight behind her. The legs being straight out is the only thing not working right. I checked her over and she had eaten and was drinking. She had plenty of energy and fought me just to check her over. I have done nothing yet, except turn her every few hours so she might be more comfortable and no ulcers would occur.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
George
She is a blue silkie and I forgot to add she has had what I would call large stools, but nothing odd looking about them, except larger than I think she should have.
Need help with silkie hen.
Wow, sounds bad. I think you've stumped C and silkie.
Have you tried calling any hatcheries to see if they can at least identify what's going on with your bird?
If it were a dog, I'd wonder about epilepsy... though by this time the liver would have shut down and the dog would be dead.
Sorry I can't help you...
Good Luck...
Jay
So, let me get this right.
One day, she's fine, and then next day, paralyzed legs? No dragging of legs, no stumbling for a couple of days, no previous gasping, rattly breathing?
How old is she - chick or full adult?
I'm sorry to say it, but my first guess is Marek's. In mature birds, Marek's can present with leg paralysis (often one points forward and the other back), also gaping or gasping. The pseudo-botulism form of Marek's can have transient paralysis lasting 1-2 days. The latter form would be preferable because there is this form called "transient paralytic Marek's" and they do recover from it (not the other forms).
Another option could be botulism. This can cause sudden leg weakness or paralysis, accompanied by difficulty swallowing, lying on side with outstretched neck and eyes partly closed. Sometimes diarrhea.
She is adult
legs both straight out behind and some what rigid, but will bend.
When I have turned her today. She is still fighting me and appears alert. She is also eating and drinking. This happened in one day. One day perfect acting, the next morning lying on side and opening beak and seem to have trouble breathing. All other structures(neck, wings head,etc) moving normal. Also I noticed today she is trying to right herself and has strength in her legs. She "kicks" at me while turning her.
Thanks god I isolated her first. I have never seen this before. Hopes this helps.
Another question for you all. If she recovers will I be able to keep her and not infect the rest of flock. I just love her color of blue.
Thanks for the advice in advance. I know I don't post much, but have learned a lot from you all.
George
This is really interesting. I have no experience with this but it really is beginning to sound like one of the two options I gave, and given her lack of diarrhea, I wonder if it's Transient Paralytic Marek's. I don't know much at all about that, save what I have read. Marek's is a virus (actually a form of the herpes virus) and as such, if that is what it is, she will be able to transmit it even when she is better. You know how people with cold sores can transmit the virus, even when they don't have an active cold sore? So it's the same thing with this because it's the same time of virus. Herpes viruses hang out for a while and then reappear.
Link to botulism in chickens: http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/19/botulism
and Marek's: http://www.thepoultrysite.com/diseaseinfo/90/mareks-disease
I'm waiting for others to chime in because others may know more than I do.
http://www.apa-abayouthprogramsite.org/Edu_Material/Poultry%20Diseases/What_is_Mereks_Disease.pdf
edited to add another link for Mereks
http://www.worldpoultry.net/health-diseases/m/marek%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2s-disease-range-paralysis-59.html
This message was edited Mar 6, 2009 2:22 PM
Thank you all for all the info. I think my new girl has Mereks from all the symptoms. I just can't take a chance with new babies on the way and a bator full of eggs. I guess I will have to put my blue girl down. : (
Thank you all
George
Oh goodness, this is so sad. I mean, she would still live, but she could be infective. You could keep her separated always from any young ones. As some of those links explained, older chickens have an immunity to it. It's the youngsters who are the susceptible ones. Can you not find a way to keep her separated until they are grown? Poor little blue girl.
You know that is a thought. I could build a silkie only pen. I only have 4 at the moment. It said their eggs would be alright to use, so maybe that is the answer??? she was in a very small isolation pen that everyone could see to get used to her. I could just convert that and make it bigger. I do have one question though. Most of my chickens free range and hatch their chicks in their hiding place. Would those be in danger of catching mereks?? From what I read it can be caught from dander on the wind. Even from a farm next door.
George
*blushing* I have a silkie in my basement. She had wry neck. She is a sweetie though. She gets picked on, so she lives in a rabbit hutch and gets lots of attention.
Yes, I think that the dander can blow on the wind and the young ones could potentially get it, unless you begin vaccinating.
Thank you all for all your help. I need to think on this a bit.
George
You can vaccinate the chicks.. I mean if you hatch several at a time, it's better, cause you have to use up the vaccine right away and they need to be day old chicks... but at least they would be safe!
http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc/products.asp?CID=2&mscssid=N62VXSV2S8KH9HNBFB12DWRJ06P2E525&dept_id=473&area=poultry
We are going to start vaccinating from now on.. Just in case.
As unsavory as it is, with the very real potential of infecting your other birds, putting her down seems most realistic. Allowing this virus to contaminate your facility for who knows how long (how long does the virus survive in the environment?) could set you up for serious long term problems.
It's no fun making these kind of decisions. =0(
Blessings,
Jay
This message was edited Mar 7, 2009 9:44 AM
One of the problems with Marek's is that it is literally everywhere. Just about the only way to assure that your birds won't be infected (and even then it is not 100%) is to vaccinate the day old chicks. One book suggests keeping the dust down in a coop since it is spread (among other ways) by the feather dust of infected chickens and the higher the viral load, the more likely birds are to succumb. And some individuals and breeds are naturally more susceptible than others (Silkies are among the most susceptible). In any given flock, some birds will come down with it while others will not. Supposedly by the time they are 5 months old most birds have developed natural immunity.
I thought that if you kept new birds out of a flock that appeared uninfected and you hatched all your own birds, you were safe--but reading ZZ's thread that does not appear to be the case:0(. We've decided to vaccinate all our hatches from now on.