Chicken unable to walk / Marek’s Negative
(Cross posted)
I apologize for the long post. I tend to be a helicopter chicken mom and I figure more info is better than none.
This is Petunia. She is not part of my original flock. She came to me from a friend who was desperate to help her. She was very sick and so she ended up at my doorstep. Not vaccinated for Marek’s and on medicated feed. She was lethargic, skinny, couldn’t keep her eyes open, would eat or drink. I blindly treated for coccidiosis using endocox powder for 3 days. “Luckily” I was right - she has the worst coccidiosis I had ever seen and repeated endocox in 6 days per package instructions since the first round didn’t quite clear it up per visual poo diagnosis.
She started to perk up. I gave her a bath and noticed a huge air bubble on her right shoulder. I began oxytetracycline and opted to not pop the bubble fearing I would introduce new bacteria. The bubble is gone now. Oddly enough, she still has a bit of a stuffy sound to her when she talks. Not sure if it’s an upper respiratory issue that hasn’t cleared up or she has something stuck in her nares despite me trying to clean them.
I sent out for a Marek’s test which came back NEGATIVE ❤️ much to my surprise and joy.
But here is where I am stumped. I took her to the vet. We did X-rays and it confirmed no bone issues and basically got a “clean” bill of health. They did give me meloxicam for 3 weeks in case there is some swelling or something we can’t see on the X-ray. The vet said there wasn’t must else to do.
Stranger still, I initially noticed she wasn’t using her right leg as much. She’s kick it back or had it forward. Just recently, she SWITCHED on me and now is using her right leg and keeping her left close to her. When we do PT, she seems to give me the “that hurts” noise.
She seems to either try to walk on top of her curled toes or on her hocks, mostly leaning on her right leg. She seems to tip forward as if trying to walk on her tippy toes.
So this is where I am at: My theory is she had coccidiosis so bad that I’m now dealing with a vitamin deficiency bird. She’s been getting daily drops of poly (without iron), Cbd oil tincture for pets, selenium & vitamin E, Meloxicam on her beak and in her water she gets rooster booster, amino acids, and N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine. She is eating grower feed with the occasional pomegranate seeds for treats. I am hopeful considering she has regained strength from completely enable to move her legs to now, so ever, standing. I am hoping she continues to make progress but i am aware that I may have been too late and her legs may not properly develop at this point. I’m just not sure how long this deficiency recovery takes. I’m assuming a couple of months considering how bad it was.
My second concern, if we ever get there, is integrating her with a Marek’s positive flock. Frustratingly enough, the 3 birds that died from Marek’s were vaccinated. I am concerned she’ll end up with Marek’s. I change clothing from when I go to my flock and then back in with Petunia to try and keep bio security but I know that isn’t foolproof.
Has anyone else seen this or have additional suggestions? I’m thinking about having her tested for Marek’s in 6 months if she is still with us and then perhaps tackle integrating her to my flock. That or I just got myself a tiny house chicken. 🤷♀️
X-rays:
https://ibb.co/bBpzKtX https://ibb.co/7RvfgP8