Vitamin B deficiency/Curled toe paralyasis...any hope for recovery? Help please

[cluckey]

I found my chicken hobbling around on her knuckle on Saturday. I called the vet and she gave me Vitamin B complex injections to give her for three days. I dont see much improvement at all. Does anyone know if this damage will be permanent? Would a Boot or brace help her out? I hate to put her down but I'm worried she wont be able to get around to the food and water with all the other chickens in the coop. I have her isolated in the garage now and am feeding her scrambled eggs and yogurt hoping she will improve. Also any suggestions on Riboflavin supplement to add to the feed I have? I'm worried if one is deficient, that the others may be as well. Everything I read online is pretty vague about recovery for this. Thank you!

 

[chooks4life]

I found my chicken hobbling around on her knuckle on Saturday.

How sure are you that it's a deficiency not a break? The only time I had this happen to me, it was a break, and she didn't recover but that was my fault, I didn't intervene in time. She would sometimes put her foot down the right way and I thought she'd heal quickly as other bone breaks had in my chooks, but in retrospect I should have put a bootie on her foot that held it in the correct position.

I called the vet and she gave me Vitamin B complex injections to give her for three days. I dont see much improvement at all.

Only three days... That's a bit short a time period to expect results in, IMO. It's enough for some species and some deficiency issues, but lameness due to deficiency generally takes longer than other deficiency diseases to recover almost no matter the species.

There's a lot of things that can cause deficiency, and recovery can be rapid or very slow. She may be taking in enough vitamin B's but not synthesizing it correctly, or she may have other health issues basically hogging her intake.

Either way three days is unusually short a time to treat it for, as far as I know; it took a long time to reach the stage it's at, if this is indeed deficiency, and generally around a week is a safer time estimate for a workable treatment to kick in if it's going to.

If she's deficient but still laying, she will be then putting more nutrients into her eggs so a more sustained dose could be necessary due to that alone. Some hens put everything they have into their eggs, at the expense of their own health, others put less into their eggs when supply is short to remain healthier. After all a dead hen broods no eggs so it's not a survival trait the species would naturally retain; super-healthy eggs are useless without a healthy mother to brood them. But commercially that's no use to us since we rarely brood naturally, so when breeding for good laying traits we often prefer hens that deprive themselves to provide better eggs on the cheapest diet possible, before burning out prematurely aged and dying young. What quality of eggs a hen provides is partially genetic in basis, not just dietary.

Does anyone know if this damage will be permanent?

At this stage, no, it's impossible to say.

Would a Boot or brace help her out?

Probably. You'd need one that not only holds her foot in the right position but also holds it at an angle she can use to walk on, if it's limp, so, one that goes onto the shin as well. This could make resting difficult for her, so it might need taking off at night, but the more time her foot spends in the wrong position, the more likely it is to get stuck there, particularly with injuries but also with deficiency caused issues.

This site has lots of useful info about bird booties etc: https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

I hate to put her down but I'm worried she wont be able to get around to the food and water with all the other chickens in the coop. I have her isolated in the garage now and am feeding her scrambled eggs and yogurt hoping she will improve. Also any suggestions on Riboflavin supplement to add to the feed I have?

Red meat is a good one, sometimes I give mine raw pet mince with no additives since plant based nutrients never do as well for them as animal based ones. They're not designed to be vegan yet that's how many people keep them. Some plant sources of B's are good but I wouldn't bank on them generally... Brewer's yeast is one people use a lot for leg issues in poultry, that one's got a good reputation for working.

I'm worried if one is deficient, that the others may be as well. Everything I read online is pretty vague about recovery for this. Thank you!

It's a logical concern for sure, and generally you can't trust normal commercial layer feeds to be any use for true long term health. If you can get her onto a breeder feed instead, and all of them, they will be both healthier and produce healthier eggs. The B vitamins etc in normal layer feeds are too low to support embryo life, so while a small percentage can hatch from eggs from hens kept and bred on layer diets, most won't hatch and the ones that do hatch often suffer deficiency diseases from hatching onwards. Other than that, fermenting or soaking grains helps them digest much more nutrition from them. You can tinker about with chook feeds to find one that suits them. Not all hens do equally well on the same feeds. I hand-mix mine but am still experimenting.

Best wishes.

 

[Eggcessive]

If your vitamin supplement was B Complex, that should contain riboflavin. Riboflavin-rich foods are egg, salmon, liver, beef, pork, spinach, nuts, and sesame seeds. Nutritional yeast is also a good source. You might try making her a shoe to stretch out the toes. Curled toe paralysis can be permanent if not treated early, but also can be a sign of Mareks disease. I hope she starts to improve soon.

 

[MrsBachbach]

I would try some trimmed popsicle sticks under each toe, then wrap with athletic tape part way up the shank. It's possible that just wrapping each toe with enough vet wrap may also help stop the toes from curling. I'd start at the shank then cross the pad and work my way around each toe. You could use the vet wrap instead of athletic tape as it's much easier to work with.

 

[chooks4life]

Good idea there, should also remain flexible enough for the chook to rest without having it taken off overnight, unlike the harder/solid booties I was thinking of.

 

[cluckey]

Wow thanks for all the information! I've had a boot on her that I made out of with some left over hardware cloth and vet wrap. I can't tell if it helps or gets in the way. She's not making much effort to move around and struggles when she does . We got another 3 days worth of injections from the vet for her. I hope this works! She is a miserable chicken right now!

 

[Eggcessive]

Does your vet medicine have a label with riboflavin or vitamin B2 written on it? Here are some links about toe taping and splinting:
http://www.avianaquamiser.com/posts/Chick_curled_toe/
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/02/spraddle-leg-in-baby-chicks-what-is-it.html
https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry

 

[cluckey]

The vitamins are vitamin b complex/thiamine. I've Taped Her Toes But Her Hock Goes All The Way To The Ground When She walks. It's like her whole leg isn't able to support her any more..she's standing better on it but still isn't very mobile. She falls over when she takes a step. I really really hope she gets better soon!

 

[Eggcessive]

Here are some links to read about Mareks disease, just in case this could turn out to be that:
http://extension.unh.edu/resources/files/Resource000791_Rep813.pdf
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq
http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/avian-atlas/#/disease/Marek's_Disease

 

[Jack Frost]

The vitamins are vitamin b complex/thiamine. I've Taped Her Toes But Her Hock Goes All The Way To The Ground When She walks. It's like her whole leg isn't able to support her any more..she's standing better on it but still isn't very mobile. She falls over when she takes a step. I really really hope she gets better soon!

Hello Cluckey,

How did this end up? My rooster has started to hobble around on his knuckles like this.

Thanks