Disoriented, crouch-walking Pullet. What's wrong with Pippa?

[chickstagram]

Hello BYC fam!

We are first time chicken tenders and sometimes have no idea what's happening when things go wrong.

Earlier today I noticed Pippa, our 3 month old black maran pullet, crouch-walking. My first search advised to check her feet for swells or bumblefoot, and in her raw, dirty backyard state, it seemed like maybe that was the case. We feed our girls a lot of pumpkins, and there were a number of poops outside that appeared the same way they went in. I feel like those were hers, but I'm not sure.

I took her in and showered her off, but then her feet didn't seem out of the ordinary.

I separated her into her own box away from the flock, and gave her some food mixed with probiotics and NAC (N-Acetyl-Cysteine). She wouldn't eat. Her crop didn't seem impacted. She just deliriously/dizzily wobbled back and forth and reached her paw into her eye. Here's a video showing what I mean:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6wfa5tg6sx/

We administered a solution of vitamin C and NAC via pipette, and alternated with another solution of diluted apple cider vinegar. For a few minutes, she perked up, so obvs she was a bit dehydrated. She doesn't seem to be pooping, and she's eating very minimally. She doesn't seem to have a fever, and she seems to be breathing normally. Every now and then she freaks out and flaps like crazy, twirling/somersaulting in her frenzy.

It rained recently, so I'm worried the girls were drinking out of soiled puddles. It's about 5-10C/45F outside (we live in the desert). All our other girls seem fine, except for a couple with impacted crops we're treating with probiotics/yogurt, sprouted seeds, and diluted apple cider vinegar water. Not sure if this is related.

Pippa is our most spunky, rambunctious, wall-jumping parkour chicken, so this is very out of the ordinary.

I hope someone with a lot of experience can shed some light on our poor girl's affliction!

 

[Soy Milano]

Ohhh she has something neurological I think. My first guess is possibly Mareks, based on her age and that video you linked to. However, you can play around with the symptom checker tool to get a better idea of other possibilities - http://www.poultrydvm.com/views/symptoms.php

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Pippa, our 3 month old black maran pullet, crouch-walking.

advised to check her feet for swells or bumblefoot, and in her raw, dirty backyard state, it seemed like maybe that was the case. We feed our girls a lot of pumpkins, and there were a number of poops outside that appeared the same way they went in

I took her in and showered her off, but then her feet didn't seem out of the ordinary.

I separated her into her own box away from the flock, and gave her some food mixed with probiotics and NAC (N-Acetyl-Cysteine). She wouldn't eat. Her crop didn't seem impacted. She just deliriously/dizzily wobbled back and forth and reached her paw into her eye.

She doesn't seem to be pooping, and she's eating very minimally. She doesn't seem to have a fever, and she seems to be breathing normally. Every now and then she freaks out and flaps like crazy, twirling/somersaulting in her frenzy.

It rained recently, so I'm worried the girls were drinking out of soiled puddles.

All our other girls seem fine, except for a couple with impacted crops we're treating with probiotics/yogurt, sprouted seeds, and diluted apple cider vinegar water. Not sure if this is related.

I'm sorry that she is not well.

What do you normally feed her? (photo of brand/label/type of feed?)
If she poops, can you get some photos of that?


I would not bath her again, it may put her over the edge. I would get her warm her, a chicken that is not well needs to be around 75-80F if possible, but she does need a way to get to a cooler place if possible.

Her symptoms look neurological. Wry Neck comes to mind - you can try treating her with vitamin E (400IU) and 1/4 Tablet human B-Complex daily. Give her a bit of eggs to help with the uptake of E.

Feed her only a balanced poultry feed for the time being - her age use either chick starter or an all flock/flock raiser type feed.
I would not add anything to the water or give any other supplements/additives (plain water) and no other "treats". See if that helps.

You mention a "raw dirty backyard state" and giving a lot of pumpkins. Can you post some photos of what you mean? Are the pumpkins rotten?

 

[glassdragonfly]

Poor girl! Hopefully some of the more experienced folks will jump in soon.

 

[blackandtan]

I was thinking wry neck too, you’ve got some good advice from wyorp, all I can offer is best wishes!

 

[Eggcessive]

I agree with giving some vitamin E and B1 thiamine daily for treatment of wry neck and neurological symptoms. Sometimes those can be signs of dehydration, a head injury, vitamin deficiency, and Some diseases, such as Mareks and others. The main thing is to get her drinking fluids, and later eating with her symptoms. Watery chicken feed is best for her, and a small amount of scrambled egg or tuna for selenium is good as well. But give fluids first. Many poultry vitamins have thiamine, and Poultry NutriDrench has some vitamin E and selenium, but try to give her 400 IU of the E daily. Hopefully, it is not Mareks disease, but time will tell.

 

[chickstagram]

Great heavens, I am so thankful for all your suggestions and replies. I feel so blessed to be part of this community. Chicken people are the best people!

Onward to the questions - hopefully I can get in detail enough so others with the same affliction can be enlightened too!

Ohhh she has something neurological I think. My first guess is possibly Mareks, based on her age and that video you linked to. However, you can play around with the symptom checker tool to get a better idea of other possibilities - http://www.poultrydvm.com/views/symptoms.php

Thank you for the symptom checker! Can something neurological have such a fast onset? It seemed she was fine on 12/30, and super screwed up 12/31.

I'm sorry that she is not well.

What do you normally feed her? (photo of brand/label/type of feed?)

The past week or two she'd been eating pumpkins and sprouted oat groats that I sprouted in fermented probiotics. All the other girls seem great.

I switched their food back to the Purina Layena Crumbles yesterday.

If she poops, can you get some photos of that?

She didn't poop allllll day yesterday, and when we checked her this morning, we saw this stinky beauty in her box. (those little seeds are oat groats and she didn't pass those. they were already in the box)

I would not bath her again, it may put her over the edge. I would get her warm her, a chicken that is not well needs to be around 75-80F if possible, but she does need a way to get to a cooler place if possible.

Since she was in a large amazon box, I alternated hot and cool with a space heater not directly pointed at her all night. I hope that's okay.

Her symptoms look neurological. Wry Neck comes to mind - you can try treating her with vitamin E (400IU) and 1/4 Tablet human B-Complex daily. Give her a bit of eggs to help with the uptake of E.

Haven't tried the Vitamin E yet, but I did put some B complex into the water we were pipetting into her.

I would not add anything to the water or give any other supplements/additives (plain water) and no other "treats". See if that helps.

Oh crap, I must've glazed over this message the first time around. We definitely supplemented her water.

Recipe as follows-

* 1 pt water
* 2 capsules NAC
* 1 capsule vitamin C complex
* 1/4 scoop LEF mix powder
* 8 drops fenbendazole (25 mg)

We managed to get about 2/3 of this pint into her. At some point she spit a tablespoon or so up, so we gave her a rest. Today she's vastly too spunky and rebellious to take the pipette.

I misplaced my ivermectin... Does anyone know where I put it? If you see a psychic vision of it, let me know.

And does anyone know where to buy toltrazuril? I don't think my local feed stores have it: they're more geared toward horsies, not chickies.

You mention a "raw dirty backyard state" and giving a lot of pumpkins. Can you post some photos of what you mean? Are the pumpkins rotten?

Our house is in the suburban SW US, so everything is plastered with a layer of concrete. Our backyard is a xeriscaped wasteland infilled with pebbles, pebbles, pebbles, concrete, concrete, concrete. Weeds barely even grow. I battle this by having sandboxes of dirt for them, and I'm thinking of covering at least part of the rocks with a truckload of soil.

Anyway, it more or less looked like this at the time of first writing, but I gave it a real good rinse last night until it was spic and span. In the middle of the first photo, you can see one of the seemingly unprocessed pumpkin poops (although it isn't the freshest - a few hours earlier it was very jack-o-lantern orange)



There's one of their totally hollowed out pumpkins, too. I'm not sure if they were mouldy... They seemed fresh and didn't smell of any rot. Do you think there could be parasites in the pumpkins? The girls ate a lot of the seeds, and seeds are a mild dewormer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I agree with giving some vitamin E and B1 thiamine daily for treatment of wry neck and neurological symptoms. Sometimes those can be signs of dehydration, a head injury, vitamin deficiency, and Some diseases, such as Mareks and others. The main thing is to get her drinking fluids, and later eating with her symptoms. Watery chicken feed is best for her, and a small amount of scrambled egg or tuna for selenium is good as well. But give fluids first. Many poultry vitamins have thiamine, and Poultry NutriDrench has some vitamin E and selenium, but try to give her 400 IU of the E daily. Hopefully, it is not Mareks disease, but time will tell.

We gave her some mayo/canned salmon as much as she'd eat.

She did seem dehydrated, as she perked up quite a bit for a few minutes after we pipetted fluids.

Updates:

She's a bit more spunky and rebellious today, per her usual personality. Unfort she still crouches on her legs when she attempts to walk, and she still kind of has a Parkinson's tremor. I devoured the mega thread on Marek's last night, and she doesn't seem to be presenting as many symptoms as are there, so hopefully that's a good sign. I gave her some more fenbendazole today, which she responded really well to... Maybe it's parasites?

I also wondered if the pigeons/mourning doves that visit and eat a bunch of my girls' food didn't spread some sort of malaise. Could it?

Leg crouch walking:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6y_IGmgkrk/

She's still crouch-walking when she is up and ambulant.

And an update while I was making this post. She plopped a grand stinky surprise on my lab notebook:



Does that look normal?

It has sort of a greenish cast to it. More like semi-fresh vegetables, not like olive/bilirubin colours. She didn't have any veg, though. Gallbladder?

Thank you:

Thank you everyone for helping with this issue. I'll be taking her to the local livestock vet tomorrow to better assess her issues. I'll keep you all posted!

 

[chickstagram]

Feed her only a balanced poultry feed for the time being - her age use either chick starter or an all flock/flock raiser type feed.

What is your preferred/recommended brand?

 

[Eggcessive]

Green poop is usually from not getting a lot to eat. Are you using the fenbendazole to worm her? What product are you using? I would use some vitamin E or give some foods rich in E, such as sunflower seed or chopped almonds.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I don't have any I was going to go buy some. A lot of her feathers got burnt off and her neck is swollen. She wouldn't drink until I used a syringe and then she drank a little on her own. She hasn't eaten anything though. I mixed a baby asprin in with a gallon of water to let her have some pain meds. Most of the birds left to not seem to have any injuries or burns. She is the worst. There are 2 more hens that have some bunt feathers as well, but they are doing well and eating and drinking.

Thank you. What are the signs for smoke inhalation and what do I do if they have it? The fire was bad, the side of our house is melted, so they probably do have it

Can something neurological have such a fast onset? It seemed she was fine on 12/30, and super screwed up 12/31.

I switched their food back to the Purina Layena Crumbles yesterday.

1 pt water
* 2 capsules NAC
* 1 capsule vitamin C complex
* 1/4 scoop LEF mix powder
* 8 drops fenbendazole (25 mg)

At some point she spit a tablespoon or so up, so we gave her a rest. Today she's vastly too spunky and rebellious to take the pipette.

I misplaced my ivermectin

And does anyone know where to buy toltrazuril?

She did seem dehydrated

she still crouches on her legs when she attempts to walk, and she still kind of has a Parkinson's tremor.

She's still crouch-walking when she is up and ambulant.

Do you suspect worms, mites/lice and/or Coccidiosis? (you gave Valbazen, are looking for your Ivermectin and want to know where to buy Totrazuril)
How much Valbazen did you give?

You mention that you switched BACK TO layena crumbles yesterday - what were you feeding? Personally I would not feed a 3 month old Pullet layer feed. I would stick with Chick Starter or an all flock/Flock Raiser feed.

I would try the vitamins that were suggested previously and see if that makes a difference.