If vitamin deficiency - how long before you see improvement

[AbL]

I found a 4 week old chick yesterday tumbling and stumbling around, with balance problems and neurological crises.
Well aware it could be something serious I separated her and kept her in for the night. Yesterday she was very tired and picked bait of food. I tried to gave her a mix of VitE and B. But she was very weak. She didn't take much.
I read what I can find about her symptoms, I don't think it's Marek yet (would be very early onset) worst case some sort of encephalitis, best case Vitamine deficiency.
Early this morning I thought her to be culled, then I got her to drink the vitamin mix this morning and she picked a boy of egg yolk. Still weak ad tired she managed to stand high on her legs after that.

My question is, when to expect improvement if its Vitamin deficiency? I'll try to find a poultry competent vet tomorrow in any case. But for my personal peace of mind I'd like to know what to expect.

 

[LaFleche]

I found a 4 week old chick yesterday tumbling and stumbling around, with balance problems and neurological crises.
Well aware it could be something serious I separated her and kept her in for the night. Yesterday she was very tired and picked bait of food. I tried to gave her a mix of VitE and B. But she was very weak. She didn't take much.
I read what I can find about her symptoms, I don't think it's Marek yet (would be very early onset) worst case some sort of encephalitis, best case Vitamine deficiency.
Early this morning I thought her to be culled, then I got her to drink the vitamin mix this morning and she picked a boy of egg yolk. Still weak ad tired she managed to stand high on her legs after that.

My question is, when to expect improvement if its Vitamin deficiency? I'll try to find a poultry competent vet tomorrow in any case. But for my personal peace of mind I'd like to know what to expect.

Could she have gotten bit or stung by some poisonous insect or critter?

Regarding the vitamin supplement, it can take days to weeks to see improvement depending on which vitamins were deficient.

If you see her already getting better after one day only, you might stop the daily supplementation after one week and go to supplementing just once a week as the chick feed contains artificial vitamins as well and overdoing it can be harmful also.

Check the milling date on your feed bag, the added artificial vitamins decay rather quickly after 6-7 months.

 

[AbL]

She was a bit better after dosing with vitamins, she's not eating much but takes water offered to the beak and she tumbles a bit less. Her manure is dry and regular. I'm a bit afraid she'll hunger while she's too weak or uncoordinated to eat herself.
Anyway she don't seem to suffer for the moment, hope she keeps stable enough to see a vet tomorrow. And I'm still hoping it's not something very serious... Fingers crossed.

The food is very recent, a month and a half, and they had egg yolk and additional vitamins in the water for the first weeks.
The others on the same food, who hatched with her, are fine for now, but they are not from the same batch of eggs.

Vitamin deficiency would surprise me, but they are my first incubated chicks, maybe I did something wrong and she is more fragile than the others. No way to know.

 

[AbL]

I don't think she was bitten or stung, they were outside two or three days for an hour or two and in hindsight I remember having seen her tumbling already some days ago, but I thought she had troubles walking in the long grass. And in the cage she was merely calmer than usual, but honestly I didn't paid too much attention at that moment. For the last two or three days having seen her a bit odd, but not odd enough to inquire further. So maybe it's not a sudden onset but began days ago to decline.

 

[LaFleche]

She was a bit better after dosing with vitamins, she's not eating much but takes water offered to the beak and she tumbles a bit less. Her manure is dry and regular. I'm a bit afraid she'll hunger while she's too weak or uncoordinated to eat herself.
Anyway she don't seem to suffer for the moment, hope she keeps stable enough to see a vet tomorrow. And I'm still hoping it's not something very serious... Fingers crossed.

The food is very recent, a month and a half, and they had egg yolk and additional vitamins in the water for the first weeks.
The others on the same food, who hatched with her, are fine for now, but they are not from the same batch of eggs.

Vitamin deficiency would surprise me, but they are my first incubated chicks, maybe I did something wrong and she is more fragile than the others. No way to know.

Sometime a deficiency of the parent bird shows in the chick.

Offer some boiled egg mashed into little pieces, sick chicks will also often take some millet and fine rolled oats as it is small and easy to swallow.

Maybe check her also for a long hair or other kind of thin string/fibre that might got tangled around her limbs or elsewhere. Sometimes they are hard to see.

 

[orelsi]

I've seen improvement anyhwere from a couple of days up to 10 days. Depends on the initial condition of the bird I'd guess.

You can feed her some boiled yolk if she continues refusing food. Just to keep her strength up.

 

[AbL]

I've seen improvement abyhwere from a couple of days up to 10 days. Depends on the initial condition of the bird I'd guess.

You can feed her some boiled yolk if she continues refusing food. Just to keep her strength up.

I just fed her boiled egg yolk, a bit of crushed chick starter and vitamines mashed up via syringe, she sipped a bit, and dozed off. I will offer her more often, she seems not to eat by her self, afraid to move and tumble over. When I set her down I saw her right toes curled up. She did not have that this morning.

 

[RoyalChick]

I found a 4 week old chick yesterday tumbling and stumbling around, with balance problems and neurological crises.
Well aware it could be something serious I separated her and kept her in for the night. Yesterday she was very tired and picked bait of food. I tried to gave her a mix of VitE and B. But she was very weak. She didn't take much.
I read what I can find about her symptoms, I don't think it's Marek yet (would be very early onset) worst case some sort of encephalitis, best case Vitamine deficiency.
Early this morning I thought her to be culled, then I got her to drink the vitamin mix this morning and she picked a boy of egg yolk. Still weak ad tired she managed to stand high on her legs after that.

My question is, when to expect improvement if its Vitamin deficiency? I'll try to find a poultry competent vet tomorrow in any case. But for my personal peace of mind I'd like to know what to expect.

I am posting a link to the thread I made for my little Bernadette who went lame at 3 weeks and recovered after a lot of very intensive vitamin B2 supplement and physical therapy.
She is now top hen so there was a happy ending but it was quite a journey.
It took 8 days to see any improvement at all and then suddenly she was back to normal after 10 days.
I tailed off the vitamins and she relapsed (different leg went lame). I nearly euthanized her because she couldn't walk but she recovered again after more B2 supplement.
Overall I think she ended up getting heavy doses of B2 for more than a month. And since then she has been more than fine.
Hope that helps, and I hope if you glance through Bernie's thread it will help you.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/3-week-old-chick-with-a-bad-leg-any-advice-please.1519956/

 

[AbL]

Sometime a deficiency of the parent bird shows in the chick.

Offer some boiled egg mashed into little pieces, sick chicks will also often take some millet and fine rolled oats as it is small and easy to swallow.

Maybe check her also for a long hair or other kind of thin string/fibre that might got tangled around her limbs or elsewhere. Sometimes they are hard to see.

It's not a mechanical problem, it's more that she wants to move, lose balance, topple over and having seizure like cramp or something. For 5-10 seconds, then she trembles for another 10 seconds and calling down. These episodes are increased when she's startled.
Now she is alternating between being up and picking crumbs, and sleeping exhausted and the occasional seizure about once an hour (when she moves too fast).

 

[LaFleche]

It's not a mechanical problem, it's more that she wants to move, lose balance, topple over and having seizure like cramp or something. For 5-10 seconds, then she trembles for another 10 seconds and calling down. These episodes are increased when she's startled.
Now she is alternating between being up and picking crumbs, and sleeping exhausted and the occasional seizure about once an hour (when she moves too fast).

See if the vitamin E and vitamin B complex will help. It can take some time to work, so don't give up too early in case you don't want to cull