Sick chick

[aseawho]

Hi, my 10-week-old chick is showing the following symptoms: loss of balance, twisting neck, walking backward, and rolling on its back. His temperature is normal, he starts panting for a few seconds after he rolls over but otherwise his breathing is normal. He is vaccinated for Marek's and coccidiosis.
I took him to the vet, and they said we can only treat clinical symptoms. I've been giving him the recommended dose of Vitamin E, Selenium, and B-Complex for the past 5 days, and his condition wasn't changing much until today.
Now he is lethargic, laying on his side trying to get up with his legs but can't push himself up (yesterday he was rolling on his back but got back up instantly). He was eating by himself until today but was losing a bit of weight, so I've been tube-feeding him for the past 2 days. Now his weight is stable. To me, it looks like a case of crazy chick disease as he is showing all of the exact symptoms. Does anyone have any experience with it? Please help!

The first 3 videos are from yesterday 1 hour apart, the last one is from today(on the blanket).

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi, how is the chick today?

You are doing everything that's suggested for wry neck/muscle issues/vitamin deficiencies, but it generally doesn't show improvement immediately, and sometimes not for weeks. Is what you're giving 400 iu of E and scrambled eggs (selenium), plus 1/4 of a Vit B-complex? When you said Selenium, I'm wondering what dose as too much can be toxic and cause more issues.

To post your videos, you need to put them on YouTube first, then copy the link back to here.

 

[akitafriendakita]

Being vaccinated for Marek's will not always stop Marek's progression unfortunately. It just usually does, there are cases where the vaccine just isn't enough and the chick/chicken can still die from it. The most the vaccine typically does is prevent the tumor growth and serious symptoms that will kill the bird, it doesn't actually stop the bird from catching Marek's though.

Very rare though but that's my guess, does the chick have any other obvious signs of Marek's like strange pupil shapes?

If you keep the bird tube fed, and the vaccine works as intended, he can eventually survive this and recover. I would just keep up tube feeding for now.

I've had very sick chicks who needed handfeeding for weeks because they just didn't have the strength to fully recover for a while, and can eventually pull through rarely. It's only going to work if you have the time to do routine feeding though and your chick seems like a fighter!

 

[aseawho]

Hi, how is the chick today?

You are doing everything that's suggested for wry neck/muscle issues/vitamin deficiencies, but it generally doesn't show improvement immediately, and sometimes not for weeks. Is what you're giving 400 iu of E and scrambled eggs (selenium), plus 1/4 of a Vit B-complex? When you said Selenium, I'm wondering what dose as too much can be toxic and cause more issues.

To post your videos, you need to put them on YouTube first, then copy the link back to here.

Not much has changed. Yes - 400iu of Vit E and for the rest our vet gave me injections with b-complex and selenium so i'm sure its the correct dose. I didn't notice the video issue, I'll try to upload and link them. Thanks!

 

[aseawho]

Being vaccinated for Marek's will not always stop Marek's progression unfortunately. It just usually does, there are cases where the vaccine just isn't enough and the chick/chicken can still die from it. The most the vaccine typically does is prevent the tumor growth and serious symptoms that will kill the bird, it doesn't actually stop the bird from catching Marek's though.

Very rare though but that's my guess, does the chick have any other obvious signs of Marek's like strange pupil shapes?

If you keep the bird tube fed, and the vaccine works as intended, he can eventually survive this and recover. I would just keep up tube feeding for now.

I've had very sick chicks who needed handfeeding for weeks because they just didn't have the strength to fully recover for a while, and can eventually pull through rarely. It's only going to work if you have the time to do routine feeding though and your chick seems like a fighter!

I'm really hoping it's not Marek's.
I work from home so I'm able to be tube-feeding him on a schedule as long as he has the will to live.
No strange pupils, he looks very responsive. He can move his wings, head and legs but seems to be too weak/disoriented to stand.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[akitafriendakita]

I'm really hoping it's not Marek's.
I work from home so I'm able to be tube-feeding him on a schedule as long as he has the will to live.
No strange pupils, he looks very responsive. He can move his wings, head and legs but seems to be too weak/disoriented to stand.

Thanks for the reply!

Maybe he just needs a lot of rest and he's too weak to eat right now. They enter a vicious cycle pretty quickly at that age if you're not doing the feeding for them but they get weak. Just missing one day of food for a chick that young can put them in a state where they'll be too weak to eat on their own, but too tired/low energy to ever recover. Then they just rapidly die of starvation within a day or so.

An adult chicken can only go about three days without some kind of food [unless it's a very fat chicken,] so I imagine a chick can't really handle much when it comes to lack of food.

 

[Companihen]

I know this is old. Wondering what happened in the end with your chick? Did it recover or was ir confirmed mareks?
We have had very similar just recently. However we killed our chick in the end as when it tried to walk it kept falling over and then it ended up putting its leg up over its wing as it scrabbled about to get up again. We noticed this one evening so we tried to put it in a sling overnight but it didn't tolerate it at all and became very distressed so we put it back in the box. Overnight however it had badly clawed itself under the wing trying to move. We cleaned it up and put the chick in the garden as it was much happier there. However it gouged itself badly again trying to move. As it had shown no signs of improvement over 5 days we decided to end its suffering. It was sad. The chick ate vivaciously every day it just had terrible coordination and balance problems.
I wanted to get it tested for mareks as I have quite a few birds but couldn't get any vets to take it. Now live in fear of seeing it again in any of my other chickens

 

[aseawho]

Hi, unfortunately he passed away. I also had two more chicks die in the following month with similar symptoms, so I decided to take one in for an autopsy. Thankfully, it was confirmed not to be Marek's disease, which was a relief. However, I still don’t have an answer as to what the cause was. The good news is that since then I haven’t lost any more chickens, so whatever it was seems to have stopped. I really hope that in your case its just a one-time thing too.

 

[Companihen]

Hi, unfortunately he passed away. I also had two more chicks die in the following month with similar symptoms, so I decided to take one in for an autopsy. Thankfully, it was confirmed not to be Marek's disease, which was a relief. However, I still don’t have an answer as to what the cause was. The good news is that since then I haven’t lost any more chickens, so whatever it was seems to have stopped. I really hope that in your case its just a one-time thing too.

Thank you for the reply. Appreciate that. Sorry for your losses.

Yes here's hoping mine stay ok. I had a chick which seemed to have similar symptoms initially but after 3 days inside and lots of vitamins her perked up fine. But this one didn't. I'm left with 4 chicks, approx 5 months old and 4 old hens now.