Young Hen limping

Howdy all,

I have a 20 wk old Buff Orpingtons' hen that started limping suddenly. She is a healthy active bird with no other apparent issues. It started as a slight limp and has been progressively getting worse for approx. 1 week now. She would put some weight on it at first, but now she isn't. She hops around like lightning, eats, drinks and does all the grooming a chicken normally does. Her foot seems tender, although she'll let me handle her without complaining. I've checked for bumble foot, breaks or bruises, and signs of infection. Nothing! Anti inflammatory meds have done nothing either. She is one Vitamin enriched water, mild antibiotics and is separate from the rest of the flock, but can see them and is happy with that set up. I thought she may have pulled a muscle or tendon, but the anti inflammatory should have showed some improvement. Her foot is progressively getting colder. Ideas?? Suggestions?? Help?

Thanks to all.
Rick

Welcome to the threads!

My guess would be Marecks if you can't find anything else up with her. If it progresses, You'll find her bright and alert but unable to walk, with her legs stretched at odd angles. Some here will tell you to cull Marecks birds, and I can't say as I blame them. However, I don't cull it out unless they can no longer feed and water themselves; it does mean I keep carriers in the long run.

However, it's likely you got it from wild birds. The couple times I've had it crop up on my farm was around this time of year, as well as the spring returns of geese and birds and so on. I feel as though it's practically unavoidable and I make the choice to breed for resistance, not immunity.

Good luck.

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I wondered about that. I talked to the breeder where I got them and they weren't inoculated as chicks, but they didn't lose any birds either. I lost a few others earlier without explanation.The part I found odd was that it was only the birds I got from the one place that are affected. Blues, blacks and buffs from other sources are not and have not been sick and they've all been exposed to each other. How would I confirm Marecks in the chicken?

Thanks
Rick

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Thank you for your thoughts. I will keep updating as time goes on.

Rick

Mareks is also something that someone may not realize they have on their farm. I found out I had it the hard way. Other's may attribute the limp to an injury and death to "acceptable loss" of 7% a year. It's no excuse for being uninformed, but, some people just are.

I'm not sure who it was... maybe Briarwood? Anyway, one of our members here did a closed experiment with Vaccinated and un-vaccinated chicks re: Mareks. They had more losses with Vaccinated chicks and chose not to Vaccinate again.

The vaccination, as I understand it, gives an inert form of the virus to the birds. I suspect the birds who are already susceptible to it end up dying off anyway from a lowered immune system.

One thing you can do is keep a turkey in the hen house, if it's feasible for you. Turkey's carry another form of the virus that chickens can't catch, but it does cause them to build up an immunity or to succumb to another illness due to weekend systems. I have found, since keeping a turkey or two in with my birds, I have had 0 recurrences of it since (as far as I can tell... a mystery illness that may have been related to mice did total out most of my chicks this year). Could be luck, or could just be portable vaccine injected by Turkeys.