If vitamin deficiency - how long before you see improvement

[AbL]

Day three...
Yesterday evening she ate a good amount of cooked rice, and a slice of cucumber. Today she's very week again. I have the impression that an hour or two after giving vitamin supplements she get better, to degrade only few hours afterwards again.
I tried to find a vet this morning, but no one takes chicken in.
We have a lack of farm animal-vets around, it's frustrating.
I reordered Vit B and I found VitE/selenium supplement from my horses. Those she picked happily away. All I can do is wait and see.

 

[AbL]

Went to the vet today, initially for having her euthanized. Although she ate reasonably quantités (noodles, cheese...), she's laying on one side all the time and didn't go up anymore like the days before. But the vet wasn't yet ready to let her go and offered me 5 days of intraabdominal vitamin treatment to see if she respond.
She is not paraliesed, gripping with her feet (one side weaker than the other) and capable of batting the wings, so he didn't seem to think Mareks or AE for sure (could be still possible though)
So I have to inject her in the belly for the next days, we'll see how that will turn out. I am at ease injecting my horses subcutaneous or intramuscular, but this tiny chicken breast..challanging

 

[AbL]

A few hours after the second injection and it seems she's getting slightly better.
While she is unable to lift her self or eat in the litter box, the wood chips not allowing any grip, I take her out into a box with a rippled mat where she has more adherence. I put food inside and she keeps on creeping and robbing about, but occasionally mange to get up on her feet. It's impressive to see here fighting against the odds. I really hope she will get better, she merits!

I'll post a video from this afternoon, attention, it's not a nice sight but maybe interesting to those dealing with similaire cases.
Yesterday she wasn't able to keep on her feet for seconds, so there is a tiny improvement. Don't mind the mess of food, she keeps throwing it around while moving. Another reason to feed her apart.

 

[AbL]

Have to upload the video first elsewhere, but here is a photo: Just now she kept (with assistance of the box wall) on here feet for several minutes. This IS improvement

 

[MarlaMac]

Have you tried to make a mash out of her regular chick starter feed? I think she would do better if on something specifically formulated for chicks at her age. My chickens absolutely go nuts for their regular crumble mashed up. I simply wet the feed and make it mushy. They also love poached eggs which they get on occasion (esp if they are sick). If she is not eating much you could tube feed her to get her started. if you choose to go this route, I would use something highly nutritious - either her regular chick starter of some baby bird feed.

Routing for her.

 

[LaFleche]

Did you ever deworm her?

I just remembered someone with a little Salmon Faverolle chick having similar problems and deworming did the trick: on the 5th deworming day it showed that a nasty tapeworm was causing her problems and after getting rid of it she thrived.

Living in France you should be able to get Flubendazole 5%. Double dose works great for tapeworms.

 

[AbL]

Have you tried to make a mash out of her regular chick starter feed? I think she would do better if on something specifically formulated for chicks at her age. My chickens absolutely go nuts for their regular crumble mashed up. I simply wet the feed and make it mushy. They also love poached eggs which they get on occasion (esp if they are sick). If she is not eating much you could tube feed her to get her started. if you choose to go this route, I would use something highly nutritious - either her regular chick starter of some baby bird feed.

Routing for her.

At the beginning I gave her her usual chick starter mashed up with boiled egg and vitamins mixed up. But the don't seem to like the pasty consistence sticker to her beak. She kept flipping her head and tapping the box wall to clean it. She has chickens starter 24/7 in her box.

I tried to feed her mashed up feed drop by drop to the beak, but she's refusing (she takes water and vitamin this way, so it's not a general problem). That's when I offered her leftovers from the table. Boild rice, some noodles, cheese flakes and to my astonishment she gobbled it all down and is motivated to rob around to get it (she doesn't do that for the chick starter). She adores cucumber slices (so she stays hydrated, I don't mind).

Honesty, at the moment I am glad she is eating at all. I try parallel healthy chick starter and anything she might eat.

Yesterday evening she managed to keep on her feet for moments at. time, this morning not. We'll see a few hours after the next injection if she will come up again.

 

[AbL]

Did you ever deworm her?

I just remembered someone with a little Salmon Faverolle chick having similar problems and deworming did the trick: on the 5th deworming day it showed that a nasty tapeworm was causing her problems and after getting rid of it she thrived.

Living in France you should be able to get Flubendazole 5%. Double dose works great for tapeworms.

No I hadn't yet dewormed them. They were inside and only 4 weeks old, so I hadn't thought about that. I had planned to deworm the groupe once after having them moved in with the adults.
Her poop is astonishingly normal considering she's eating a bit aleatorique. But I will observe and keep it in mind.

 

[AbL]

Here are the videos:
First one, it's her status before injection.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0cbTC1BRA7Qd7_OM3-8plHcFQ

second one approximately 4 hours after injection:
https://share.icloud.com/photos/04bgQLSstWQc_ixDhnnsfJcAw

 

[AbL]

Went back to the vet with her today, because no improvement since Friday. We decided to euthanize her. Although she was eating when possible, and on high dosed vitamins, she wasn't able to get up, just creeping around the box on on side with feet trembling.
I still hope it was a a severe vitamin deficiency and no virus. The others are still in top form, fingers crossed that this was an isolated event.