Can a chicken have a stroke?

[rebrascora]

That sounds like a good plan. All you can do is keep fingers crossed and hope she responds to vitamins and you don't have any further incidents. Good luck.

 

[olivigus]

After a day of reading way too many sources of info about Marek's and getting very depressed, I've decided I just have to enjoy my girls, do what I can in terms of immune support and wait and see. Riley is doing OK. Still a bit wobbly at times, but no more incidents of obvious paralysis. She's eating and drinking and getting up to her platform to sleep with her flockmates at night. I'm doing a chick probiotic and vitamins in everybody's water and fermenting some chick feed just for the young pullets. I figure extra vitamins and probiotics are going to be good for all four of them--boost immunity for the three who appear unaffected and give Riley some extra support for remission, if possible. Also have to prepare myself that she may not be with us that long. If she does pass, I think I will have a necropsy done to see if it is/was indeed Marek's--I'm in CA and the State Extension subsidizes the cost so it's not terribly expensive. Thanks to all who've chimed in with advice. I appreciate it.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi again

Good to read that Riley is holding her own. Your support plan is sound and as someone who is 3 years down the line with Marek's I can tell you that, from my experience, it is not nearly as bad as most of what you read. Being informed about the disease is helpful but we all have a finite life span. Worrying about when the end might come just reduces the quality of it. Enjoy your girls and I will be keeping my fingers crossed that you have a mild strain and that Riley is one of those that makes a miraculous recovery.... or better still that it is not Marek's at all.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[olivigus]

Wanted to post a quick update. Good news is I asked at the feed store and the chicks I got there had been vaccinated against Merek's. So that may offer some protection from tumors, if Riley indeed has it. It's been a little over two weeks since my first post, and there haven't been any new incidents of paralysis and she appears to be walking normally again. She's still eating, drinking, pooping and interested in treats so I am hopeful. I've been giving her and the other three youngsters fermented feed with Poly-Vi-Sol infant vitamins in addition to their regular food. Really appreciate the advice and support from folks here.

 

[rebrascora]

Thanks for the update. So pleased things are going well at the moment. Long may that last.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[olivigus]

Update on this now rather old thread--I was waiting to be sure I had a happy ending to report. Riley is 6-1/2 months old now and just laid her first egg this week! She is doing really well. She was very wobbly for a few weeks after the paralysis incident, but then she seemed to steady and started gaining weight again. She's still not as large as my other Blue Wyandotte, but she looks healthy and has beautiful dark grey feathers. I switched all my youngsters to fermented chick feed and added Polyvisol infant vitamins every day for a few weeks. If she indeed had Merek's (and it sure looked like it) perhaps the extra nutrition helped, and the vaccine may have held the nastier complications at bay. Guess I'll never know for sure, but I am very grateful she's healthy now and appreciate all the advice and support from the BYC forum. Here's a pic from a few weeks ago. Her comb has pinked up now and is starting to get the rose comb ridges.

 

[rebrascora]

So pleased to hear that she has continued to improve and started laying eggs. Congratulations! I hope she rewards you with many more over the coming years. Lovely to see a photo of her too.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

This has been a very positive and encouraging discussion to read. No henchman doom and gloom with Marecks.

I'm so glad she's doing better. Can you please tell me how you're fermenting the feed? I didn't have a good experience on my first go. Do you add new layer pellets to the mash every day or use up each batch and create an entirely new one?

 

[micstrachan]

I am just reading this thread for the first time and am happy to hear the happy outcome! She is such a pretty girl and it's wonderful to see her doing well. Thank you for sharing!

 

[Sherrybee]

Had a big scare with one of my youngsters this weekend. I have four 10-week-old pullets that were raised by one of our hens who went broody this spring. They are still in their own small coop and yard in a corner of the big pen. When I opened the door in the morning on Saturday only three of them ran out. When I looked inside, Riley was lying on the small platform between the two roosts where she likes to be at night. At first I thought she was dead--she looked like a pile of black feathers. Her head was turned one way and her body another, and both her feet were curled and sticking out to the side. Then I noticed she was still breathing, and when I put my palm against the bottoms of her feet she moved them slightly. There is a small gap between the platform and the wall and when I felt feathers underneath it I pushed and rolled them back onto the top of the platform (I think it might have been her wing stuck down there?) After I did that, she opened her eyes and rolled onto her belly. Then she turned around and hopped off the platform and scurried outside to the yard.

I kept an eye on her throughout the day and made sure she was eating and drinking and pooping, and she was eager to eat the greens I gave everyone later. But she seemed to alternate walking fairly normally with doing a kind of walk/crawl to get around. Sometimes it looked like she was stretching out her wings to keep her balance when she walked and she was resting on her belly a lot. That night when they went into the coop I heard flapping and a thump. Checked and the other three were up on the roost (it's only about 18 inches off the ground in the little coop) and Riley was on the ground. I picked her up and set her on the roost, and she hunkered down and seemed OK. But as soon as I shut the door I heard another thump and there she was on the floor again. It's like her feet weren't able to keep a grip the roost. I'd taken the platform out of there that morning so I guided her into a corner where she settled down. Next morning she was up and about with the others, still doing that occasional weird crawl-wing-flap thing. So I put the platform back across part of the roosts, but this time pushed up against the wall so nothing can get stuck, and that night when I checked on them, Riley was up there with the others--they were on the roost, and she was on the platform, where she didn't have to grip anything to be up high.

That's a lot of lead-in to my real question: Can a chicken have a stroke? I though maybe she just hurt her wing when it got stuck, and that's why she was stretching it out a lot. But she was in such an odd position and not moving at all when I found her in the coop on Saturday. She also seems to almost have a foot cramp sometimes when walking which is when she hunkers down for a while. Has anyone had this happen and, if so, what did you do? As long as she's eating, drinking, pooping and still interested in treats I'm thinking I should just let her be and she'll recover (or maybe always be a special needs chicken roosting on a flat platform)? I also thought of putting a 2x2 strip on the platform so she could practice gripping but not fall or get hurt if she can't do it.

Any other chicken ailments or fits this could be?
Thanks for any input.

I have a little rooster that was fine one night, the next day his right leg it totally paralyzed. No muscle control at all. Some have mentioned “mareks”, but it’s only one leg and no other signs . Plus no one else has any symptoms of “ mareks”. Anyone got any ideas. Personally I feel he has suffered a stroke.