Eglu cube or go up with 2m run

[Little Clucker]

Hi all,

Just a hopefully quick one here; our little Lemon Silkie has hurt her leg; we don't know how or when, just one day she started hopping about.

 

We've separated her from the other girls and taken her to the vet who couldn't seem to find anything wrong with her leg, he could manipulate it ok and said it probably wasn't broken and was possibly tendon damage so he gae us some metacam for her but she's still not getting better, in fact she's gotten worse as she can't stand up at all now and we were wondering if there was anything else we could do to help her before we have to make a tough choice

 

Lemon is eating and drinking normally and doesn't seem to be in any pain since we have finished the bottle of pain meds but she does scurry backwards now and we're trying all we can to get her well as the vet didnt have any advice on what to do apart from spend £200 on a x-ray which he said probably wouldn't show any breaks anyway

 

I hope someone can help us, my OH is quite distressed as she is his baby and has just won the Milton Keynes pet Idol Competition too!

 

x

[Plum]

I'm sorry, I saw your post and she is lovely. Has she laid at all? I understand pressure of an egg on a nerve can cause problems in the legs. Another posibility could be Mareks but I hope not.

Fingers crossed she picks up.

[Egluntyne]

A calcium supplement may help. Why not add some Zolcal D to her drinking water, or limestone flour and cod liver oil to her pellets?

[Little Clucker]

Hiya she's not laid yet but she should have started weeks ago but that's silkies for you! she's a little diva

 

We've added extra limestone flour and given her a special grit pot in case she was getting ready to lay and was leeching out the calcium for the shells (I heard they can do that like budgies) but so far she's only gotten worse

 

and today we went to check on her and somehow one of the girls had gotten in to her sick quarters and almost completely buried her in the woodchip! only her wee head was sticking out! she was understandable a little shaken up and the culprit was kicked out but it almost seemed to help Lemon, she actually hopped for 3 steps before falling over. Nasty Nugget was threated with being Sunday Lunch after that!

[Redwing]

I'd have said Mareks too

[Little Clucker]

Can they get it if they've been vaccinated against it? We got her from a very good breeder who vaccinates them against everything I thik...could she have gotten it from one of the Omlet birds? I've noticed my seem to make my others birds dodgy (mainly them carrying mycoplasma which offed the cockerel )

[Redwing]

Silkies are very prone to Mareks

 

Some breeders vaccinate - others believe that trying to create a resistant flock is the best thing

 

Unless you are certain she was vaccinated against it I would double check

[Little Clucker]

We have the vaccination record (Farmer Giles is awesome) and they're vaccinated at day 1 for mareks and then get vaccinated against everything else until day 44 which is good as our "posh" girls all come from him

 

I've had a email with an avian vet who lives about 90 mins away who has said much the same thing, that silkies are a prone breed. Hopefully our vet will refer us so we can get an expert opinion; I know she's just a chicken but she's our baby of the group and my OH loves her so we'd rather check that its not a tendon or fixable thing .... these blumming birds, they just have to be so loveable!

[Redwing]

Well thats good news and great record keeping

 

Maybe try confining the hen to see if a bit of rest helps, a rabbit hutch would be ideal