All animals can suffer from disease, chickens included. If you don’t take note of, and address your chicken’s symptoms, the bird can get worse and die.
So, what should you do if your chicken is laying on its side and can’t walk? And why is this happening? This article looks into it
If your bird is laying on its side and can’t walk then it is likely suffering from an illness like Mareks disease, Botulism, Epidemic tremors, or Spondylolisthesis.
Chicken laying on side, can’t walk
A well-maintained coop, a healthy diet, and frequent activity are all essential if you want to raise healthy and happy chickens. Unfortunately, you can do everything right and something can still go wrong.
Below are a few reasons why your bird is lying on its side and can’t walk:
Mareks disease:
Marek’s disease is a common chicken disease that affects both commercial and backyard poultry, this disease is caused by the herpes virus.
A major symptom of this disease is rapid leg paralysis in one or both of the chicken’s legs. Mareks disease will cause the bird to become paralyzed because it causes the nerves of the legs to start to swell. A bird suffering from this disease will frequently lie down.
Treatment:
The bird can make a full recovery if it is given immune boosters, antivirals, and anti-inflammatories. Vaccinating any birds that you buy in the future is also recommended, you can also buy birds that are already vaccinated.
Avian encephalomyelitis (Epidemic tremors):
Birds that are already infected with this disease will pass it through their droppings. This disease will transfer to healthy birds when they drink water or eat food contaminated by the droppings of sick birds. Hens can also pass this disease onto chicks.
Other symptoms of this illness include jerky movements, shivering or tremors, difficulty walking, the bird lying on its side, and paralysis.
Treatment:
There is no treatment for this illness, however, you can vaccinate any birds you buy in the future against this illness. You should only vaccinate birds that are older than 8 weeks old.
Botulism:
Germs create toxins that cause botulism. These toxins are usually present in rotting poultry and in the carcasses of other animals. It is common for insects like maggots and beetles to feed on carcasses.
If chickens eat contaminated maggots, beetles, carcasses, or drink water contaminated by a contaminated carcass, then the chicken can develop botulism.
Other symptoms of this illness, in addition to the bird not being able to walk and laying on its side, include feather loss around the neck and a head that is twisted down
Treatment:
The infected bird can get rid of these toxins by drinking large quantities of fresh clean water. All of this water will help to flush out the toxins from the bird’s body. Giving your bird antibiotics, like penicillin, can also be helpful.
Spondylolisthesis (Kinky back):
This ailment develops when a bird’s vertebrae dislocate, move, and rotate towards the rear. This vertebrate then pinches your bird’s spinal cord causing damage to the spinal cord and paralysis. If your bird is suffering from this ailment, it will fall to its side and may extend its feet outwards.
This ailment can also develop when bacteria move to the vertebrae causing swelling and compression of the birds spinal column, bacteria move to the vertebrae when the bird experiences stress like cold stress or heat stress
Solution:
Antibiotic treatment can help in treating your bird, but sometimes this only reduces the symptoms ever so slightly. In this case, prevention is better than cure. Prevention entails keeping environmental stresses at a minimum as well as good upkeep of the bird’s housing.
Conclusion
In conclusion, chickens are generally very active and charismatic birds, if your bird begins to have trouble walking and starts to lay on its side then your bird is likely sick.
Illnesses that can cause these symptoms include Marek’s disease, Botulism, Kinky back, and Epidemic tremors
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other chicken related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Chicken Eggs Not Hatching After 24 Days, Chick Egg Pipped 24 Hours Ago, Baby Chick Not Growing?