[Gunestone]

One of our Leghorn hens is paralysed, this morning when I let them out, she remained in the house on the floor and was unable to stand. I put her in a box with food and water and she ate/drank. Is there any hope for her or should we dispatch her? Doesn't seem to be in any pain, just can't walk. She is about 2.

[doganjo]

Haven't heard of this before but I'd see how she is tomorrow morning and make a decision based on that, assuming she is still the same

[Marches Farmer]

Could be one of many things.  A degree of paralysis can be down to avian leukosis, Marek's disease, limber neck, etc.  If she ate and drank then there's hope but I'd treat her as potentially infectious and quarantine her for now, attending to her after the other birds and washing hands after handling her.

[bj_cardiff]

I always refer to it as a 'stroke' I've taken on a fair few ex-commercial hens over the years and they seem particularly prone. Despite giving them time to recover none ever have so now as soon s I see them like that I cull. It must be very distressing for the hen.

[chrismahon]

The most likely cause is botulism Gunestone- they either die quickly due to total muscle paralysis or they recover slowly from partial paralysis. We have had three or four such cases in the previous year and they all recovered, although one seemed dead until we saw that she was still breathing. They all went off their legs first and their legs recovered last. One collapsed in broad daylight, about 3 hours after we raked all the dead leaves from their run. The others were on the coop floor in the morning, having fallen off the perch in the night.


Caused by eating insects from an oxygen depleted environment, like under fallen leaves or in a compost heap, or maggots from a dead wild animal. Could also be poisoning of some description- presumably they can't access rat poison directly or indirectly?


Keep her warm and administer water if she isn't drinking. If she's not standing in two days then it may be neurological, in which case despatch unfortunately.

[Marches Farmer]

We had a cockerel go down with limber neck (botulism) a couple of weeks ago.  No idea why, clean coop, feed and water and no access to rotting vegetation, insects, etc.   He was less than a year old and had been entirely healthy up to that point so I decided to stop him getting dehydrated and give his body a chance to deal with the toxins.  We held him and extended his neck three times a day while I dropped warm water over the back of his tongue with a pipette.  We also took him in the house for warmth as there was 35cm of snow down at the time.  After a couple of days he started to struggle, then to stand and is now eating, drinking and crowing although his head is still tilted slightly to one side.  If he survives I may try breeding from him, for he must have the constitution of an ox.

[Gunestone]

Well she went downhill quickly so we dispatched. Shame as she was one out of two hens still laying!