Any ideas on this problem please?

A lady contacted me on my blog about her little silkie.  This is her question, can anyone think of anything it could be?

hi annie,  need your advice, have a 20 week silkie pullet who seems to only be using one wing. have just noticed this and am worried it could be something sinister, having read up on mareks didease. hubby thinks am over reacting but she doesnt seem to be thriving as well as the others, and our silkie cockerel has attacked her rather viciously , in fact she lay so still afterwards that i thought she was dead. she doesnt seem to be in any pain when we lift her, and she is eating and drinking ok, but i would appreciate some advice on how to handle this,

The only thing we could think of is perhaps the cockerel got too vicious and managed to break the wing?  My little info sheet says if its Marek's it affects the leg and wing of one side, not just wing.  Thanks all

It does sound as if the cockerel has damaged her rather than Mareks. The easiest way to find out if there is a break is to gently pull the wing out from the body and run your fingers and thumb along the bones and gently flex. If there is a break nearest the shoulder then tape this part to the body. If it's the lower bone then this should be taped against the higher bone and the whole wing to the body. In both cases he recommends that the whole of the chicken should be put in the sleeve of an old jumper with just the head and the bum sticking out! This is the way one of his pals used to deal with broken wings. The bird probably won't be able to use the wing perfectly after healing....about 4 weeks....but would be better than culling it.