Baby is Lethargic and Refuses to Eat or Drink. Please HELP!

ctrway said:

Hi I've been reading your thread and I have a chick that is hanging it's head and walking backwards so what is that? What is the treatment? I bought it with seven other chicks last week

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I slept in a Motel 6 last night but that still doesn't mean that I am a vet. Even I will hang my head if I am feeling ill. The walking in reverse could be Mareks because it often involves the nervous system. The Mareks organism is present anywhere and everywhere that you look for it. Good luck.

ctrway said:

Hi I've been reading your thread and I have a chick that is hanging it's head and walking backwards so what is that? What is the treatment? I bought it with seven other chicks last week

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For future reference, the appropriate place for your question is on its own thread in this forum.

Sounds a lot like wry neck, or potentially a neurological issue caused by injury or a disease such as Marek's Disease. Can you tell me more about the bird? How old is it? What breed? What are you feeding it? Any other symptoms or paralysis?

Given your description of the issue, I'd say wry neck is the most likely candidate. The treatment is vitamin supplements, NutriDrench has worked very well for me. Keep in mind that though wry neck treatment is often successful, the road to recovery can be difficult - it can be weeks before a bird regains the ability to move normally, and during that time the bird will often worsen to the point where it requires hand or tube feeding simply to stay alive. There is also potential for relapse after recovery, and such birds will often remain a little "special needs" for the rest of their life and should be handled with kid gloves.

To elaborate on the other possibilities; both head and neck injury and Marek's Disease can cause similiar symptoms. The first is quite hard to distinguish from deficiency-caused wry neck, but is untreatable and the bird will either recover on their own or they will not. The latter does not typically show in this way and is therefore unlikely, but worth mentioning as occasionally it will occur in this manner.

@chickengeorgeto - I do respect your opinion and its clear you are quite knowledgable regarding this disease, but I think it warrants stating that Pullorum really is not a common issue any more; I'm seeing my avian vet tomorrow, I'll check with her regarding the commonality of such a disease but she herself has spoken to the unlikliehood of very young chicks being carriers or transmitters of disease.

ctrway said:

Hi I've been reading your thread and I have a chick that is hanging it's head and walking backwards so what is that? What is the treatment? I bought it with seven other chicks last week

Click to expand...

we just cured one like this. It will probably start falling over doing somersaults soon and ending up on its back. Use medicated chick starter and wet the food with some electrolyte and vitamins. We also gave it vitamins meant for a parrot and spoon fed it those until we could get the stuff ftom TSC

this guy is just another chick normal chick now