Stargazing Chicken - Euthanise?

Eggcellent86

Hatching
5 Years
Sep 23, 2014
2
0
7
Hi all,

My chicken has been stargazing ever since we bought her - at about 4 months old. We took her back to the breeder and he gave her shots of vitamins and we put vitamins in the water daily. She seemed to improve (she still seemed quieter and more sickly than the others). The breeder said if she continued to stargaze we should bring her back to be euthanised. Now she is approx 8 months old and looks like she is ready to lay. At this point she has started stargazing again. She falls off her perch at night and stargazes for approx 2 minutes each time. She does it at least twice a day. I am worried that it is hurting her and don't want my chicken to be in pain. I have never had chickens before and want some advice. Should I euthanise my chicken or just wait and see if she improves again? I'm worried she will have complications when laying because it seems the stargazing is brought on by stress (one of the factors). I am very distressed and don't know what to do? Please help.
 
Welcome to BYC. Stargazing or wry neck can be hard to treat. It's mostly from a vitamin E and selenium problem, but most like to give thiamine or B1 also. Is that what you have been using? If the vitamins and selenium would help, I would just keep using them and see how it goes. A vet could also prescribe prednisone which may help reduce inflammation in the brain. Is there any way to reduce her stress by isolating her in her own cage for a bit? Euthanizing is up to you, especially since it takes a lot of extra time treating a bird with wry neck, making sure they get nourishment. I would probably let her try to survive if she gets better again. Here are some links to read, and the first has vitamin dosages:
http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/Crookneck/Crookneck.html
http://oureggbasket.blogspot.com/2013/04/wry-neck-or-crook-neck-understanding-it.html
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/97121/lets-talk-wry-neck-crook-neck
 
Hi Eggcessive,

Thank you for your links to the info on wry neck, they were very helpful.
We do not really have the facilities to keep her away from the other chickens at the moment, however we have decided to take her back to the breeder and ask him to look after her and administer shots of vitamins (this is what we did the first time) for a week or two. He's really helpful and understands that we want to keep her - she's our favourite :(. I just don't want her to be in pain :(
In relation to your question regarding what vitamins we have been using, we have been putting 'soluvet', a bird multivitamin in their water. It contains vitamins E, B1, Selenium and Thiamine, amongst others. We also give her yoghurt on bread to try and increase her pre-biotics. I will also look into fermenting their feed (hopefully this helps her!).
I'm going to try and get her through this - I will let you know how it goes. Thank you so much for your help
 

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