3 week pheasant chick with wry neck

[Hezzz]

I have a three week old pheasant chick that came down with wry neck the first week she was hatched. She held her head at a 90 degree angle.
Since then I have been giving her supplemental doses of vitamin E and selenium. It has been two weeks on this regimen, and she seems to be getting worse, not better. Her head is almost upside down now.

My question is, has anybody else had experience with a pheasant chick recovering from wry neck? How long does it take? When should I give up? Is there anything else we can try?

She is our only chick (her hatchmate died) and we were raising her to keep, so we would prefer to cull only as a last resort.

 

[007Sean]

I have had several pheasants with wry neck. I have tried every remedy that there is....with no luck.
Some were only slightly wry necked others were severe. I could not bring myself to cull them, and eventhough, it wasn't that great of a life for them, they were well cared for and lived a fairly long life.
Some had wry neck from hatch, others, developed wry neck weeks later after hatch. None of them had problems finding the feed or water but did have mobility issues, ie; wobbling, falling over, moving backwards, getting startled and trying to fly but was more of a resemblance of a 'crash take-off'.
This has been my experience, yours may differ! Either way, best of luck with your chick .

 

[Hezzz]

Thanks for the reply 007Sean. I kept reading stories of chicken recovery, but the info on pheasants seemed less positive. I wonder if vitamin E ever has helped on pheasant wry chicks...

I have had several pheasants with wry neck. I have tried every remedy that there is....with no luck.
Some were only slightly wry necked others were severe. I could not bring myself to cull them, and eventhough, it wasn't that great of a life for them, they were well cared for and lived a fairly long life.
Some had wry neck from hatch, others, developed wry neck weeks later after hatch. None of them had problems finding the feed or water but did have mobility issues, ie; wobbling, falling over, moving backwards, getting startled and trying to fly but was more of a resemblance of a 'crash take-off'.
This has been my experience, yours may differ! Either way, best of luck with your chick .

 

[007Sean]

Thanks for the reply 007Sean. I kept reading stories of chicken recovery, but the info on pheasants seemed less positive. I wonder if vitamin E ever has helped on pheasant wry chicks...

If it has, no one that I know of or have seen in any of the literature has reported a positive response with pheasants on any of the treatments out there on the web.
I was going to say in my first post, that I think it works better on chickens than pheasants but I have nothing to base it on....I haven't raised chickens since the 70's and even then I never encountered a chicken with wry neck in my own flocks.

 

[Midnightman14]

It might be neurological and not wry neck.

 

[Seacapt]

We have a Red / Gold now that recovered quite nicely. He was about 4 weeks old and my daughter neglected to feed / water him for several days. When I saw what had happened (couldn't stand up, head down between legs and turned sideways) I started by syringe feeding him every 4 hrs. Put his feed in a coffee grinder then squeezed the oil out of a vitamin E caplet into it. Mixed in a little Rooster Booster , fresh plum and blueberry juice . Also gave him water with elderberry concentrate by syringe .At the end of the first week he was still wobbly and couldn't hold his neck straight but was starting to drink on his own.
Week 2 added the Rooster Booster to his water and dropped the force feeding back to 3 times per day. By the end of week 2 he was eating some feed on his own and would fall all over himself to get a fresh blueberry down his throat.
Week 3 I backed the syringe feeding down to once per day and he would eat as the mix came out of the syringe so I no longer had to jam it down his throat a bit at a time..
Week 4 (now) he looks and acts pretty normal. I still put a small bowl of the vitamin / fruit enriched food mix in his brooder tank daily in addition to his regular feed and add in some chopped beat tops and yes I do enjoy watching him go crazy over his daily fresh blueberry. I plan to move him outdoors next weekend