Head tremor

[moosey]

Good morning. I have a 24 week old barnevelder (not yet laying) who has a significant head tremor this morning. I noticed a head twitch a couple weeks ago, and thought it was related to the noise of having a couple trees removed. Yesterday, we had our ceiling cleaned (also noisy) and the twitch has turned into a tremor this morning. We just completed a round of wormer (AquaSol), but the twitch had started prior to the wormer. She has been eating and her poop appears normal. This morning, she did not come out of the hen house with the rest of the flock (who are not showing any head twitching), and is sitting on the roost. No signs of mites or lice, but will look closer. No scratching at ear/head. I will be isolating her this morning. She has always been a little more flighty than the others. Attached video from this morning. Any ideas would be hugely appreciated.

 

[Chicken poppy]

I don't think she suffered a head injury. Nothing crazy in the past few days that I saw/heard anyway. No wounds or blood. She and the other's in her flock have been vaccinated for Mareks, from a pretty reputable place for this area. She's on the vitamins now, so will post an update. I feel like I have such bad luck with chickens that I'm going to give up on getting any more. Not like I have a huge flock (just 5 right now, and only chicken keeping for 3 years), but have dealt with a lot of issues (prolapsed vent, respiratory, mites, foot injury, worms, etc). It's exhausting. Sigh.

I totally understand where you are coming from. Believe me i do. I have a neighbor who had them for 8 years, and really had no problems except a fox attack that the chickens survived.

For me, being my 3rd year of chicken keeping, my chickens have had bumblefoot over a year, ovarian cancer, a tumor causing the eye to come out, fractures, slipped tendon, mareks, egg bound, predator attacks, everything! Its overwelming, exhausting, and horrible. But hang in there and it will get better, my best bit of advice to you is this:

For predators, don’t take it for granted, even being inside for one second is enough for your chickens to be gone.

And for diseases, try not to feel like it’s your fault. It happens, and as sad as it is, show them a great life and do what you can. And maybe get breeds that are hardy. Bantams can be a little tricky.

Owning bantams is a cool experience but for people still trying to juggle the loss of chickens and trying to get a stable flock, they aren’t a great start.. for me they weren’t atleast.


I hope your girl gets better, best of luck, you aren’t alone.

 

[coach723]

When I zoom in I see some small spots of what looks like blood, upper right and lower left are most visible. So maybe cocciciosis on top of everything else. The lethargy and not wanting to eat could also be symptoms. I hate to stop the B vitamins, but I'd start her on Corid to be safe. Thiamine can't be given at the same time, it can make the medication less effective. So I would do that, and then start the B vitamins again after treatment is complete. You can continue the E, that one is fine.

 

[coach723]

What she is doing is called stargazing and it's a form of wry neck. Why she does it when drinking is hard to say. Neurological issues can sometimes present very weirdly. Wry neck can be vitamin related, so that is always the first thing to try, to see if you can get it reversed. If that doesn't help, and you may need to give it a few weeks, sometimes it's quick and sometimes it takes longer, then other causes like injury, illness or genetics have to be considered. So keep doing the vitamins, and see if she improves at all, stays the same, or seems to be getting worse. I would also weigh her, make sure she's not losing weight. If she can't feed adequately, then you may have to tube or hand feed until she can. This link has a video at the end showing helping a bird with wry neck to feed:
https://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/wry-neck.html

 

[coach723]

You can also give her selenium in some cooked egg, tuna, or sunflower seeds. Only a tiny, tiny trace of selenium is needed, just to help the uptake of the E.

 

[coach723]

She's big enough to swallow a capsule. They can swallow lizards, frogs, mice. When they have small wattles, I hold them under my arm, or in my lap, use your finger nail to open the tip of the beak, use your other hand in the corners of the beak, wrap your hand around the back of her head to hold it still, to prop it open. It gets easier with practice. Have the pill in the hand you pry the beak open with, pop it in. Once you get used to it, it only takes a few seconds.
Any small room you can shut the door on will work for overnight in a crate. In the dark she's just going to sleep and poop. You can take her back to the garage in the morning when you get up. My dogs are always interested when I have a bird in the bathroom, I just keep the door shut.

 

[Eggcessive]

She definitely is still having the neurological symptoms of wry neck and star gazing. It is good that she is up and getting around. Let us know how she gets along with the vitamins.

 

[coach723]

Glad she's doing a little better, some improvement means we may be on the right track. Sometimes it takes a while. Fingers crossed she continues to improve.

 

[moosey]

I totally understand where you are coming from. Believe me i do. I have a neighbor who had them for 8 years, and really had no problems except a fox attack that the chickens survived.

For me, being my 3rd year of chicken keeping, my chickens have had bumblefoot over a year, ovarian cancer, a tumor causing the eye to come out, fractures, slipped tendon, mareks, egg bound, predator attacks, everything! Its overwelming, exhausting, and horrible. But hang in there and it will get better, my best bit of advice to you is this:

For predators, don’t take it for granted, even being inside for one second is enough for your chickens to be gone.

And for diseases, try not to feel like it’s your fault. It happens, and as sad as it is, show them a great life and do what you can. And maybe get breeds that are hardy. Bantams can be a little tricky.

Owning bantams is a cool experience but for people still trying to juggle the loss of chickens and trying to get a stable flock, they aren’t a great start.. for me they weren’t atleast.


I hope your girl gets better, best of luck, you aren’t alone.

Thank you so much! Yeah, I know folks who have zero problems with there flock, and then there's me (and you). This chicken is not a bantam, but a barnevelder. Beautiful feathers and supposed to be hardy. I'm hoping she'll pull through.

 

[moosey]

Reba update: I was glad to see she made it through the night. This morning, the head tremor is not as bad as yesterday, but I do notice it gets a little worse when there's noise. She was sitting on the little roost in her isolation crate. She did not seem too interested in breakfast, and it seems like she has problems controlling the direction of her beak...like she looks straight down at the food, but her beak goes off to the side, if that makes any sense. I'll try giving her some scrambled eggs in a bit. Her poop looks ok, a bit runny, but she was drinking a good amount of water yesterday. Ordered selenium, so should get that today. I'll update as things change.