Head tremor

[Debbie292d]

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.

Presuming they're getting good grower feed and grit with minimal treats, could there be something environmental going on there? What you used for cleaning perhaps or some other thing like paint, varnish, or other chemical that could be causing it?

If not, I've had a silkie (prone to vitamin deficiencies) that acted much like your first video, but not quite so fast of head tremors, more like looking left and shaking, then looking right and shaking, then just darts off a few feet. This started Day 1. I did E and Selenium then Nutra Drench in water once a week, to this day. She's now nearing 6 months old, and still does it, no better, no worse. Yours seems much worse though is why I think it's something environmental if you've already given the supplements and there's not much change.

 

[moosey]

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

Thank you. I will keep on the vitamins for sure.

 

[moosey]

Presuming they're getting good grower feed and grit with minimal treats, could there be something environmental going on there? What you used for cleaning perhaps or some other thing like paint, varnish, or other chemical that could be causing it?

If not, I've had a silkie (prone to vitamin deficiencies) that acted much like your first video, but not quite so fast of head tremors, more like looking left and shaking, then looking right and shaking, then just darts off a few feet. This started Day 1. I did E and Selenium then Nutra Drench in water once a week, to this day. She's now nearing 6 months old, and still does it, no better, no worse. Yours seems much worse though is why I think it's something environmental if you've already given the supplements and there's not much change.

There hasn't been any environmental changes since we got her in June. Just a few noisy days. No paint, etc, and cleaning supplies are natural and just soap. She is getting NutraDrench in her water and just started the vitamins yesterday, when she started the tremors. Prior to that, she just shook her head more often than the other chickens. I noticed the head shake about 2 weeks ago, but the head tremor was really bad yesterday morning, shockingly worse, and definitely more of a tremor than just the head shake. She does get good grower crumbles, grit available, and her water has NutraDrench. I'll post an update.

 

[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.

 

[Debbie292d]

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.

When you give her the selenium, be sure to give her Vitamin E at the same time, and don't overdo the Selenium, as while she may need it, too much causes problems too. Hopefully this helps her though!!

 

[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.

 

[Debbie292d]

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.

I actually just do the shelled sunflower seeds and mash a few up in the starter for baby chicks or hand-feed them to the chickens about once a week as they have both the selenium and Vit. E, plus other nutrients, but alas, high in fat too. I have silkies so doing it for prevention, and they're expensive but I figure one of the best treats out there, in moderation.

 

[moosey]

I actually just do the shelled sunflower seeds and mash a few up in the starter for baby chicks or hand-feed them to the chickens about once a week as they have both the selenium and Vit. E, plus other nutrients, but alas, high in fat too. I have silkies so doing it for prevention, and they're expensive but I figure one of the best treats out there, in moderation.

I like that idea for prevention. They do get some sunflower seeds in a treat square I put out weekly. Do you use the raw, unsalted shelled sunflower seeds? Right now, I have some roasted, salted ones. I see they have them on Amazon.

 

[coach723]

Raw, unsalted. The salted ones have way too much salt for your birds, could cause other problems. You can often find them in the bird seed section of stores. I get them at Tractor Supply, they have them shelled and unshelled in several sized bags.

 

[moosey]

Reba seems a bit better this morning. More interest in scrambled eggs with vitamins this morning. And more interest in her usual grower feed. I did find a roundworm in her poo from this morning. We just finished the 5-day treatment with Safeguard AquaSol, so kindof disappointed. Would it be normal to find a dead worm in poo after worming? If not, should I do another round of it? The yellow bits in the photo are scrambled egg, not her poo.