Seizures?

[EggyTheHen]

So I got two new baby chickens recently (Rhode Island Reds) and they are doing very good. They have grown in most of their feathers and are lively and don't show any typical signs of disease or bugs. They're lively and curious and just all-around happy.
One of them, though, sometimes throws some kind of fit? I've only seen it happen twice, a couple weeks apart.
She will suddenly just fall over and flop for a moment, then get up and try to walk or run but end up just spinning in circles, trying really hard to balance with her wings, before falling over again. This repeats for about half a minute, then she will get up and start going back to whatever she was doing like nothing happened.
The first time was after I put her down after holding her. I thought maybe I had accidentally moved too fast and made her dizzy. The second time was just today, when I was just watching them do their thing when it suddenly happened again, absolutely no sudden movements or any sort of trigger.
She appears to be distressed or confused during these, cheeping loudly and struggling desperately to regain balance, but not really in any pain.
I cannot get videos of it since these occurrences are very sparse and unpredictable and I don't have a camera.

Could these possibly be seizures?
Her name is Dotty, by the way.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Could be a neurological issue but hard to say. Have you been adding any vitamins to their water? You could try treating it like wry neck, supplementing some vitamin B complex + vitamin E + selenium (found in tuna and eggs... just a tiny bit will do for absorption of vit E)

http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/thiamin-deficiency
http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/encephalomalacia

 

[Fluffyflufffluff]

So I got two new baby chickens recently (Rhode Island Reds) and they are doing very good. They have grown in most of their feathers and are lively and don't show any typical signs of disease or bugs. They're lively and curious and just all-around happy.
One of them, though, sometimes throws some kind of fit? I've only seen it happen twice, a couple weeks apart.
She will suddenly just fall over and flop for a moment, then get up and try to walk or run but end up just spinning in circles, trying really hard to balance with her wings, before falling over again. This repeats for about half a minute, then she will get up and start going back to whatever she was doing like nothing happened.
The first time was after I put her down after holding her. I thought maybe I had accidentally moved too fast and made her dizzy. The second time was just today, when I was just watching them do their thing when it suddenly happened again, absolutely no sudden movements or any sort of trigger.
She appears to be distressed or confused during these, cheeping loudly and struggling desperately to regain balance, but not really in any pain.
I cannot get videos of it since these occurrences are very sparse and unpredictable and I don't have a camera.

Could these possibly be seizures?
Her name is Dotty, by the way.

Yup. sound like a seizure alright. honestly, It's the first time that I know that even they can experience these.

 

[EggyTheHen]

Could be a neurological issue but hard to say. Have you been adding any vitamins to their water? You could try treating it like wry neck, supplementing some vitamin B complex + vitamin E + selenium (found in tuna and eggs... just a tiny bit will do for absorption of vit E)

http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/thiamin-deficiency
http://www.poultrydvm.com/condition/encephalomalacia

Thanks, I'll try that! Not sure it will work, since the other chick is totally fine.

Yup. sound like a seizure alright. honestly, It's the first time that I know that even they can experience these.

Yeah, I've never heard of chickens having seizures either! Very interesting.

 

[Beevillechickenlady]

Hi y’all I have a new born silkie chick who is about 4-5 hours old maybe older but no older than 10 hours and I’ve been keeping watch of how the chick (who is already fluffed up) is doing under the heat lamp with my other silkie chicks. The chick is very active but when it flips over on its back from trying to move around I noticed it doesn’t try to get back up and instead the legs are stiff straight out and shaking (seizure like) and I’ll flip the chick over again and it will peep and continue trying to move like normal? I’ve thought about snapping a picture of it to add but every time I catch it happening I kinda freak and flip the chick back right away