BeanSprout
Chirping
- May 4, 2021
- 19
- 51
- 64
I posted yesterday with a video of my poor lil silkie chick who hatched yesterday morning. She was displaying symptoms of what appeared to be wry neck, or like it had choked or aspirated. Every time she would try to fall asleep she would wake up after a few seconds in a fit like way, walk backwards, fall over, shake her head and gasp. I was sure she was going to die but it’s been a whole 24 hours and she’s still kicking it. Today her gasping behavior isn’t as prevelant- haven’t seen it in a few hours- but she is still all wobbly and can’t seem to figure out how to walk forward. I also noticed she keeps one of her eyes shut (more on this below). I gave her vitamin e and egg yolk earlier this evening and added electrolytes to their water.
Back to the eye shut- with my silkies some of their cheek muffs are so long and fluffy when they hatch that the little fluffs touch their eyeball. I believe this is why they sometimes keep one closed. Usually I’ll just wet down a qtip and move the fluff from their eyes. With this one I noticed that in addition to the one eye held shut the one it did have open had several fluffs in it as well, and I believe this could possibly be the cause of some of its seemingly neurological issues. The head shaking, stumbling backwards, sudden jerking awake (it’s probably uncomfortable having the hair in it’s eyeball!) like I said, the eye held shut doesn’t concern me anymore as it’s quite common in the chicks I hatch and does resolve itself. Is it possible this chick has this problem extra bad and that’s why it’s displaying these symptoms? The gasping can’t be explained from this but I feel everything else could. When I wet it’s fluffs down it opened both eyes and seemed more alert and stable than I’d seen it yet, still slightly wobbly but maybe it never had any depth perception until now.
Has anyone else ever experienced this? I haven’t seen any other posts about this problem, but I have seen many people questioning why their silkies keep their eyes shut at times and I know for mine it’s the fluff poking the eye. I’d love some feedback. The video of my chick is on my last post.
Back to the eye shut- with my silkies some of their cheek muffs are so long and fluffy when they hatch that the little fluffs touch their eyeball. I believe this is why they sometimes keep one closed. Usually I’ll just wet down a qtip and move the fluff from their eyes. With this one I noticed that in addition to the one eye held shut the one it did have open had several fluffs in it as well, and I believe this could possibly be the cause of some of its seemingly neurological issues. The head shaking, stumbling backwards, sudden jerking awake (it’s probably uncomfortable having the hair in it’s eyeball!) like I said, the eye held shut doesn’t concern me anymore as it’s quite common in the chicks I hatch and does resolve itself. Is it possible this chick has this problem extra bad and that’s why it’s displaying these symptoms? The gasping can’t be explained from this but I feel everything else could. When I wet it’s fluffs down it opened both eyes and seemed more alert and stable than I’d seen it yet, still slightly wobbly but maybe it never had any depth perception until now.
Has anyone else ever experienced this? I haven’t seen any other posts about this problem, but I have seen many people questioning why their silkies keep their eyes shut at times and I know for mine it’s the fluff poking the eye. I’d love some feedback. The video of my chick is on my last post.