Retarded/Mental baby chick?

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LadyShred

LadyShred

Songster
10 Years
11 Years
Jan 24, 2009
145
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119
Alabama
I have a little black silkie chick (hatched 1/25/09) that has started showing wierd signs this morning. He's spinning in circles and acting like his world's rotating around him. He can see, but it he flips out and spins in a few circles when he sees me. He doesn't fall or anything, his balance is good, but he cocks his head sideways and nearly turns it upside down to look at something. He peeps ALOT when he goes into the psycho-trips, but is otherwise normal.

I had a courtnix quail that had this problem before, but he was older when it happened to him. He could spin in circles for hours. He never got over it and died about 8 months after I noticed him like that (like I said, he was older, so I wasn't sure if his death was natural or if it was from his illness).

Does anyone have any ideas what this could be caused from? Or a possible cure maybe? I've researched and researched, but can't seem to find anything of the sort.
 
It's a genetic defect. I was just reading about some of them in a new book I got. It's hard to determine what causes it, I would cull as it is suffering.
 
I hope you have not culled at this point. It's most likely a vitamin deficiency/malabsorption issue and easily cured by adding Poly-vi-sol and Vitamin E to its diet. Give a few drops of Poly-Vi-Sol (liquid baby vitamins) directly on its beak or add a couple of dropper fulls to a small dish of water. Also cut the top off a vitamin E capsule and squeeze out the goo for it to eat. You can also feed it scrambled egg. I'll bet you in a week it's amazingly cured. You need to act right away though because the deficiency will quickly transgress to crook neck/limpneck/wry neck where the neck does get twisted in an odd shape. That too can be corrected and will correct itself as the chick gets it's vitamins. But I've had a chick that I made a little neck brace out of toilet paper that I taped around its neck to keep its neck from twisting down and under causing him to run backwards or tumble over. That chick healed just fine.
 
Last edited:
Thanks everyone.

I can't stand to cull - never have/don't know how. I'm that kind of person that lets nature take it's course and I've held dying baby chicks in my hands with all the love I can muster. If I have to intervene, I don't mind. Something as simple as adding vitamins sounds good to me. I'll immediately give it a scrambled egg and I'll go for vitamins in the morning.

Another question (kinda dumb): I have another silkie that hatched the same day as the sick one. Should I feed it the vitamins and egg too? I couldn't see it doing any harm . . .
 
I give Poly-Vi-Sol to all my newly hatched chicks for the first week. I use a small, shallow water dish (actually the glass lids to the candle jars I buy) and add a couple of dropper fulls to the water and I feed all chicks, from day one, scrambled egg. They love it. Takes a minute for them to catch on but then one will pick up a piece of egg and run with it and then the game is on and it looks like a game of chicks playing football. They quickly learn to scarf it down as soon as I toss it in the brooder.
 
I fed the little guy an egg last night and he LOVED it. The other chick didn't understand what he was so excited about - it just stood and watched. It was kind of a funny sight.

I have to work this morning, but I will pick up some vitamins as soon as I clock out. Thanks for all the help and will update!
 
i read a thread just like this about a silkie chick and apparently its just how silkie chicks normally are. and it sounded like its something they do when theyre nervous or something. i dont know, but i wouldnt cull, im not even a silkie person, but if you were decide you didnt want it, id even take it.
 
Bad news. I did everything as told, adding poly-vi-sol to the water, dripping a few drops on it's beak, and squeezing out the vitamin E goo for it to eat. But the poor baby keeps getting worse. It's hard for him to hold his neck up now and he goes into MAJOR fits where he rolls himself over and backs up with his neck under him. I even had to take the water dish out while I'm not in there because he keeps getting stuck in it and I don't want him to drown.

Between his fits, he finds time to eat, but he's getting thinner. I worried about the little guy.

I googled wryneck in chickens and he fits the description perfectly. What should I do now? What other measures need to be taken? How would I make a neck brace?
 

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