Neurological problems in a silkie?

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taraann81

taraann81

Songster
10 Years
Apr 9, 2009
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Ontario
I hatched a batch of pq silkies. They are about 7 weeks old now. One of them has a weird twitch. It sort of shakes its head from side to side in a wobbly sort of way on occasion. I am a nurse and would be sure it was a neurological problem in a human.

Anybody have any experience with this?
 
I have some that will do that if they are looking hard at something. I'm guessing tat they're just trying to get their eyes to focus better. I first ran into this sort of thing when I had albino rats, they sway to focus their eyes.

Just a quirk of being different I guess!
Emily in NC
 
Quote:
Funny you say that, when I had my first pet rat and noticed that, we said he was trying to hypnotize us into giving him more peaches(his favorite). He would stare right at you and sway back and forth.

Only one of the 7 that hathced does this, its very odd, Its not a sway its more like I confined convulsion to his head.
 
I have two now that do this. I also think it is neurlogical (sp?) The older chick started it at about 4 weeks and now that she is about 8 weeks old it seems to be tapering off. It's almost like some kind of weird seizure. I was giving her baby vitamins for awhile - not sure if that helped. The second one just started doing it yesterday - it wasn't as severe and I only saw it once.
 
You do know that silkies have a skull defect, right?

Sometimes they respond to vitamins. Search around here. Poly vi sol without iron, and I think E and selenium, but I have no idea of doses; don't have silkies.

Tons of info on this forum.
 
Mine are both show-girls X - so yes they are silkies. The first one who did it has a huge vaulted skull and I think she whacked her head sneaking through the chain link fence. This is her:

DSCN0740.jpg


The vitamins do seem to help her and just good ole' time. The other silkie doesn't have such a "high head" and I haven't watched him today to see if it continues.
 
My buff silkie started doing the head twitching thing when the feathers on his head and cheeks grew to obstruct his vision. I thought he was doing the head shaking to shake the feathers out of the way so he could see.

I was thinking about trimming those feathers so he could see without the head shaking.

Any silkie owners know for sure if this is a neurologic condition?
 
My 6 week old Buff Silkie is doing this as well. I know it's not to get a better look at something because he also does it as he's napping, with his eyes closed. And his feathers haven't grown over his eyes at all yet. It used to be very slight, but as he gets older it is getting more pronounced, and it definitely does look like a neurological twitch. He doesn't walk funny at this time, but he sure does look like he must be dizzy and off-balance. Could this be ear mites? I'm thinking probably not, because none of my other babies or adults do this.
 

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