HELP, Sick(?) Silkie

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Pootersmama

Pootersmama

Chirping
12 Years
Jun 1, 2010
48
0
85
New Jersey
My daughter called me at work today...Peaches (a Silkie) was lethargic, head down twisted to the side, falling over....She moved her to the henhouse and diupped her beak in water every 1/2 hour today and she perked up alittle and came out of the henhouse. I called the breeder she suggested electrolyes for dehydration. I called the supply store (to see if electrolytes were instock) and they said dehydration and try the electrolytes and check for mites and check her poop. She pooped today small formed and normal looking (according to the girl). She was still not right when DH got home, but, she was more awake, putting her head down, not so much twisting the head to the side and not falling over. He gave her grapes (for fluid) and the electrolyte water and food. None of the others are acting this way. What is up? Dehydration? Sick?
 
Sounds like Wry Neck is developing either due to an illness or just happens in Silkies at times. For Wry Neck, get some Vitamin E gel caps & Poly -vi sol liquid childrens vitamins (w/o iron). Give a few drops in her beak of each 2X daily for about 2 weeks. It may seem to get better sooner, but do not stop till the second week or it could return. Did she lose weight? Could she have another underlying problem such as worms or mites? Also up her protein with scrambled eggs etc.. for added strength .
 
I'm not sure about wry neck, she can keep her head straight and upright, she just gets sleepy and puts her head down and under her body and wing. I don't think she is loosing weight, but she is very small compared to the other Silkie we have. She looks like she is not growing/gain weight like the other (the other is a rooster though). How do we know about worms and mites?
 
Has she been kept on the ground? How old is she? What other symptoms if any? If a young bird is getting slow and not growing and losing weight, coccidia is one of the first things I look for. I just treat them with Corid for 5 days and it normally clears it up. If you can't find Corid, Sulmet can also work. If that doesn't work, Wazine is a normal Poultry wormer easily found. It treats round worms. Check in the feathers, on face and around vent for lice eggs, lice and mites. Lice eggs look like little dew drops on the feather barbs, lice are white bugs and mites are red bugs.- Treated with Seven dust on young birds.
 
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It is not wry neck. If the bird had that they would be off balance and would be turning to one side or the other. Wry neck affects the inner ear balance causing the sideways motion. Rabbits are prone to get it and require antibiotics to treat. I have seen it in Holland Lops & Netherland Dwarfs when I used to breed & show them years ago. It looks completely different than when a Silkie bonks it's head!

You silkie has a head injury. Because most silkies have vaulted skulls they get injuries to the brain very easily. You can give vitamins if you like, you can also give Gatorade. The most important thing is make sure she gets water. The brain nneds time to repair. During this time if she becomes stressed, she will tuck he head between her back legs, walk backwards, and sometimes somersault doing forward rolls. Just help her get to the food & water dish. Most silkies recover in about 2 weeks with no treatment at all. But afterward they will show some signs during periods of stress.

If you go to a show and see a silkie doing a Bobblehead motion constantly, it had a head injurie at some point in it's life.

Since yours isn't doing the somersaults she should recover quickly. Some chicks get this after hatching when they get pecked on by hatchmates. I raise a lot of silkies and it seems that the better the vault, the quicker they get head trama. I have had many birds recover over night, and a few that took a few weeks. I did not treat them with meds or Vitamins. Just let the body repair the nerve endings themselves. One hen went on to with BV Black at the Ohio National last fall. We retired her after that show, because by the end of the second day at shows she would stress and start doing the Bobblehead thing. Since going into a reirement pen she has never done it again.

Good Luck with your girl!
 
Quote:
You said her head twisted to the side and she fell over.....
That is why I first suggested it may be Wry neck. If she is not gaining weight and is eating, I would still look into coccidia or worms(if she has been on the ground.)
 
Thank-you all for the posts, I am frantically looking things up. I do welcome all suggestions and diagnosis. I will post pictures tomorrow if she is still acting this way.

This morning my daughter said she fell over 1 or 2 times. She did not do that this afternoon, so I'm not sure if it was fall over or loose balance, or stumble. I looked up pictures of wry neck and she is not that twisted, her head is mostly down on the ground head under her or just to the side of her foot. She can pick her head up straight, she does the head down thing when she is so sleepy. She is not a perkey as she usually is, she needed to be coaxed to eat and drink. She ws content to just be alone in the henhouse and be fed food and water every 1/2 hour for a few hours today. Then she seemed ready to come out and DD took her out of the henhouse with the rest of them where she just kind of stood/lie on the periphery and slept/watched. She would get up and move around the yard, but rest alot.

She seems to have no other symptoms other than a poor appetite and lethargy. She did improve some with water being given to her at 1/2 hour intervals and being hand fed food, She does free-range in the yard. She does not appear to have any lice or mites. She is pooping fine and her vent appears clean - noone did any other checks. She has not started to lay yet, she hatched late April/early May (the best answer I could get from the woman I got her from). She is smaller that the other we got at the same time although he is a rooster (surprise to us). She lives with a Silkie rooster and 4 bigger breeds, a maran, a leghorn, a redstar, and an ee all hens. She does get picked on occationally by the bigger chickens, but nothing violent. The big chicken usually want nothing to do with her (not a threat I guess).
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Well, I wanted to post pics, but I am having issues. I think it is wry neck, I looked at her today for the first time. She only falls over after you pick her up and put her down. She is eating and drinking like normal. He feathers look good and her eyes are bright. No discharge or drainage from anywhere.
 
Such a cutie..... does look like a form of Wry neck to me. Some of mine would start by tucking their head in, walking backward, then start flipping over and some would start by twisting the neck and doing all those. Even if it was a head trauma I still think giving the vitamins suggested helps greatly. I had a roo that was injured and loss the use of his legs, I treated him for a month because he was so bad with those vitamins.... one day he just got up and walked and kept walking. Best Wishes for your girl
 

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