10 week old light Sussex exhibits jerky head movements and seems unwell - what to do?

[Maloomi]

Hello there and merry Christmas from Australia.
I just went to get my chickens in from their free ranging time and noticed that my ten week old light Sussex exhibits odd head movements every now and then and also seems to tumble and generally unwell. I got her in to have a proper look at her and at least from the outside there seems to be no injury or anything. We had a few pretty hot days the last few days with 43 degrees Celsius on Monday, however, now it cooled right down to 25 degrees. I have separated her from the flock for now and put some vitamin water (Solvita, which I got from the breeder) in with her, so far she didn’t drink it though but seems to be sleepy. Have not seen her droppings yet, really only noticed that she is not her usual self about twenty minutes ago.

All the other chicks seem fine.

Given that it’s Christmas, not much happening with vets here at the moment, so hoping you have an idea what it could be and what I could do. Any helpful tips are highly appreciated.

Thank you

 

[Eggcessive]

She might be having some neurological symptoms from a head injury, a vitamin E or B1 thiamine deficiency, or showing signs of something else. If you have a short video which could be uploaded to YouTube or a similar site, so that we could see her behavior during a spell, that might help. Wry neck can have some of those same symptoms. Most of the time, I would recommend that she get a balanced chicken grower feed, and give her a human vitamin E soft gel 400 IU plus a 1/2 tablet of human vitamin B complex with thiamine. Your poultry vitamin probably has enough of the thiamine, but you still may need to give extra E. Egg, just a little scrambled or mixed, is rich in selenium which is also good for this.

 

[LaFleche]

Check her crop early in the morning before she had something to eat to see if it empties properly.

And also inspect her carefully for external and her droppings for hints of internal parasites.

Her ears should be also inspected for infection or parasites.

Some pictures of her and her poop will help us help you.

And Merry Christmas to you too!

 

[Maloomi]

We inspected her for parasites, looks clear, nothing in her head, under the wings etc. the vent area is clean too, not swollen or red, but just looks normal and the crop seems normal too. I had contacted the breeder yesterday as well and send them a video. They suggested to better switch from vitamin water to Amprolium laced water, as they suspect it could be coccidiosis, as the extreme heat we were experiencing might have caused this. We syringe fed her some of the Amprolium water and I kept her in a cage next to the others, so they can still see each other. This morning she ate when I came in. I am about to check for droppings and will feed her some scrambled egg this morning. She seems to close her left eye most of the time.
I will observe her and see, that I can upload a video to YouTube to share here.

 

[Maloomi]

Oh and yes, I recently switched from starter crumble to feeding Milne‘s grower feed, the brand the breeder recommends.

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you see any discharge or dirt in her left eye? You could rinse the eye with a little saline or eye wash to see if it helps. It would help to see the video. Is she having any trouble walking or with balance?

 

[Maloomi]

I rinsed the eye and gave her scrambled egg. The eye doesn’t have visible damage and every now and then she uses it normally. She does seem to favour her neck bent towards the right, however, when she was eating it was straight down. Yes, she is a bit unbalanced and tumbles somewhat. Yesterday more than today I feel. Will try to upload a video to YouTube now.

 

[Maloomi]

Oh and her poop was normal too. When I got my phone to take a picture, she stepped into it though and it wasn’t a perfect little Mount any longer…

 

[Maloomi]

And here a video from that head movement.

Jerky head moves

Also, when she ate, whilst I before said she had a straight neck then, she didn’t all the time, she actually seems to have the neck mostly bent then towards the right too. She went for a snooze on her roosting bar, that looked as usual and not bent then.

Bent neck while eating

 

[Eggcessive]

I really think she is having some neurological problem, perhaps wry neck. I would get the human vitamin E and some b complex, and give them as I suggested earlier in post 2. Was she vaccinated for Mareks disease or have you ever seen any chickens with symptoms of Mareks?