4 wk old silkie wry neck coming back

[Wyorp Rock]

Hello, I've found this thread after googling how to help my 4 week old silkie, I came home last night to find her on the other side of the brooder away from the heat lamp by herself with her neck dropped over to the side, she is unable to walk, and her head and neck just twitch and flutter around, so horrible to see. I took her out of the brooder and put her on a towel on my bed beside me with the electric blanket on. She has survived the night and drank some water but she can't eat the chicken starter it's too course, I ground it up but she's not interested. Do vets stock nutridrench? I'm about to go to the supermarket to buy sunflower seeds and grind them up with water to try and feed her. I tried giving my chicks scrambled egg a few days ago and they weren't interested.... Any help much appreciated in this horrible time.

I'm sorry about your chick.

Nutri-Drench can be found at stores like TSC, but I think it would be better to use the vitamins suggested previously in this thread. PND is good, but it doesn't really have the therapy dose of vitamin E or B1.

You can try tube feeding her. Use her nutritionally balanced poultry feed or kaytee exact baby bird feed. I assume the ground up sunflower seeds are for Selenium to help with the uptake of E? About 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sunflower seeds is plenty for a 4 wk old.

If you have photo of your chick you wish to share that would be great.

How warm was the brooder and how much space? Could she have suffered heat exhaustion?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/crop-feeding.75454/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

I would try 400IU Vitamin E along with 1/4 tablet B-Complex. Give a little egg for the uptake of E. Egg has sufficient selenium, so don't give any extra selenium.

 

[KatiewithZena]

Thanks for your speedy reply! I found a bottle of multivet at the pet store. I will attach the list of vitamins it contains. If you could tell me if you think it's sufficient or not that would be great.
The ground up sunflowers seeds were a hit with all 4 chicks, even Zena the one with the wry neck, was so happy to see her eat! I have attached a photo of zena sleeping off her exhausting condition in a shoe box, temp is 20°C. At night when I turn the heat lamp on it gets upto 30°C under it. Last night when I found Zena
away from them, the other 3 were all huddled up under the lamp together sleeping. There is a pic of the plastic tote that I had all the chickens in too. I let them outside for the first time in a bigger cage yesterday, they were all fine when I brought them in, but not sure if that had something to do with it....?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thanks for your speedy reply! I found a bottle of multivet at the pet store. I will attach the list of vitamins it contains. If you could tell me if you think it's sufficient or not that would be great.
The ground up sunflowers seeds were a hit with all 4 chicks, even Zena the one with the wry neck, was so happy to see her eat! I have attached a photo of zena sleeping off her exhausting condition in a shoe box, temp is 20°C. At night when I turn the heat lamp on it gets upto 30°C under it. Last night when I found Zena
away from them, the other 3 were all huddled up under the lamp together sleeping. There is a pic of the plastic tote that I had all the chickens in too. I let them outside for the first time in a bigger cage yesterday, they were all fine when I brought them in, but not sure if that had something to do with it....?

I think the Multivet will be fine to use.

Hopefully with vitamin therapy she will start to improve.

 

[KatiewithZena]

I really hope so! Thanks for you support

 

[KatiewithZena]

Hi sorry I have one more question, now that it's day 2, she is back to being pretty good at pecking away at her starter that has lots of ground sunflower seeds in it. But then she will collapse and the beak/head/neck goes crazy twitching and spasming again, it's on and off. When she is having these spasm attacks should I hold my hand or a sock under her neck to help try and keep her head up, or should I just let her go with the spasm then give her a chance to recover and rest... I'm unsure if I'm helping her by trying to keep her head up and showing her where her food is all the time. Maybe I just need to do that 6 to 8 times a day and let her spasm and twitch with her neck curled under her body the rest of the time... Gee it's horrible to watch!!!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hi sorry I have one more question, now that it's day 2, she is back to being pretty good at pecking away at her starter that has lots of ground sunflower seeds in it. But then she will collapse and the beak/head/neck goes crazy twitching and spasming again, it's on and off. When she is having these spasm attacks should I hold my hand or a sock under her neck to help try and keep her head up, or should I just let her go with the spasm then give her a chance to recover and rest... I'm unsure if I'm helping her by trying to keep her head up and showing her where her food is all the time. Maybe I just need to do that 6 to 8 times a day and let her spasm and twitch with her neck curled under her body the rest of the time... Gee it's horrible to watch!!!

I would not give a lot of sunflower seeds, they are only a treat. High in fat.

Is she having the spasm while eating/drinking or?

 

[KatiewithZena]

I would not give a lot of sunflower seeds, they are only a treat. High in fat.

Is she having the spasm while eating/drinking or?

I was just planning to give her some ground sunflower seeds in her starter mix for the next few days until she comes good because they are high in vitamin E and selenium, and that's apparently what she needs to help with the neck. As well as water with the multivet vitamin drops in it.
She can hold it together for most of the time while she eats, drinks and preens. She sleeps a lot too. Other times she spasms and shuffles backwards, she's flipped her self over a couple times to, somersault style onto her back :'(

I just wanted to know about what to do while she spasms. Just let her I guess.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would let her be when she has the spasms if she's somewhere she can't get hurt.