6 week pullet backing up/upside down

[pontoosuc]

Hi, one of my Black Astrolop pullets, since yesterday, has some strange behavior. She is backing up into corners and appears to be trying to scratch/pull something from her chest, or legs. It started yesterday. I cannot see anything with my eyes, she does not appear injured. The rest of the flock, same age, all appear just fine. Any insight is appreciated. ( we only have 14 pullets, all came together, all appear fine and healthy. I'm pretty meticulous with bedding/feed/water etc.)

 

[rodentdrem]

Perhaps it's a tick?

 

[MotherJean]

You don't say how old this bird is. Would be better if you could supply a photo, but what you are describing sounds like torticollis (wry neck) that can be caused by several diseases such as Newcastle, Mareks, Fowl Cholera, as well as a nutritional deficiency of Vitamin E and Selenium which can cause encephalomalacia. This wry neck is the result of a brain lesion or meningeal infection or inner ear infection. When caught early enough and treated with vitamin supplements, torticollis due to Vit. E and Selenium deficiency can be corrected. Antibiotics may resolve meningeal or inner ear infections. However, if the torticollis is the result of brain or nerve damage, there is no treatment and the bird is unlikely to recover.

 

[pontoosuc]

Hi, and thank you.

In my rush to post the question I forgot to add the age. They are all 6 1/2 weeks old. I will start the vit E and selenium today. Do you know the ratio and how much I should provide her. And also, should I have a concern with my other chicks and what I am feeding them?? Thank you.

 

[crittersitter]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=253674

It's a long thread but very useful

 

[my3jsons]

It sounds like wry neck to me. I had a dominique roo chick with that this spring. The weird thing was he would act fine but then had long bouts of seizure like activity, twisting his head around under him, backing up, even flipping over. He appeared to have no control over his body. After watching him suffer for several days, I put him down. I just couldn't take it anymore. I hope that isn't what it is. Here is a pic that might help. So sorry.

 

[pontoosuc]

thank you all (and to the people in the threads that I read).

I'm off to the pharmacy, but already have given yogurt and vit E.
She is fine for a long time, eats, drinks etc. then goes under and walks backwards.

Hope the regimen will work. I'll keep things posted.

 

[MotherJean]

If you haven't already picked up the vitamins, you might just go ahead and give a good multi-vitamin like Polyvisol (without iron). These are the baby vitamins that you can find in the grocery store either in the pharmacy or the baby food section. You can give these vitamins to all your chicks everyday in their water. But, for the one chick with the wry neck, give a couple of drops daily directly in the beak until symptoms subside. Hopefully this will do the trick for your chick and it's not something more serious.