8 week old araucana with twisted neck - what can i do?

[hellympowell]

Hi i am New to the forum and have a problem with my 8week old araucana. sorry if it gets lengthy but i want to give as much info as i can.
i bought this chick from a local breeder yesterday morning, brought her home and put her with a 12 week poland that i also bought in a hutch quarrantined from my other flock.
when the chick started to walk around she was tilting her head to one side and i thought at first she couldn't see. i helped give her a drink of water and fed her some chick crumb which she ate so i put her back in hutch. i went back and forth for the next couple of hours and she progressively got worse with her head flopping to one side, i took her in house under a heat lamp to keep an eye on her all of a sudden her neck looked like it was broke as it was so twisted. but slowly it returned to normal with just a tilt. she was cheeping for her mate so i put her back before i went to bed.
this morning she appeared fine just a slight tilt eating and drinking by herself i thought she was ok. but a few times today the neck has twisted almost like a spasm then shortly returns to normal.
apart from a slightly snotty nose she appears to be well. although i have seen her scratch her right ear sometimes and that is the side that her neck tilts and twists to. also when her neck twists up she is very disorientated and closes her eyes.

if i take her back to the breeder i know they will just dispatch her and even though i have thought that might be best if i can make her better then i will try! any suggestions?

thanks
helly

 

[CapricornFarm]

Your chick has wry neck, caused by deficiency of vits. Give it polyvisol and vitamin e. Good luck

 

[hellympowell]

thanks for reply hot2pot i am from the uk what is polyvisol (a multi vit) for babies?

 

[CatDaddyAlbert]

Quote:
Great advice here, plus if you have the space I would isolate the little guy at least for a while so the others do not make life any worse for it.

Best of luck.

 

[CatDaddyAlbert]

Quote:
In case hot2pot is not online. Yes, they are baby vitamins.

 

[alaina]

I had a silkie breeder tell me that is was a deficiency of vitamin B12 specifically, she said she gives shots of it to her wry neck hen.... I personally don't know how to give shots to chickens, or where you would buy the B12 or how much to give....any one else may have the answers here?

 

[hellympowell]

thanks everyone for the advice i have started giving vitamins and also spoke to vet and started antiiotics, since then the little hen has got worse now can't even lift head at all itjust goes round and round with its head twisted back. should i give it prednisolone i have some 5mg tablets i think it is a last ditch attempt? if so how much do i give and how to administer. any advice greatly received.

 

[CapricornFarm]

I don't know dosage for the prednisone. Did you do a search on wry neck under illnesses? It might be listed. Good luck

 

[redhen689]

I have a 2 week old chick who started holding her head twisted to the side a few days ago. I read one place it could be caused by calcium deficiency, several other places mentioned vitamin deficiency. There are a bunch of other causes as well) People specifically wrote NOT to use a supplement containing iron, so since I didn't have any liquid baby vitamins, I disolved one of my multivitamins and a calcium/mineral supplement in some water, diluted it a bit and put it in their water. The chick was eating and drinking and acting okay otherwise, so I didn't remove her from her adopted mom and other chicks. (she seemed to get worse when stressed.) The second day I went to the feed store and bought a electolyte/vitamin powder called Sav-A-Chick. I mixed some of it in their water and they have all been drinking it for two days. Today her neck appears normal.

Good luch with your chick, I'm hoping for a good outcome!

 

[chkn]

What RedHen said plus there was someone who was asking about a chick with head tilt in the last three four days here. Don't know if there's been any follow up.