baby chicken with wry neck and swollen crop

[Henkie]

Hi all, I am new here to this forum. I found a little baby chicken on the road in Bali and I have been taking care of it for already 3 weeks. Unfortunately this poor baby developed wry neck and I have been a lot on internet and forums to figure out how to take care of this. I now give him vitamins and antibiotics.

What the local vet here discovered (but there aren't any chicken vets around here) was that his crop was swollen. I then changed his diet. First I put him 12 hours overnight with nothing to eat. Then I give him some yoghurt and porridge. He eagerly eats this. I just fed him a little yoghurt and as you can see on the picture, it is clearly visible in his crop. What worries me is that his crop is so easily blown up and it also looks so transparent, the skin around it so thin.

Also should the crop go all the way to his back/shoulder? I massage it a little but It feels so delicate that I am a little afraid to hurt him. Also after how many hours should the crop be empty? In the morning his crop is empty. I have no idea how a healthy crop should look like in young chickens, so please can you have a look at the pictures and tell me if I should be worried about his crop? Thanks a lot in advance, also from Henkie

 

[chooks4life]

Hi all, I am new here to this forum. I found a little baby chicken on the road in Bali and I have been taking care of it for already 3 weeks. Unfortunately this poor baby developed wry neck and I have been a lot on internet and forums to figure out how to take care of this. I now give him vitamins and antibiotics.

What the local vet here discovered (but there aren't any chicken vets around here) was that his crop was swollen. I then changed his diet. First I put him 12 hours overnight with nothing to eat. Then I give him some yoghurt and porridge. He eagerly eats this. I just fed him a little yoghurt and as you can see on the picture, it is clearly visible in his crop. What worries me is that his crop is so easily blown up and it also looks so transparent, the skin around it so thin.

Crop skin is normally quite thin on many breeds, bar possibly some fighting breeds and nakednecks which seem to have thicker skin in most pics I see. So, genetics at play there, but normally it is indeed quite thin, often translucent.

Also should the crop go all the way to his back/shoulder?

A very full crop in a chick will often be right up on the same level as the back of the neck sometimes, but it's also normal for it not to be. Not necessarily a concern there.

I massage it a little but It feels so delicate that I am a little afraid to hurt him. Also after how many hours should the crop be empty? In the morning his crop is empty.

That's good, in the morning it should be empty. Like us chickens can have fast or slow metabolisms but chicks should be filling and emptying their crops several times a day, generally. Not filling it completely is generally best, most baby animals and even most adult animals do not get to regularly stuff themselves full and it can be harmful when they're enabled to do so. The digestive system performs better when it's not always crammed full. I'm not suggesting withholding food on a regular basis but don't panic if he doesn't want to eat till he's stuffed, either.

I have no idea how a healthy crop should look like in young chickens, so please can you have a look at the pictures and tell me if I should be worried about his crop? Thanks a lot in advance, also from Henkie

It looks normal enough to me. His neck looks weak though. Is it twisting in one direction or just limp? Can he hold up and move his head normally? Have you or your vet considered whether this might be Marek's disease or an injury?

Best wishes and good luck with him.

 

[Henkie]

Hi Chooks4life,

Thank you so much for your reply, it helps a lot!
So I worry less now about the look of his crop, so glad to hear that it looks normal. It is a normal Balinese street chicken. Normally they are quite tough

His neck is an issue indeed, he seems to have wry neck. But during the day he is quite active, holding his head normally during most of the time. He just seems to get these seizures and his head ends up under his belly and he tumbles in circles, but then he snaps out of it again and appears normal and active. It seems a little worse at night. I hope it is not Marek, I looked it up and Mareks disease is not good, but it also says that Marek comes with paralysed legs and he doesn't have that. Also his neck is not towards one side only.

Thanks again for taking the time and for your helpful information. I really hope to get this little one healthy and back on his feet again!

 

[chooks4life]

Sounds like, being a street chook, he should be one tough little fellow.

It's possible the wry neck is due to faulty genetics though, some spasms of the neck occur in chickens, quail, turkeys and other birds because of inbreeding. As with epilepsy in ducks, it can be a spontaneous mutation that's not heritable, or it can be heritable.

With my chooks, when I'm letting them pick their own mates to see what happens, even when there's hundreds of mostly unrelated mates to choose from, some choose only unrelated birds and others choose only very closely related birds, and that's whether they're raised with their family or not. It's just a strong trait in some families of chickens to inbreed, it's not just something that happens when humans force it to. Somehow, some of them can spot closely related birds and have some kind of trend towards homogenicity whereas others have the opposite trend.

It's also possible the wry neck is due to toxicity or damage from an injury or exposure to an overdose of a harmful chemical. He may have a tumor that's causing this, too. The damage may be permanent or may be grown out of.

I don't know if you can access this where you are, but there's something some people find helps with poultry (and other species) with nerve disorders including Mareks' and spasms in general, including those caused by damage and tumors.

Its common name is St John's Wort, 'proper' name Hypericum perforatum. The plant itself, in raw or pill or liquid form, or the homeopathic remedy made from it, called hypericum, has apparently worked for some people that have tried it.

Here's some info I found on it, for people on another thread that were/are testing it against Marek's.
Quote: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK92750/

Quote from the above study:

11.6.3. Anticancer Properties

Hyperforin and hypericin have also been examined for their anticancer properties. According to Schempp et al. (2002), hyperforin inhibits tumor cell growth in vitro. The mechanism involves induction of apoptosis (programmed cell death) through the activation of caspases, which are cysteine proteases that trigger a cascade of proteolytic cleavage occurrences in mammalian cells. Hyperforin also causes the release of cytochrome c from isolated mitochondria. Mitochondrial activation is an early event in hyperforin-mediated apoptosis, and hyperforin inhibits tumor growth in vivo (Schempp et al. 2002).

Schempp and his colleagues agreed that since hyperforin has significant antitumor activity, is readily available in high quantities (since it is naturally occurring in abundance), and has low toxicity in vivo, hyperforin holds promise of being an interesting novel antineoplastic agent. Other in vitro studies demonstrated that hyperforin in conjunction with polyphenolic procyanidin B2 effectively inhibited the growth of leukemia K562 and U937 cells, brain glioblastoma cells LN229, and normal human astrocytes (Hostanska et al. 2003).

Hypericin has also been investigated as an anticancer agent, reportedly inhibiting the growth of cells derived from a variety of neoplastic tissues, including glioma, neuroblastoma, adenoma, mesothelioma, melanoma, carcinoma, sarcoma, and leukemia (Fox et al. 1998).

The activity of hypericin is attributed to its photodynamic properties (Agostinis et al. 2002). In the presence of light and oxygen, hypericin acts as a powerful natural photosensitizer, generating superoxide radicals that form peroxide or hydroxyl radicals, or singlet oxygen molecules that kill tumor cells.

In this way, hypericin can be used as a component of photodynamic therapy (PDT; Agostinis et al. 2002). At first, PDT was used only for skin lesions, but it is becoming increasingly accepted as a treatment for many types of tumors.

It's something to try, anyway, shouldn't do any harm except in mega-dose for a prolonged period of time which I highly doubt anybody could do accidentally. Asides from the financial considerations it'd take a long time and dedicated force feeding to achieve, most likely.

Light sensitivity (photosensitivity) is pretty much the main side effect it has. Having taken that plant myself I know firsthand that it can do that but it's never been severe, not to the point of being painful or anything like that.

You can get this plant in tablet form in many chemists and pharmacies as well as the average supermarket these days. Well, you can here, not sure what it's like where you are. Not all brands are equal, some over-heat or badly process their products so it's about useless, others use the wrong forms of the plants or the wrong type of the nutrient or the wrong part of the plant or even the wrong plant entirely, so getting the correct plant as per its proper name is important.

Best wishes.

 

[Henkie]

Wow, thank you so much!!! I am going to give it a try! Hopefully he recovers!

 

[Henkie]

Just some extra symptoms today, his head, neck and in general his skin looks quite reddish. And he is itchy. He scratches his head a lot and is picking at his feathers. He gets bald spots here and there. Also when I had him on his back (wrapped in a towel) to give him his vitamins, I noticed the bone underneath his belly is really sticking out. Is that normal too? I have attached a picture.Also he stretches his legs a lot and sometimes (not so regularly) he is stretching his neck and gasping.
I am really worried about him now. Even thinking about putting him down because I don't want him to suffer so much. Sometimes he is good and sometimes it's so bad, his neck is down all the time. I just wish there was a good bird vet around, but there isn't one here. I really hope it isn't Marek. I have started with the st Johns worth tincture today. Let's see if it will help him. Any advice or comments on the extra symptoms is much appreciated!

 

[chooks4life]

Just some extra symptoms today, his head, neck and in general his skin looks quite reddish. And he is itchy. He scratches his head a lot and is picking at his feathers. He gets bald spots here and there.

Sounds like mites or lice, or even both, perhaps even ants or other insects like fleas, are getting to him possibly. Another possibility is allergies or reactions to chemicals in the environment. The anti-insect sprays used in many houses and gardens, carpets, and so forth can be enough to kill birds and small animals we keep indoors. Treated carpet underlay can make even large animals sick too, I've had reactions to it myself.

Also when I had him on his back (wrapped in a towel) to give him his vitamins, I noticed the bone underneath his belly is really sticking out. Is that normal too?

Sounds like his breastbone, and yes, it's normal in all but the extremely meaty breeds. Most other breeds don't get a rounded chest area until older.

I have attached a picture.Also he stretches his legs a lot and sometimes (not so regularly) he is stretching his neck and gasping.

That sounds bad, sorry to hear it. There's so many things it could be, pain, lack of oxygenation, muscle/nerve issues, kind of pointless to hazard a guess at this stage.

I am really worried about him now. Even thinking about putting him down because I don't want him to suffer so much. Sometimes he is good and sometimes it's so bad, his neck is down all the time. I just wish there was a good bird vet around, but there isn't one here. I really hope it isn't Marek. I have started with the st Johns worth tincture today. Let's see if it will help him. Any advice or comments on the extra symptoms is much appreciated!

While symptoms are general guidelines rather than golden rules I would expect, as you said before, if it were Marek's he'd be paralyzed too. Still, all this sounds and looks pretty dire. The tincture should say if it's not for consumption, i.e. for external application only, so good to make sure it's for internal consumption if you haven't already. Sometimes they add things to it that aren't safe to ingest.

I hope he makes it, but he does look like there's something quite wrong with him and not many birds recover once looking so unwell, so good luck and best wishes with this.

 

[Henkie]

Thank you so much. You have been more than helpful.
I just gave him a worm treatment. Seems like he has tapeworms. I hope the symptoms were caused by the worms.

Best wishes!

 

[chooks4life]

Hope that does the trick. If they're dog tapeworms, there's many symptoms they can cause, so it's possible that this was a case of that.

Please let us know how it goes.

Best wishes.

 

[Henkie]

Follow up on Henkie.
He did have roundworms (a lot!) so I am happy he got rid of those!

But now, still a lot of wry neck symptoms, twitching his neck, loosing balance and falling over. Also some sneezing occasionally and stretching his neck and gaping. And scratching his head around the ears a lot.
Now thinking about Gapeworm or a respiratory disease. Anyone here has experience with this?

Still eats and drinks well. Has watery poop. Seems happy and active one moment and miserable the other moment.