Can chickens live with mild wry neck indefinitely? Will it get worse?

[K0k0shka]

I know this has been discussed before, but other people's cases seem to be more severe and more "classic". Mine seems to be mild, but it just won't go away! My pullet is 9 months old (Orpington) and has been dealing with this for months. It's a fairly mild case - she'll flip her head up and star-gaze occasionally, for a brief moment, then goes back to life as usual. She does it every once in a while (if I sit and observe her for 15 minutes, she may do it 3-4 times, or may not do it at all). It doesn't seem to affect her quality of life. She's eating, drinking, pooping, laying and socializing normally. I tried putting the whole flock on vitamins for a while. Then I tried two weeks of prophylactically treating the whole flock with vitamin E. I'd dump the powder from five 400 IU capsules into their favorite food and feed it to all 5 chickens, for two weeks. Didn't make a difference. Then I did a two-week individual treatment where I gave just this one pullet 400 IU of vitamin E plus 25 mg of selenium every day (I got the dosage from someone on BYC and confirmed elsewhere on the internet). After the two weeks, she seemed to be doing better, but now (a week later) she's lifting her head up again...

So my question is: is this going to get worse? Should I keep giving her vitamin E and selenium? If yes, for how long? If it's going to stay like this, then I can live with it - and so can she. I just don't want it to get worse.

The flock eats flock raiser crumble with eggshell on the side, a handful of black oil sunflower seeds split between the 5 of them per day (because I read that they are a good source of vitamin E) and treats are a couple times a week, mostly scratch and fruit. I keep the feed bags in the basement at a constant temperature. I did have a bag outside in a metal trash bin over the summer, and I think what started this might have been that the heat depleted the nutrients from that bag... But I've learned my lesson and have been keeping the feed in the basement for the past half a year now. So this could've started with the feed that got too hot, but that was half a year ago... Why isn't she getting over it, even after all the treatment?

This is what she looks like when she's doing it (the yellow one on the left):

And this is what she looks like the rest of the time, happy and fluffy:

 

[azygous]

Those are breathtakingly beautiful hens. You are a talented photographer, as well.

Some wry neck cases, though mild, can take longer to treat successfully, so don't throw in the towel too soon. I've had a couple of cases myself that cleared up in just a couple of days of vitamin E treatment. Other people report needing to treat for a number of weeks.

One thing that may prevent resolution is absorption of the E into the fatty tissues. Since E is fat soluble and not water soluble like most vitamins, it helps to give with something fatty such as egg yolk or an oily fish such as canned mackerel. If after a few days there's no improvement, try doubling the dose to twice a day.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Those are breathtakingly beautiful hens

This was my first reaction, too.
❤

 

[K0k0shka]

Those are breathtakingly beautiful hens. You are a talented photographer, as well.

Some wry neck cases, though mild, can take longer to treat successfully, so don't throw in the towel too soon. I've had a couple of cases myself that cleared up in just a couple of days of vitamin E treatment. Other people report needing to treat for a number of weeks.

One thing that may prevent resolution is absorption of the E into the fatty tissues. Since E is fat soluble and not water soluble like most vitamins, it helps to give with something fatty such as egg yolk or an oily fish such as canned mackerel. If after a few days there's no improvement, try doubling the dose to twice a day.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks! I was hoping you'd post your two cents I gave her the vitamin E and selenium in scrambled egg. Do you think that's fatty enough? I always have leftover bacon grease so I can scramble the egg in that for an extra kick of fat. Good to hear there's still hope - I'll resume the treatment then, and do it twice a day. Should I give her both the vitamin E and the selenium twice a day? I read that selenium is highly poisonous if overdosed so I'm a bit freaked out. Guessing the vitamin E twice a day but selenium still only once a day? And is there such a thing as giving her this treatment for too long? I stopped after 2 weeks because I was afraid it might be too long if I continue. Fat soluble vitamins make me nervous because they're easier to overdose on (the excess can't be peed/pooped out). So, if I were to restart the treatment, given that she just completed 2 weeks about a week ago, how much longer can I keep doing this? (twice a day)

 

[RosemaryDuck]

Just wanted to comment and say, wry neck isn't just one thing. It can often times be a symptom of something else (that's yet to show itself). So be prepared in the future if other symptoms pop up. I hope she gets better .

 

[K0k0shka]

Those are breathtakingly beautiful hens.

This was my first reaction, too.
❤

Aww thank you both! I think my girls are beauties, too. My phone camera doesn't always do them justice. Here's some more eye candy

 

[K0k0shka]

Just wanted to comment and say, wry neck isn't just one thing. It can often times be a symptom of something else (that's yet to show itself). So be prepared in the future if other symptoms pop up. I hope she gets better .

Oh no! I'll keep an eye out, thanks.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Aww thank you both! I think my girls are beauties, too. My phone camera doesn't always do them justice. Here's some more eye candy

View attachment 2529137View attachment 2529138View attachment 2529139View attachment 2529140

They're all so beautiful, but your ORPINGTONS...... Utterly stunning.

 

[K0k0shka]

I want to post an update to this thread in case somebody with a similar issue finds it. It has now been a year since I “diagnosed” my hen with mild wry neck. She’s about a year and a half old now. Her issue never went away completely, but the good news is that it didn't get worse, either. At some point last winter I put her through an intensive treatment of vitamin E and selenium every day (or maybe it was twice a day?) for several weeks straight, following a few weeks of prophylactically dosing everybody's food with vitamin E just in case. I mixed her personal meds with scrambled egg and took her out of the run to feed them to her, to make sure the other chickens don't eat them, and that became a bonding experience for us It's been over half a year since, but to this day, whenever I go into the run, she comes up to me and follows me around with an expectant look

It took a while to see any results, and I can't say if it's the vitamins that helped, but it seems that she's doing less star gazing now. Every once in a while she'll still flip her head up, but it's less frequent, and it only goes straight up, as opposed to all the way on top of her back (it used to go even lower actually). So, whatever it was, she's better now. It doesn't seem to interfere with her life, and she never does it while performing important life tasks, like eating or laying so that's what matters. She even went broody over the summer, persistently. So if it remains at this level, we can live with it.

None of my other chickens are showing any signs of wry neck. I hatched some new ones this past spring, and one had severe wry neck at hatch, and died at 3 days old. The rest are fine. This hen was totally fine as a chick, only started developing wry neck at around 5 months old. The new ones are at about that age now, and I'm keeping an eye on them.

Here she is, flipping her head up today (this is as far back as it goes now):

And here she is looking normal:

 

[azygous]

She's a lovely hen, and I'm happy to read that she's doing much better.

I have a thirteen-year old hen that went through a very troubling bout of wry neck a month ago. She couldn't eat for two days during the height of the affliction, and I had to tube feed her. She's mostly blind on top of it, and when she would try to find her food dish, she would end up with the top of her head in the food.

I figured it might be the tumor on her head that started the wry neck, so she's getting vitamin E twice a week to keep her E levels high.