Can chickens recover from neck injuries?

[Remiel]

About a month ago we found one of our brahma chicks collapsed on the ground of their coop unable to move with her head twisted over back. Treated it like it was wryneck because one of her broodmates had the same thing happen couple weeks before but it didnt seem to change anything. She still gets polyvisol every other day just in case it could be helping.

She was really bad at one point to where I thought okay she tried but this is it yet she managed to survive and shes gotten much more energy now.

The problem is she still cant straighten her neck which looks like its popping out of her almost and so she cant eat properly or groom and she has no sense of balance so she cant walk or stand. She gets some time in a sling each day to exercise her legs, I do stretches and test her grip reflex and they move and bend fine and she can bend her toes and hold on but cant perch. I'll straighten her neck out and hold it in place to feed but even then I can feel the bottom of her neck wanting to flip back over to the right and now I'm worried she did have a neck injury but because I didnt notice in time her necks healed permanently at the wrong angle. There does seem to be two big crinks in it and I try to massage the areas but I don't know if it's even doing anything.

Is there any hope for her to recover from this? Shes a lovely young chicken, just a few months old, very good eater, her poops normal etc but if she cant move or even groom herself that's not a very good life for her.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

You may want to try a different vitamin therapy. Vitamin E, B-Complex and egg instead of the Poly Vi Sol.

@Swbertrand1 may be able to offer some suggestions.

 

[Swbertrand1]

Thanks Wyorp Rock! I'll offer what I can:

If it's a neck injury (i.e. a fracture that somehow healed), only a vet X-ray is going to tell you that. Are you able to get that done? If not, you can try to treat for Wry Neck, as you've been doing, but let's figure out some basics first:

What's she getting treatment-wise today, how often, and in what quantities? Has her treatment been consistent since her condition appeared? How much does she weigh?

Which of the following do you have available to you for her treatment?
a) Vitamin-E
b) Selenium
c) Vitamin B-Complex
d) Vitamin B-4 (only because I can't find it in any B-Complex variant)
e) Nutri-Drench
f) Liquid Vit B-12 (high dose variant by Rooster Booster)
g) Prednisone (for swelling)
h) Syringes or Droppers for watering
i) a safe space for her to rest and recover

NOTES:
Vitamin E (400IU gelcaps), 200mcg Selenium tablets, and Vitamin B-Complex tablets can be found at most CVS/Walgreens, etc. You already have Poly-Vi-Sol (that's good, but might not be giving her the vitamin dosages required for improvement). Vitamin B-4 is a longshot that we added to our girl's treatment since it helps with brain function, and Wry Neck is, after all, a neurological issue - hard to find though; we had to go to a vitamin store. Nutri-Drench and Liquid Vitamin B-12 I could only find at Tractor Supply. Prednisone is only available by prescription, but not necessary for treatment; we simply felt it could help like the Vit B-4.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I believe @LaFleche has some information that may be helpful. You've been amazing at trying to help this little one. Here's hoping you'll see improvements soon

 

[Remiel]

Thanks Wyorp Rock! I'll offer what I can:

If it's a neck injury (i.e. a fracture that somehow healed), only a vet X-ray is going to tell you that. Are you able to get that done? If not, you can try to treat for Wry Neck, as you've been doing, but let's figure out some basics first:

What's she getting treatment-wise today, how often, and in what quantities? Has her treatment been consistent since her condition appeared? How much does she weigh?

Which of the following do you have available to you for her treatment?
a) Vitamin-E
b) Selenium
c) Vitamin B-Complex
d) Vitamin B-4 (only because I can't find it in any B-Complex variant)
e) Nutri-Drench
f) Liquid Vit B-12 (high dose variant by Rooster Booster)
g) Prednisone (for swelling)
h) Syringes or Droppers for watering
i) a safe space for her to rest and recover

NOTES:
Vitamin E (400IU gelcaps), 200mcg Selenium tablets, and Vitamin B-Complex tablets can be found at most CVS/Walgreens, etc. You already have Poly-Vi-Sol (that's good, but might not be giving her the vitamin dosages required for improvement). Vitamin B-4 is a longshot that we added to our girl's treatment since it helps with brain function, and Wry Neck is, after all, a neurological issue - hard to find though; we had to go to a vitamin store. Nutri-Drench and Liquid Vitamin B-12 I could only find at Tractor Supply. Prednisone is only available by prescription, but not necessary for treatment; we simply felt it could help like the Vit B-4.

​

Thank you for your reply! Avian vet in my area currently are not taking new patients but I will be stopping by the store later to pick up the Vitamin E, Selenium and Vitamin B Complex.

Right now she's only on the poly-visol every second day, one quarter of the 1ml syringe with some water for hydration. It was every day for about two weeks when the condition first appeared then she was put on nutri-dench. Unfortunately it gave her terrible diarrhea and made her completely lethargic and crash, though it could've been dehydration because every poop was quite runny. Took her off of it and put her back on polyvisol after about 5 days. That was about 3 weeks ago. She's been slowly improving in that time, getting bigger and more active though still can't walk. She's constantly pushing with her legs trying to get up and shes now awake the majority of the day whereas before she slept through it other than when I woke her to feed her.

I'm not sure how much she weighs, I don't have a small scale but she's about half the size of the other brahma broodmates and still quite skinny but has been putting on the weight slowly. She's on chick feed still, with the occassional egg or fruit or veggie I can get her to try, shes very food motivated.

She has been kept in my bedroom until now though hopefully once she is finally able to hold herself up and move a bit we will probably put her in one of our wired brooding pens to start re-introducing her to the flock.

 

[Swbertrand1]

​

Thank you for your reply! Avian vet in my area currently are not taking new patients but I will be stopping by the store later to pick up the Vitamin E, Selenium and Vitamin B Complex.

Right now she's only on the poly-visol every second day, one quarter of the 1ml syringe with some water for hydration. It was every day for about two weeks when the condition first appeared then she was put on nutri-dench. Unfortunately it gave her terrible diarrhea and made her completely lethargic and crash, though it could've been dehydration because every poop was quite runny. Took her off of it and put her back on polyvisol after about 5 days. That was about 3 weeks ago. She's been slowly improving in that time, getting bigger and more active though still can't walk. She's constantly pushing with her legs trying to get up and shes now awake the majority of the day whereas before she slept through it other than when I woke her to feed her.

I'm not sure how much she weighs, I don't have a small scale but she's about half the size of the other brahma broodmates and still quite skinny but has been putting on the weight slowly. She's on chick feed still, with the occassional egg or fruit or veggie I can get her to try, shes very food motivated.

She has been kept in my bedroom until now though hopefully once she is finally able to hold herself up and move a bit we will probably put her in one of our wired brooding pens to start re-introducing her to the flock.

That's good that she's alert and trying to be active; that's VERY positive news versus the sleeping. Ours slept through the first week of treatment, but I think she needed the rest. Nutri-Drench is pretty rich. I mix that into a dosage that I'm going to share a few paragraphs down. Maybe she got a little too much for her system, causing the diarrhea. In any case, I think the Poly-Vi-Sol dosing you're giving her is not enough to see marked improvement.

Try not to concern yourself with re-introduction to the flock any time soon. Let's try to get her well first. I'd like to see you keep her where she's out of commotion, can relax, can get a little monitoring by you, AND where she can't hurt herself - we used a spare bedroom, and we kept our girl in a cat bed with low sides on it, lots of rag-worthy old bath towels to sleep/poo on, and an old blanket as a skirt around the outside of the bed in case she was to try to back her way out of the bed, which she tried to do on many occasions early on. We didn't want her to hit anything and make things worse!

Dang-it! I forgot to mention Yogurt, the kind that you and I might eat. That helps with feeding, though you said she's eager to eat - that's GREAT! Yogurt seems to taste good to our birds and it helps provide good bacteria in their digestive tract.

I'm going to give you the mix and dosages that worked for us with the items you've collected:

1st Dose of the day - about 9AM:
1/2 TBSP of Starter Feed
1/4 TBSP of Yogurt
1/4 tablet of B-Complex (crushed and pulverized to powder)
25mcg Selenium (1 200mcg tablet cut to eighths (crush this to a fine powder too)
1 gelcap of 400IU Vit-E
3-4 drops of Nutri-Drench, Poly-Vi-Sol, or Liquid Vit-B (choose one)

For this step, we use the mortar of a mortar and pestle set because it allows us to crush the pills first, then add the feed, etc and mix everything in one small bowl, but any small bowl will do.

Put the Feed and crushed pills in the bowl and dry mix them.
Next, add the Yogurt, Vit-E gel squeezed over the top, and put the 3-4 drops of vitamins on top of that.
Mix, mix, and mix a little more with a small spoon or other utensil.
In a minute or so, you should have a moist paste. If it's "runny moist", add just a little more Starter Feed and mix again; if it's too dry, add a bit more Yogurt and mix again.

When you're done, you should have a paste that just sticks to your fingers, will stay together on its own, and the chicken can easily manage.

Now, feed it to the chicken. We break the mix up with a chop-stick in the same bowl we mixed in, then pull out about pea-sized to small marble-sized pieces to feed to the chicken. If she's eager to eat, she may just eat it right out of the bowl for you. Make sure she eats all of the mix to get the full dose in her. If you have to hand-feed her, do so, but I sense that she's going to eat this with no hesitation.


2nd Dose of the day - about 4 or 5PM:
1/2 TBSP of Starter Feed
1/4 TBSP of Yogurt
25mcg Selenium (1 200mcg tablet cut to eighths (crush this to a fine powder too)
1 gelcap of 400IU Vit-E
3-4 drops of Nutri-Drench, Poly-Vi-Sol, or Liquid Vit-B (choose one)

Do the same thing you did in the morning, but minus the B-Complex

Stay with that schedule for 5 days to a week. If after a week, you're not seeing improvement, you can go to a 3 Dose per day schedule removing the B-Complex for doses 2 and 3, removing the Selenium for dose 3, and adjusting the times to 8am, 2pm, and 8pm and all else staying the same.

Finally, after she's eaten, give her a little water. We give water mixed with Vitamins and Electrolytes, but is not necessary. It's really an easy regimen after you do it for a day or two.

We did this treatment almost exactly with a 12 week old Silkie just recently and she responded beautifully. The only thing we changed was removing the B-Complex tablet in favor of Liquid Vit-B and using Durvet's Vit-E with Selenium for goats versus separate Vit-E gelcaps and tablet Selenium. We made the change because our girl hit a plateau in improvement at the end of the 2nd week of treatment. You may find that happens here too.

Hope this helps!