Chick attacked, head won’t stop twitching!

[minaayindra]

I am trying to introduce my hand-raised chicks into a new coop with a hen and her chick at the same time. The chick is submissive so he isn’t an issue. When I brought 2 of my other chicks into the coop, the hen pinned down the most submissive one and brutally attacked her. I got the hen off but my 8-week old chick won’t stop shaking her head now. I’m worried because it’s almost non-stop, even after she calmed down. Is she injured physically or is this stress related and will resolve soon? I feel so bad this happened...

 

[ChickNanny13]

No matter how submissive the newbie is, the hen is protecting her turf and chicks.
How big is your coop?
Did you check the chick over well for injuries?
Are there any visible injuries?
I'm thinking the hen attacked and was pecking at the head? If so it maybe a neurological injury. Do you see any injuries to the head? Could you post a video of the head twitching? You download onto YouTube then upload the link here.
Assuming you removed the rest of the newbies?

Introducing "newbies" to an existing flock, the safest & recommended way is "See but No Touch" ... Wire cage with food & water, put inside the existing coop OR section off the coop so the newbies have their own space & yet protected OR if yoour coop in large enough, add more feeders/waters and hiding places to the newbies can hide & the larger ones can't get into ... This way it gives both newbies and flock a chance to get acquainted.

 

[minaayindra]

The coop is 10x12 so there is a lot of room, particularly for 4 chicks. I did everything by the discussion boards, except adding the hen in since her chick is much smaller than the new roommates and very submissive, I thought she would be a good buddy to protect him. Since the coop was new to all of them, I also thought that eliminated territoriality issues. I put in a submissive chick from my main group and one assertive one to stand up to mom if there was a problem. What I didn’t foresee was mom would come into the coop from outside quickly and go after both of my inside birds with a vengeance. The assertive one was pecked by the hen and got out of the way. She then threw herself on the submissive one, pinned her down with her body weight, and proceeded to violently peck her everywhere. I stopped it within seconds and got the hen out immediately but the chick was so distressed that she was panting, expelling liquid stool over and over, unable to drink or come down off a cone she was trying to hang onto, and that twitching was going on. Because she was so upset, I moved the assertive one out and put in the sister of the one attacked. That eventually calmed her down but BOTH of them started shaking their heads! I see absolutely no injuries on her except the extreme anxiety and I noticed she was physically shaking. I eventually left her with her sister and the other submissive chick. When I looked on the sly, the two sisters were finally roosting together on a lower bar while the hen’s baby was strutting around and flying to higher roosts. I can’t imagine why the head on both of them is twitching now- perhaps not injury but shared stress??