Chick Doing Spastic Somersaults?

[TomboyChickens]

We have a two week old Delaware chick. Earlier this week I found her standing with her head on the floor, rocking. Eventually she did a forward roll and got back up again. We’d also find her lying on her back or on her side. With a gentle nudge to turn her over she’d hop right back up. We thought it was wry neck and started treating her as advised on BYC: selenium, PVS, and Vitamin E. She seemed better but in addition to the symptoms noted above, she’s started having fits where she does frantic somersaults. She gets right up from a spastic forward roll and either walks around or eats, or she’ll do a series of them. It’s getting worse. Her little trough mate keeps sounding the alarm and I keep jumping out of bed to flip her back over. Is this wry neck? Something else? I want to be sure we’re treating the right thing. Here’s a video of her flipping and in the reply below I’ve posted one of her lying on her back. Thanks everyone!

 

[TomboyChickens]

Here’s a video of her lying on her back, kind of shaking.

 

[jvls1942]

equalibreum problem.
You might try stuffing it into a toilet paper roll with her head sticking outward. just set it somewhere for a couple of hours where it won't get rolled around.
I have done this . sometimes it works..

 

[drumstick diva]

looks like neurological damage. Has she bumped her head,or gotten pecks to the head? Breeds with vaulted skulls like some silkies are especially prone to injury.

My friend with house chickens had a young cockerel that would "break dance," as she called it, walk backward, have his head hanging between front legs. She worked a very long time with him following a regimen I found on BYC for silkies with wry neck etc.

He would get better, then relapse, over and over again.Every day I expected her to say he had passed but he didn't. He also would get seizures and she said his body was just burning up. She would cool him down with washcloths. Dry him off and put in a small box, so he couldn't throw himself around and get injured.

Neither of us(we are old seniors) can remember how long it took but he eventually came out of it. He outlived some of her healthy birds. I believe he was 5 years old when he passed. He had grown some awesome hackle feathers for being a very low quality hatchery silkie from a feed store. In his own way he was kind of attractive.

I think he may had had swelling on the brain for whatever reason - which may have been helped with a course of prednisone on a vet's advice and instructions but, she never took any of her birds to a vet.

He started being a rooster to her flock of 2 Serama hens and a silkie hen and showing them where treats were and protecting them etc. The girls would jump up on chairs or sofa to get away from him- and he was not agile enough to follow them. Which was great because he would not have been a good candidate for breeding.

When visitors or repairmen came to her house, Tiffany(rooster) would usher the girls behind the couch to hide and he would peek out now and then to check if the strangers had gone away. It was funny to look behind the sofa and see him pacing back and forth waiting for the house to be "safe" again.

 

[drumstick diva]

I hope you can find a vet who would treat he.

 

[TomboyChickens]

looks like neurological damage. Has she bumped her head,or gotten pecks to the head? Breeds with vaulted skulls like some silkies are especially prone to injury.

My friend with house chickens had a young cockerel that would "break dance," as she called it, walk backward, have his head hanging between front legs. She worked a very long time with him following a regimen I found on BYC for silkies with wry neck etc.

He would get better, then relapse, over and over again.Every day I expected her to say he had passed but he didn't. He also would get seizures and she said his body was just burning up. She would cool him down with washcloths. Dry him off and put in a small box, so he couldn't throw himself around and get injured.

Neither of us(we are old seniors) can remember how long it took but he eventually came out of it. He outlived some of her healthy birds. I believe he was 5 years old when he passed. He had grown some awesome hackle feathers for being a very low quality hatchery silkie from a feed store. In his own way he was kind of attractive.

I think he may had had swelling on the brain for whatever reason - which may have been helped with a course of prednisone on a vet's advice and instructions but, she never took any of her birds to a vet.

He started being a rooster to her flock of 2 Serama hens and a silkie hen and showing them where treats were and protecting them etc. The girls would jump up on chairs or sofa to get away from him- and he was not agile enough to follow them. Which was great because he would not have been a good candidate for breeding.

When visitors or repairmen came to her house, Tiffany(rooster) would usher the girls behind the couch to hide and he would peek out now and then to check if the strangers had gone away. It was funny to look behind the sofa and see him pacing back and forth waiting for the house to be "safe" again.

 

[TomboyChickens]

Thanks, drumstick diva. So that’s not wry neck, huh? she hasn’t sustained any injuries that we are aware of, and she was getting along fine with the other chicks. This started out of the blue.

 

[lazy gardener]

Your chick has Vitamin E encephalopathy or wry neck. I am not qualified to give advice, but am gonna do so anyways. You need to treat him immediately. I would get a good dose of Vitamin E into him. You can nick open a vitamin E gel cap, and squeeze a drop out, wipe it on his beak, try to get some into his mouth. If he's eating, you could wipe some on a small piece of bread and give that to him. Also give him a tiny bit of selenium shaved off a pill. Do so several times/day.

Buy some Poultry Nutri Drench, and put it in the water for all of your chicks. Change this out every day, and treat them for at least a week.

Check the mill date on your feed. Is it older than 6 weeks? If so, that could very well be the cause of his issue.

 

[Eggcessive]

That was very a helpful story from @drumstick diva .

Yes, that is wry neck, also called crazy chick disease, encephalomalcia, crook neck, or torticolis, which are all names for neurological symptoms. This can be a result of head injury or infectious diseases, but in baby chicks, it may be more of a hereditary issue or vitamin deficiency from the parents. What feed are you using? The most important treatment is giving vitamin E, B1 (thiamine,) and the mineral selenium. Poultry NutriDrench and Poultry Cell both contain all of those. Instead you may use the individual vitamins, or a chick vitamin plus a little chopped egg for the selenium.
Hopefully there will be some improvement soon, but sometimes it can take days or weeks to improve.

The chick will need help 3-4 times a day getting enough to eat and drink. You can make a small bowl of chick feed mixed with a lot of water, and add a little egg. Hold the chick and try to let it eat, then drink some plain water. Good luck.

Here is an article on this:
http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/content/vitamin-e-and-selenium-deficiency

 

[TomboyChickens]

She’s eating plenty and we’re trying to get her enough water. We’ve been giving her Vit E, selenium, and PVS for about theee days now. This is the fifth day since the onset of her symptoms and she really got worse last night. She spasms countless times during the day and night. Can they improve even when it’s this bad? Or is this a pretty standard per-day spasm rate?