Chick with wry neck

[kimice]

I have a sad little chicky , Dottie, whom I have to hold her head in the feeder for her to eat. Just wondering about how much baby chick usually eat and how many times a day should I help her eat. I'm also having to give her a electrolyte/vitamin liquid for her fluids. How much fluid should I be making sure that she is getting? Any advice would be super helpful. I am trying to help this little chick as much as I can!

 

[corliss]

You might also give her some raw egg yolk with an eye dropper. I had a wry neck chick last year and between the baby vitamins without iron, vitamin e and egg yolk she pulled through nicely.

 

[kimice]

Thanks for the idea! I will try some egg yolk for her. Also, am going to get some vitamin e and selenium today. She has not pooped in two day really. Now she is really not even wanting to eat her feed when i hold her up to the feeder. So, maybe the egg yolk will give her enough nutrition to pull through.

 

[MsPony]

They should eatenough/often so that their crop is full. I got a day old chick, I noticed her crop wasn't full so spent an hour giving her food by syringe and another hour cleaning off her stuck on poop butt. All at 1am.

If it continues for another day & you can't get her to a vet, it might be time to cull

 

[ralleia]

I had a chick with a wry neck in our first-ever chicken order. I wish I had culled it immediately.

Instead I succumbed to the pleas of the children to spare it. The longer it lives, the harder it is to cull, especially after the kids have named it. It survived about a year, but in the meantime I had to make special accommodations for it, to include keeping the water low to the floor, and the food had to be low also. As a result, the water for the chickens was fouled with droppings and litter most of the time, because it is impossible to keep a water fount that is sitting 2 inches off the floor clear of such things.

 

[wolftracks]

Give it a drop or 2 of Poly Visol without iron, twice a day. Works great.

 

[kimice]

wow...really conflicting advice here on the the wry neck thing. Some people say they get better and some people say they stay this way forever. I am thankful for all of the input, but I am a little confused at what to do about this chick. I suppose I will give her a week or so and look for improvement. If nothing changes then I am not going to make her suffer any longer. It is hard enough to watch as it is for just a few days. I am totally new to the chiken thing so I am not even sure what cull means. If it means snapping her neck and killing her like the feed store clerk advised, well I am afraid I am just not capable of that. I will just have to pay the money to have a vet put her down. On an upside I have given her some vitamin e and selenium tonight. She already seems to be trying to lift her head more and I am hoping to see more improvement in the next few days. I am so thankful for this website! I would have been helpless without it and never even known what was wrong with my chick or what I could try to do for her.

 

[wolftracks]

Use the Poly Visol and you'll see a difference in probably a day.

You won't know what's going to work if you don't try. I've helped a neighbor with her Silkies and nothing worked until I found the vitamins for her. The next day the chick was fine. She's never had any other problems and she's about 4-5 months old now. Same lady has had to treat 3 more. They're all fine. Took usually a day and a half and not more than two till they were moving just fine. She continues it for about a week. They eat, drink and walk fine with they're heads held where they should be.

Use the search link on the forum and you'll find lots of info snd the Poly Visol was what was used to help.

 

[wolftracks]

I was just wondering how the chick was doing.

 

[kimice]

Not much of a change yet. She still won't hold her head up or walk forward. I am still having to hold her head in the feed bowl for her to eat and give her water with a dropper. I have been giving her 400 iu of vitamin e twice a day and selenium once a day. Also, I have been giving the sav-a-chic which is an electrolyte and vitamin supplement that goes in their water supply. I even started her on a super small dose of amoxacillin yesterday and today. I will try the poly visol if i don't see any change by Friday. This has got to be the most expensive 2.50$ chick in history. I don't want to overdo the vitamins, but at this point I don't see how she could be any worse.