Chicken tucks its neck under here and seems to spasm.

[Tpeterson]

Can some one please help me? I am new to chickens and not sure what to do, I have a chicken that was a real good egg layer. She lost the ability to get up on the roost. she then started laying eggs in the straw on the coop floor. Now she has stopped laying, I have here isolated from the rest of the chickens. She seems to have a neck spasm, she will tuck here head under here like she is cleaning here chest but she does not have control of here neck function. it seems to be a spasm but if I lightly hold here head it seems to make her more comfortable and the spasm stops. stress seems to start a new spasm. Please help me it breaks my heart to see her like this.

 

[Kevin565]

. It sounds like she could have wry neck.

 

[Tpeterson]

thank you, I talked to a vet on the phone he thinks mereks. looking on the internet mereks does not seem to fit. I will study wry and learn about that. again thank you.

 

[Kevin565]

It's no problem at all. I believe Marek's can cause neck paralysis but I'm not positive. Hopefully someone with more experience can chime in.

 

[Tpeterson]

sorry I was not very clear. The neck does not hang down like I see in pictures of the internet when looking at wry neck.. she holds the head tight to her belly or chest. I have looked at here eyes and they are not blue gray like in the pictures for mereks. I think that is good news.

 

[dawg53]

Capillary worms in the crop can cause this. Worm her with safeguard liquid goat wormer orally undiluted, use a syringe without a needle. Dosage is 1/2cc orally, redose in 3 days, then redose again in another 3 days. Discard eggs for 14 days after last dosing.
Pull the wattles down and her mouth will open, shoot the wormer in her mouth and immediately release the wattles so she can swallow on her own and not aspirate.

 

[DWilkins]

You mentioned Marek's .... I have a young silkie. She has paralysis in her legs, yet they respond to our touch. She is eating, drinking and generally in good health. She was fine one day and the next wasn't able to jump in the coop. After searching the internet for a Vet in our area that knew about birds , we were told that given her sysytoms , she was in serious need of calcium. ( Her last egg that we had to help her with, had soft spots where the shell wasn't hard, she has also laid an egg before without a shell). We are now giving her calcium twice a day . Has anyone ever experienced this before? She has been unable to walk for a week now.Does this sound like Marek's?

 

[Tpeterson]

Thank you I will try the worming.