Chicken with neck problem

[Wyorp Rock]

Yeah, just give her eggs to meet the selenium need.

I know how toxic selenium can be. At the Calif. state park I retired from and was required to live at in state housing, we were discouraged from drinking the well water which tapped into the water table beside the Colorado River and had such high selenium, it hurt my eyes when I had to shower in it. They bought us bottled water to drink.

Wow Carol, That must have been terrible! Is the Selenium absorbed through the skin as well?

 

[azygous]

No, thankfully. Selenium is not absorbed through the skin.

 

[Eggcessive]

Great advice from everyone. Selenium is only needed in a small amount, and it is already in the chicken feed, plus a bit of egg, tuna, or sunflower seeds once a day would have plenty. Hopefully, your hen just has a hereditary tendency toward wry neck symptoms. It seems to be very common here, in head or neck injuries, vitamin deficiencies, and in some viral diseases as Mareks, leukosis, fowl cholera, and end stage respiratory diseases. Thiamine (vitamin B1) is sometimes overlooked in wry neck treatment, and the B complex which is absorbed very well orally, is good to use.

 

[Shadrach]

I hope Bibby recovers.
I’m very interested in this because I have a hen that behaves in a vaguely similar manner.
I believe I know what caused it, but if what I believe is right ,there isn't anything I can do about it.
Does Bibby every break stride, or walk backwards when she cranes her neck over her back?

 

[RodNTN]

Okay, I'm back with the vitamins. I just picked up some Spring Valley fast-dissolve B-12 5000 mcg supplement.
As for the vitamin E I just got some vitamin E d-alpha 670 mg supplement.
Should I crush up a whole pill? Or half of it? Also, do I give them both at the same time? Or do I give one in the morning and one in the evening?

 

[RodNTN]

Great advice from everyone. Selenium is only needed in a small amount, and it is already in the chicken feed, plus a bit of egg, tuna, or sunflower seeds once a day would have plenty. Hopefully, your hen just has a hereditary tendency toward wry neck symptoms. It seems to be very common here, in head or neck injuries, vitamin deficiencies, and in some viral diseases as Mareks, leukosis, fowl cholera, and end stage respiratory diseases. Thiamine (vitamin B1) is sometimes overlooked in wry neck treatment, and the B complex which is absorbed very well orally, is good to use.

Thanks! I'll just give her some eggs and sunflower seeds

 

[RodNTN]

I hope Bibby recovers.
I’m very interested in this because I have a hen that behaves in a vaguely similar manner.
I believe I know what caused it, but if what I believe is right ,there isn't anything I can do about it.
Does Bibby every break stride, or walk backwards when she cranes her neck over her back?

Thank you all so much! Yes, she does walk backwards occasionally. But this afternoon she is mostly looking up sideways, it is mostly tough for her to walk a straight line. She has to walk sideways to get to me.

 

[casportpony]

Okay, I'm back with the vitamins. I just picked up some Spring Valley fast-dissolve B-12 5000 mcg supplement.

The b12 isn't used to treat wry neck, it's B1 (thiamine).
Can you get either of these?

 

[Shadrach]

Thank you all so much! Yes, she does walk backwards occasionally. But this afternoon she is mostly looking up sideways, it is mostly tough for her to walk a straight line. She has to walk sideways to get to me.

I’ll tell you the story of Mel. Mel exhibits the symptoms you describe as far as I can tell.
Mel’s mum is called Ruffles, Mel, Ruffles and Mel’s brother are the chickens in my avatar.
Ruffles was six and half years old when she decided to sit. She had hatched two chicks before when she was about one and half years old and was a terrible mother.
Being six and a half, like many hens of this age the eggs she laid were thin shelled. This apparently is common as hens get older. She chose to sit in the egg box in my house and out of the 9 original eggs by day 17 she had broken 5. Cleaning egg from the underside of a hen is very difficult and despite my best efforts and her dust bathing her underside would become slightly sticky while she sat.
I moved her to a special coop that is situated outside my house on the evening of day 17. This coop allows the hen and chicks immediate access to natural ground as soon as the chicks are mobile and mum leaves the nest.
On day twenty Ruffles broke another egg mainly due to problems getting the eggs in the right position for hatching because they had a tendency to stick to her rather than roll. I couldn’t do much about the breakage without disturbing the remaining eggs and risking hatching problems due to incorrect orientation. Ruffles hatched the remaining three during day twenty one. One chick didn’t make it and later on examining the nest it looked as if this chick had zipped upside down. Mel did hatch successfully along with her brother but a large portion of Mel’s egg shell was stuck to the underside of her mum Ruffles.
Both seemed fine apart from Mel had this peculiar habit when she was a chick of jumping onto my lap and falling asleep with her head on her back and beak pointing upwards. Of course, this meant she became unstable and would start to roll off my lap causing her to wake immediately and adjust her position.
Here she is doing as described above on the floor.

Mel grew up to be an extraordinarily affectionate pullet but from time to time she would break her stride, stick her head over her back and walk backwards a couple of steps. It’s all over very quickly and she’s back to normal in a couple of seconds.

Apart from this behavior she is very healthy, but she will tolerate handling by me more than any other hen here.
At about one and half years old Mel sat and hatched a daughter, Treacle.
Mel and her daughter got attacked by a Goshawk and she fought the hawk and survived saving her daughter in the process.
Her story is told here.
Is it better to let them die?
Mel is still alive today but every now and then she does the backward walk with her head over her back.
It’s my belief that Mel was stuck to the underside of her mother Ruffles when she hatched and may have sustained some neurological damage.
I don’t want to interfere with all the great advice you are getting but if Bibbi does have similar symptoms then neurological damage seems a possibility you may want to consider.

 

[RodNTN]

The b12 isn't used to treat wry neck, it's B1 (thiamine).
Can you get either of these?
View attachment 1589031 View attachment 1589032

Okay, so B12 won't do any good? Is the E d-alpha still good to use?