Chickens head twitching..

Differentiation

Chirping
Oct 1, 2017
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One of my three chickens has been sneezing and previously had discharge from her eyes which she got treated with. But she never recovered from the sneezing.Now I have noticed that she has been twitching her head and a very tiny bit twitching her body. The other two havnt showed any of these symptons and I dont know what she has. Does anyone have an idea of what she has and what treatment I can provide for her? Also any prevention I can do for the others? Thanks
 
Twitching of the head could be a neurological symptom. What breed is she and how old is she?

Check her over for any lice and mites. Look in the ears for any dirt/debris or infection.
What type of food/treats do you feed?
How did you treat the respiratory illness?

It's hard to know what exactly is going on with her - as mentioned in the previous post, sneezing can be cause by environment, but if it's accompanied by nasal discharge, then most likely you have a respiratory illness. Infectious Bronchitis and Mycoplasma symptoms can linger for months, even with treatment.

The only thing I can suggest, without more information (photos and video are always welcome) is to make sure she is eating/drinking well. Keep the nostrils cleared of any discharge you see. Offer poultry vitamins that include Vitamin E and B1 along with some chopped egg for Selenium. (this is in addition to her normal, balanced poultry feed).

If you are dealing with a contagious respiratory illness, there is no "preventative" except to make sure your coop has plenty of ventilation, provide balanced nutrition daily and give your chickens a boost with poultry vitamins once a week.
 
What did you previously treat with?

Sneezing doesn’t always been illness. Dust or dirt or whatever can make them sneeze.
She suffered from coryza before and took her to the breeder who gave her an injection. Her face was swollen and all but got better a week after the injection. She never stopped sneezing and recently her eyes produced discharge again so i thought it was a relapse and took her again to be given with and injection.
 
Twitching of the head could be a neurological symptom. What breed is she and how old is she?

Check her over for any lice and mites. Look in the ears for any dirt/debris or infection.
What type of food/treats do you feed?
How did you treat the respiratory illness?

It's hard to know what exactly is going on with her - as mentioned in the previous post, sneezing can be cause by environment, but if it's accompanied by nasal discharge, then most likely you have a respiratory illness. Infectious Bronchitis and Mycoplasma symptoms can linger for months, even with treatment.

The only thing I can suggest, without more information (photos and video are always welcome) is to make sure she is eating/drinking well. Keep the nostrils cleared of any discharge you see. Offer poultry vitamins that include Vitamin E and B1 along with some chopped egg for Selenium. (this is in addition to her normal, balanced poultry feed).

If you are dealing with a contagious respiratory illness, there is no "preventative" except to make sure your coop has plenty of ventilation, provide balanced nutrition daily and give your chickens a boost with poultry vitamins once a week.

Thanks for the advice. She is a cochin bantam probaby 8 months old but hasnt started laying as it is winter. She has also started coughing which I noticed an hour ago. I feed her layers mesh as the others had started laying but are on pause due to the winter months. I give her mixed corn and meal worms from time to time which she enjoys. I also put a tiny bit of apple cider vinegar in their drinking water.
 
Head shaking can be common during a respiratory disease, in order to clear the air passages of mucus. If you have coryza, there should be a bad odor around the face. MG is another disease that can look like coryza, but is more common. Just keep in mind that as long as you have one chicken remaining, this disease will be in your flock, since they will be carriers. I would close the flock to new birds until all chickens are gone, and after waiting a few weeks, get healthy baby chicks and start over.
 
I agree with @Eggcessive If she has started coughing, has eye discharge, etc. then she most likely has "relapsed" with respiratory illness - this would be the cause of the head shaking.

Do you know what the breeder is injecting her with? You may want to try treating her with an antibiotic like Tylan50 to see if there is a marked improvement with symptoms. As mentioned above, diseases like Infectious Coryza and MG makes the bird a carrier of the illness for life and it can be spread to others - so if you have her housed with other birds, they would be considered carriers even if they never show any symptoms.
 
Once a virus has entered your flock, it's moved in for good. It doesn't mean your chickens will always be sick, though. Stress and diet play important roles in whether or not a virus will proceed to make them sick.

Good care and management after you've addressed secondary infections that arise should render future instances of illness rather rare. Good management and diet help strengthen immune systems so chickens can fight off the viruses' attempts at colonizing their cells and overtaking their systems.
 

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