Cockerel Wryneck

[JacinLarkwell]

Bird in question is a 7 month old Ayam cemani male.

He was fine yesterday, tonight I noticed his head was tilted. It's not much at first, but when he flinches, it is definately noticable.

He eats layer pellets (all my birds do, and that is all they eat once they are big enough to swallow pellets, I've done this over a decade now and haven't had issues. I changed food once with a group of chicks having issues and that didn't help in the long run. Those issues came back a week later when I had another cold snap, not to mention I feel if the layers were the only thing wrong, I feel he would have had this problem before when he was younger.)

He's never had issues before, besides the leakage color wise. Is it possible he jist tweaked it like people do sometimes? He's incredibly active and it wouldn't surprise me if he crash landed into something

Pic is of when he flinched away.

 

[HappyDuckie]

@azygous @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive

 

[azygous]

This is likely sudden onset torticolis or wry neck. Give him one capsule of vitamin E 400iu in some soft boiled egg. Do this once each day until he's back to normal. He may even respond in just a few hours as my rooster did a few months ago when he suddenly began walking backwards dragging his lower beak on the ground. Continue the E for a couple more days after he seems better.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

This is likely sudden onset torticolis or wry neck. Give him one capsule of vitamin E 400iu in some soft boiled egg. Do this once each day until he's back to normal. He may even respond in just a few hours as my rooster did a few months ago when he suddenly began walking backwards dragging his lower beak on the ground. Continue the E for a couple more days after he seems better.

Is that the stuff you give chicks with wryneck that you mix in the water? I have a ton of that powder for water I can give him. That's the only thing my feed stores have though. I have eggs I can give him though.

 

[azygous]

You may be thinking of electrolytes with vitamins. No. Not enough E in that concoction.

You want vitamin E 400iu from the human vitamin aisle in the store. It comes in gel caps. Pop the gel cap directly into his beak or break it open and mix it with the egg. Unless you give vitamin E in sufficient amount, you will not cure wry neck. While it's not immediately life threatening, it can get worse, and chickens can starve to death because they cannot eat their food or drink.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

You may be thinking of electrolytes with vitamins. No. Not enough E in that concoction.

You want vitamin E 400iu from the human vitamin aisle in the store. It comes in gel caps. Pop the gel cap directly into his beak or break it open and mix it with the egg. Unless you give vitamin E in sufficient amount, you will not cure wry neck. While it's not immediately life threatening, it can get worse, and chickens can starve to death because they cannot eat their food or drink.

Alright, thanks. I'll see if I can get some. Our Wal-Mart's been out of human medicine almost constantly since may. Even freaking tylanal and couch drops.

 

[azygous]

This is what you need.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Oh, awesome. Thabks. So if I can, just pop it in his mouth? He won't choke or spit it out?

 

[azygous]

Yes, just stick it right inside his beak and it will go right down. Chickens have no problem swallowing pills. We only think they do because we sometimes do. But humans need to chew stuff before we swallow and chickens don't.

An easy way to get what you need from Walmart in these times of shelf shortages is to order it online and have it delivered to the store for free, then you pick it up there. Sometimes, I've even ordered an item to be told it can't be delivered to the store but it will be delivered to my house for free! How cool is that?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Yes, just stick it right inside his beak and it will go right down. Chickens have no problem swallowing pills. We only think they do because we sometimes do. But humans need to chew stuff before we swallow and chickens don't.

An easy way to get what you need from Walmart in these times of shelf shortages is to order it online and have it delivered to the store for free, then you pick it up there. Sometimes, I've even ordered an item to be told it can't be delivered to the store but it will be delivered to my house for free! How cool is that?

I'm more worried about it taking too long to get here. I know that with chicks there isn't time to waste fixing it. He's one of my baby boys and want to make sure I don't have to cull him



That's reassuring about the pill though. I always worry about chocking since we accidentally had a bird die from it