Crooked neck and seizures? Someone help please?

[ResidentEvilRock]

I just picked up 6 barred rock chicks today. They look to be about 1 month old. As I got them home, I noticed two of them are....very sick. They both have crooked neck. There necks are bent upside down and all they do is try to walk, fall over and go into seizures. I'm new in the chicken thing, and I have no idea what is wrong with them. What can I do? Do they have a disease, birth defect or what?

 

[ResidentEvilRock]

Well, I just did a little bit of research and it looks like it possibly may be Newcastle Disease. The neck condition is called Torticollis. Anyone have any experience with this particular disease? I hope there is something I can do, these two are suffering.

 

[pixiechick]

I've no experience with this, but KEEP THEM SEPERATED so it doesn't spread to your other chickens.

Anybody else have suggestions?

 

[ResidentEvilRock]

Yes, they are now fully separated.

 

[ruth]

It could just be wry neck aka crook neck aka limp neck. You can do a search and find many threads. It's pretty common. My Ruth had it. Can be caused by malabsorption/vitamin deficiency.

Get Poly-Vi-Sol (liquid baby vitamins) sold everywhere and vitamin E capsules. Drop a couple of drops of vitamins directly on edge of beak till they open beak and swallow - do this a couple of times a day. You can also add several drops to a small amount of water for them to drink - if they can still drink/eat on their own. You may have to hold their neck straight and hold them up to water and feed so they can eat. They can't drink if their neck is twisted. Cut the top off the vitamin E capsule and squeeze out contents and let them eat that. Finally feed them scrambled egg along with the medicated chick starter. The egg has lots of other vitamins and is good for them. If they are not too far gone, you should see a quick improvement but don't let up with the regime. Continue for at least two weeks. If they are really bad off you might just have to hold their necks straight and hand feed and medicate them till they can drink/eat on their own. Might take a little longer but they should make a full recovery.

Do a search and you'll see many others have treated this the same way with good results.

 

[ResidentEvilRock]

Wow, thank you very much. I surely do hope this works out. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

 

[ruth]

If you're still up and there's an 24 hr Walgreens or drug store near you - I would go tonight. Several hours can make a big difference to a chick that bad off. If not, start tomorrow morning ASAP.

 

[prariechiken]

Shouldn't be Newcastle....a very serious reportable disease that would call for quarentine of your flock as well as testing. Try Ruths advice above...if you are still having problems, give an expert a call, (vet, etc....)

 

[ResidentEvilRock]

Poly-vi-sol seems to be working. Absolutely no luck on the Vit-E in powdered capsules. I live in a very small town. Yesterday they could not absolutely walk, nor eat or drink. Today they are walking, eating and drink after a few dosages of the poly. Their poor little necks are still crooked, but not crooked as bad.

 

[ResidentEvilRock]

Still no luck finding vitamin e in the powdered capsules. Can I use the liquid gels? And if so, what mg and etc is too much for one month old chicks?