First time dealing with wry neck

[christwodog]

One of my 4 1/2 week olds, a salmon faverolle, looks like she has wry neck. When I checked on the chickens after work on Wed. evening, I spotted her in the corner with her head at an unnatural angle. I had read about wry neck here at BYC, so I knew that was probably what was going on.
My concerns are being able to feed her enough to keep her strength up, and making sure I am doing everything possible to give her the best chance for recovery.

I took her out of the coop right away - she's inside the house in a box with fresh hay and old hand towels. She is eating pretty well from my hand, starter crumble with hard boiled egg mixed in. I'm giving her electrolyte/vitamin water and also Nutri-Drench. I dissolved a trace amount of a selenium tablet in the electrolyte water. Today I fed her fout times, she is unable to eat on her own. Over the weekend I will be able to feed her more often if that's what is best. She does this head shaking thing, almost like a tremor or seizure (?), this happens when I am holding her for feeding time, it starts and stops several times while I have her out. She is able to hold her head straight for eating, for short periods of time, then she fatigues and her head drops totally limp, or the head shaking starts. I am really scared that I may lose her - I am hopeful because she is eating & drinking so well, even though it is only by hand feeding and eyedropper for the liquids.

Any feedback on frequency of feedings? Anything else to try? I texted my bird vet but she hasn't responded as of yet.

 

[christwodog]

Can someone tell me if the head shaking/tremor thing is related to wry neck or indicative of something else? She was vaccinated for Mareks at the hatchery.
She seemed better this morning and was standing on her own with her head straight. But at lunch time, she was having trouble with the head shaking thing. Still eating and drinking well, at least.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

My concerns are being able to feed her enough to keep her strength up, and making sure I am doing everything possible to give her the best chance for recovery.

Do you have a video of her actions?

Wry Neck is a symptoms of certain diseases like Marek's and can be caused by vitamin/nutritional deficiency and head injury.
It sounds like you are feeding her well. I would make her main nutrition come from chick starter. Add 400IU of Vitamin E daily along with 1/4 tablet of human B-Complex (no iron). The eggs are a sufficient source of Selenium.

Here's a video that may help you feed her

 

[bigbird]

Adorable! Please let us know how she’s doing. I had a duck with wry neck for 10 years.

 

[christwodog]

Do you have a video of her actions?

Wry Neck is a symptoms of certain diseases like Marek's and can be caused by vitamin/nutritional deficiency and head injury.
It sounds like you are feeding her well. I would make her main nutrition come from chick starter. Add 400IU of Vitamin E daily along with 1/4 tablet of human B-Complex (no iron). The eggs are a sufficient source of Selenium.

Here's a video that may help you feed her

I am having trouble getting a decent video, it's hard to hold a squirmy chick and phone at the same time, no one else is home to help. I will try when hubs gets home. She doesn't do it all the time, just now I went in to check her and she ate again and didn't do the head shake one time. It's almost like a mini epileptic seizure? She was vaccinated for Mareks, as are all my chickens - but I guess that's not always a 100% guarantee. Thanks for the video, that's basically what I'm doing, but I don't really have to hold her head anymore, she is able to eat a lot as long as the food is close to her. Will try to get better video later.

 

[Eggcessive]

There is selenium in your NutriDrench already. The dosage for her is 1 ml per day. Egg also contains selenium which is good for her. It also has vitamin E and thiamine which are important to supplement with wry neck. Some get concerned that there may not be enough of those for wry neck.

What type of feed do you give her? Since wry neck is a neurological condition or symptom, the head shaking or jerky movement is usually a part of that. But a video can be helpful.

 

[christwodog]

There is selenium in your NutriDrench already. The dosage for her is 1 ml per day. Egg also contains selenium which is good for her. It also has vitamin E and thiamine which are important to supplement with wry neck. Some get concerned that there may not be enough of those for wry neck.

What type of feed do you give her? Since wry neck is a neurological condition or symptom, the head shaking or jerky movement is usually a part of that. But a video can be helpful.

Ok, I looked on the bottle of Nutri Drench but didn't see selenium - but then again I was a little panicky at the time. They get Purina chick starter non medicated. She eats like a horse, thankfully - and pooping alot also.

 

[georgieboy11]

One of my 4 1/2 week olds, a salmon faverolle, looks like she has wry neck. When I checked on the chickens after work on Wed. evening, I spotted her in the corner with her head at an unnatural angle. I had read about wry neck here at BYC, so I knew that was probably what was going on.
My concerns are being able to feed her enough to keep her strength up, and making sure I am doing everything possible to give her the best chance for recovery.

I took her out of the coop right away - she's inside the house in a box with fresh hay and old hand towels. She is eating pretty well from my hand, starter crumble with hard boiled egg mixed in. I'm giving her electrolyte/vitamin water and also Nutri-Drench. I dissolved a trace amount of a selenium tablet in the electrolyte water. Today I fed her fout times, she is unable to eat on her own. Over the weekend I will be able to feed her more often if that's what is best. She does this head shaking thing, almost like a tremor or seizure (?), this happens when I am holding her for feeding time, it starts and stops several times while I have her out. She is able to hold her head straight for eating, for short periods of time, then she fatigues and her head drops totally limp, or the head shaking starts. I am really scared that I may lose her - I am hopeful because she is eating & drinking so well, even though it is only by hand feeding and eyedropper for the liquids.

Any feedback on frequency of feedings? Anything else to try? I texted my bird vet but she hasn't responded as of yet.

I had a silkie hen with very bad wry neck, her head and neck were turned completely upside down. I treated her by giving her the contents of a vitamin e capsule and a fourth of a selenium tablet. The selenium is EXTREMELY necessary, I had another hen with wry neck that I tried treating with just vitamin E because I didn't have selenium and didn't think it was important, and that hen passed away. My hen I treated with both selenium and vitamin E is completely back to normal, it took about two weeks of treatment but it worked great.

 

[OneLuckeyWife]

I added a spoonful of spinach to my pulleys feed once a day for a few days.

 

[christwodog]

I did get a video of her shaking her head, but I can't get it uploaded. She is the same today. She is unable to get to food on her own, so I'm hand feeding and giving water every 2-3 hours. I hope she can work out of this, I am so worried. I will keep trying with the video, computers can be such a pain in the a$$.