Head Banging Chick.

[dreamer5577]

I have tried searching and found NOTHING. I have a 15 week old silkie and just two days ago I noticed her twitching her head. She looks like she is at a concert head banging. But it only happens for about 10 seconds and then shes fine. I see nothing physically wrong with her. I am almost thinking she may have some defects due to hatching very late. BUT I want to make sure this isn't something that is contagious. I have 10 other babies with her and I'd hate for them to contract something. I will separate them until I hear from someone. I feel like the others would have caught whatever this by now so I kind of need to know what to treat. I'm so worried! Please help!

 

[ThaiChee]

I'm thinking the problem is a wry neck. My parents had a barred rock whose head would twitch like that as well.

 

[katiedarling]

^^^ I second that! I had 2 chicks this year I had to treat for it. Sounds like it hasn't gotten too bad yet. My babies were in really, really bad shape and one almost didn't make it. They are happy, healthy 5 month old chickens, now. I'd do some researching on this site. lots of info about wry neck. If all the symptoms are raising red flags, I'd start treating immediately. In the meantime, if you would like, I can search my old posts and try to find the links everyone else shared and the meds that I used, too.

edited to add: my chicks also had ear infections. whether or not it was secondary to the wry neck or the cause of it, I do not know. If what you are dealing with IS wry neck, it is commonly caused by a vitamin deficiency. This is the solution that I used, I mixed fresh daily and gave them 5-6 drops every 3 hours:

• 2 TBS Pedialyte (they liked the grape)
• 2 drops PolyviSol(without iron) liquid baby vitamins
• 100 units Vitamin E (squirt out half a capsule)
• 50 mcg Selenium (1/4 tablet crushed)