Head shaking, multiple chickens

[LikeTurkeys]

I noticed a couple of days ago that some of the chickens have been shaking their heads a lot. Mostly just one Buff Orpington rooster who is around a year old and 12 8 week olds. All of them are perfectly healthy otherwise, and I checked for mites or ear blockages and did not see any black spots around their ears. I even looked down their throats to see if there was some growth there that was causing it. Nothing.

Here is a video:

I did notice that some of the 8 week olds had whiter combs than usual, like those caused by dry air. Not sure if that is related or not. I have not observed this yet in my other coops, just those two.

Might be no big deal, but it is curious and I haven't seen this before. Feedback is appreciated!

 

[azygous]

Now that's a very interesting theory.

 

[Myrshine]

This is usually a normal behavior in chickens, but other causes can be lice or mites crawling around their eyes, ears or heads, causing the head shaking. Chickens head shake for communication, fear, happiness, wind and an overall feeding behavior. I wouldn’t worry unless they’re showing signs of illness such as sneezing, coughing, etc.

 

[LikeTurkeys]

What are you going to use?
For chicks that young, I would just use a very light dusting or if you have liquid Permethrin, then I would "dab" it on with a qtip or something to avoid getting them too wet.

Permethrin dust, made by ProZap. I will treat all of the birds (including two of the coops not affected and the affected brooder), a little over a 100 birds in total. Will update in 3 or 4 days. Thanks!

 

[LikeTurkeys]

Welp, it's been much longer than 3-4 days. The head shaking spread to all of the birds after just a couple days and the brooder in the garage, which was puzzling because I was very careful not to touch those birds after touching any others. Treating all the birds with permethrin did not have any effect.

So, because it was getting worse and because all of my chickens were affected, I decided to send in a couple of birds Monday for necropsy and testing to one of the UC Davis lab locations here in California. The birds I sent were a 10-week old cockerel I was going to cull anyway and a 3-week old cream Legbar chick who was the same size as a 5 day old (not thriving at all). Both were dropped off live.

Ironically, the day I dropped of the birds, I had a 5-week old gosling die. No prior symptoms and my 9 goslings were not affected by the head-shaking that I could see. So I did a necropsy myself and found that the upper-left part of the heart seemed enlarged and was a dark blue/black color. There was also blood in the abdomen. Not sure what to think but the blood in the abdomen makes me think of trauma, or an injury from a fall, so probably unrelated. (If you would like to know more I will start a different thread with photos of the necropsy).

The lab said that they checked for ear mites and did not see anything. The birds tested negative for avian influenza, Mycoplasma Gallipsectum and did not have any parasites. I am still waiting on most other tests.

What I did not mention here and did not tell the lab (because I thought it was of no significance at first), was that I found mold (or at least, black/green fuzzy material) and clumped together feed at the bottom of every bag for the last 2-3 weeks. At first, I thought it wouldn't hurt them because it was at the bottom, and the rest of the feed seemed fine. I switched from Dumor to Purina because I thought it might have been a brand problem.

But the same thing happened. At the bottom of every bag was clumpy, rotting material. I complained to Tractor Supply and a lady there said they had left the pallets outside for some time, possibly exposing them to rain. She exchanged the bad one for a different bag of feed, which had the same problem. Again, I did not discover this until reaching the bottom of the bag, which means any spores might have been distributed throughout the bag and the chickens were eating that feed.

Finally, yesterday I bought three different bags and checked them carefully. These appear to be from a different batch and even smell different, not as clumpy and fresher. I threw out all the old feed and replaced it with the new.

What I am wondering is if the head shaking is a neurological symptom being caused by low levels of mycotoxins in the feed. This would explain why all of the chickens showed symptoms so quickly because it was not actually a spreadable disease but something caused by the feed.

What do you think? I am planning on calling the lab on Monday and letting them know about this new information. (Long post, I know).

 

[Ollian]

My hens have started doing this and are showing no signs of external parasites. I have a theory, and I wanted to see if the circumstances match anyone else who is dealing with this problem. My rooster is loud. I have never heard a louder rooster and I work at an animal Sanctuary surrounded by them. He also likes to crow for around 2 hours every morning in their enclosed coop. I know hens don't have the same anatomical protection in their ear canals as roosters and I wondered if due to close quarters and his love of screaming bloody murder if he is causing ear damage/distress to the Hens? It is a bit of a shot in the dark but I cannot find any other culprit and I can't seem to find anyone else who has found a definite answer.

 

[Kiki]

If you didn't treat ALL of your birds and coops for lice at the same time you need to.

Treat everyone and everything with permethrin each week for no less than 3 weeks.

 

[LikeTurkeys]

If you didn't treat ALL of your birds and coops for lice at the same time you need to.

Treat everyone and everything with permethrin each week for no less than 3 weeks.

I should clarify probably, when there was lice, I did treat all of the birds and coops at once, and repeated the treatment after a week. No more lice, that was over a month ago and I don't see any evidence of them coming back. Also, even when there was a ton of lice, I did not observe head shaking like this.

I can treat again though if you think it will help, I just didn't see any evidence of external parasites.

Have you examined their ears? Are any of them scratching at their heads?

Yes, thoroughly. No dirt, wax, swelling or otherwise not normal looking appearance. None of them seem to be scratching their heads (which I've heard is indicative of ear mites).

I also checked them at night for mites. Did not see anything on the birds or in the coop.

 

[neener92]

Update:
All the birds are still head-shaking, some noticeably more than others. What's new is that last week I hatched out about 30 chicks, and within 12-24 hours, I noticed head-shaking. I cannot think of any disease that can spread so fast, and I was also very careful not to touch these chicks after handling my older birds.

I also went around to several feedstores and observed their chicks. Same thing, head-shaking/twitching. Perhaps the feed?

I did notice that there seems to be more head-scratching in my flock (observed this in some older feed store chicks as well). This makes me think that there is something in their ears, but I don't see anything and I don't think it's plausible for it to affect newly hatched chicks as well, including those not in my flock.

The birds appear to be acting normal otherwise, and I am not seeing a drop in production or activity. Necropsy reports have not returned anything explicit, and the pathologist in charge of my case has about as much an idea of what's going on right now as I do.

In the meantime, I think I am going to stop worrying about it. I will still keep an eye on it, but I am going to proceed with my plans to cull (as I was on hold with regards to seling for a while wondering if this was contagious). I am also going to proceed with adding new birds (from hatching eggs) to my flock.

Here is a video I made yesterday of my flock, the youngest chicks in the brooder are not shown.

I will udpate if anything changes.

Any updates?
My flock seems to have just recently started this or I am just now being overly cautious because I lost a few chicks to coccidiosis….they otherwise seem fine as well.

 

[HensInTheForest]

My hens have started doing this and are showing no signs of external parasites. I have a theory, and I wanted to see if the circumstances match anyone else who is dealing with this problem. My rooster is loud. I have never heard a louder rooster and I work at an animal Sanctuary surrounded by them. He also likes to crow for around 2 hours every morning in their enclosed coop. I know hens don't have the same anatomical protection in their ear canals as roosters and I wondered if due to close quarters and his love of screaming bloody murder if he is causing ear damage/distress to the Hens? It is a bit of a shot in the dark but I cannot find any other culprit and I can't seem to find anyone else who has found a definite answer.

I have 1 hen doing this now.
She has been in a new coop for 3 to 4 days with a loud hen.

No parasites or mites, brand new coop.

I put her back in run for a hours today and she stopped.

Hmmmmm.

Your theory is making me compare.