HELP! Chick with bent neck UPDATED: THE MIRACLE OF NATURE!

[happyhens1972]

Meet Penguin!

To cut a long story short, I had to leave my hatch in the hands of a friend whilst I went away on a work trip. When I got home, little Penguin had zipped about two thirds of the way round and then stopped for whatever reason. By the time I found her, the egg membrane was completely dry and crispy and she was truly shrink wrapped. I had to soak the egg pretty extensively to get her out but she was peeping so loudly, I just had to try.

She came out very sticky and looking pretty twisted but she was fighting hard, peeping her lungs out and struggling to get her feet under her. I put her back in the incy to dry but after an hour or so, realised there was no way she was going to dry out. She was too sticky and the goop was drying onto her and making it almost impossible for her to move freely so I had to take her back out and fully immerse her up to her neck in warn water and use a makeup brush to gently scrub the goop from her fluff. She then got a blow dry and back to the incy.

Once she had dried a little more, she tried to struggle to her feet but one was very 'clawed'. I made her a boot and then she managed to stand but was spraddled with one leg out in front of her. I made a leg brace for her and now she can walk. She has eaten a couple of tiny bits of chick crumble and a good amount of scrambled egg. I have also gotten some Nutridrops into her (UK equivalent of Nutridrench I assume). She seems to be quite strong and definately worth my efforts. If she was weak and struggling, suffering at all, I would cull without hesitation but this little lady (I hope!! So don't want her to be a him after all this) has such a will to live, I have to do everything I can for her.

The boot is now off after 24 hours and her foot is fine and she can walk on it well. She still has the spraddle brace on but is improving HOWEVER, she has an S bend in her neck which means she has a forward stance instead of sitting upright. I have manipulated her neck around and it has 'give' in it but it pops back to the wrong position as soon as you let go of her head.

I have attached piccies from the side and above. Can anyone please suggest what I can do to help her get her head in a normal position and therefore allow her to stand up properly. I wondered if I should rig up some sort of body brace for a while but don't really know where to start. Can this be put right? It's difficult to show properly in the pics but she has quite a pronounced double kink in her neck....is there a safe way to collar her to force it back to a better position? Any suggestions would be much appreciated......

 

[Eggcessive]

She may be suffering from wry neck or scoliosis (roach back.) Scoliosis is not treatable, unfortunately. I would recommend vitamins in her water or feed. Vitamin B1 thiamine, E, and the mineral selenium are good to use. Here is some reading (drug dosages are in the first link): http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/Crookneck/Crookneck.html
http://oureggbasket.blogspot.com/2013/04/wry-neck-or-crook-neck-understanding-it.html

 

[Shabana]

So glad she's made it this far with your help - what an absolute cutie she is !!
I do hope the vits help penguins neck, poor little girl.
Please do keep us posted on her progress x

 

[happyhens1972]

Thank you for the well wishes and for the advise Eggcessive. I have been giving two drops per day of the Nutridrops as they are touted as the miracle cure for chickens. There is little else available to give other than a general tonic to put in water but at the moment she is not drinking much (not too worried yet as she is only 24 hours old) whereas the Nutridrops are a liquid feed that will hydrate as well as boost. The instructions on the box say to give 1ml per 2lb bird so I figured two drops was more than enough as she can't weigh more than an ounce! The analysis PER LITRE is as follows...

Vitamin A - 3,000,000 IU
Vitamin D3 - 600,000 IU
Vitamin E - 4500 IU
Niacin - 10,500 mg
Pantothenic acid - 6500 mg
Vitamin B2 - 1000 mg
Vitamin B12 - 6150 mcg
Biotin - 50 mg
Total sugars - 4.7%
Moisture - 65%
(Protein, Fibre, Oils, Ash - all max 1%)

Features
Comprehensive mineral package.
Essential amino acids.
High levels of vitamins A, D, E.
Seaweed extract for improved feed conversion
Bioflavonoids to help protect against microorganisms

I could be wrong but I'm not convinced this is wry neck. I believe this was caused by her being glued for hours with her head under her wing with the normal double bend a chick needs in its neck in order to hatch. I think her muscles just got sort of 'stuck' in this abnormal position. When she first sat up, her head was almost between her feet and she has slowly improved over the day and now her head is about level with her back, maybe a tad below. If she preens under her wing, her fits perfectly back into that hatch position....convincing me further that this is as a result of being shrink wrapped.

The info you provided suggests vitamins....which she is getting from the drops....so I'm hoping that if I'm wrong and it's wry neck, she is being treated for it by accident! All the info on scoliosis seems to imply that the deformities tend to show after a few weeks rather than at birth so again, fingers crossed, it's not that.

I was more wondering if anyone out there had tried/had success with correcting a crooked neck with some sort of brace? I thought about making a 'straight jacket' of sorts from a toilet roll tube, maybe with some padding round the edge to protect the front of her neck whilst pushing her head back into a more normal position. My fear is her strangling.

Dear little Penguin is now out of the incy and trotting round in the brooder with two other chicks with mild spraddle leg. She seems far more content now that she has company and seems to also prefer the electric hen to the incy fan!

 

[Eggcessive]

Unfortunately I don't see thiamine (B1) or selenium in the Nutridrops. Selenium is something most people have to add (40 mcg per day) although some poultry vitamins contain a little. B1 is most important though, and many use infant vitamins without iron 2-3 drops daily by mouth. Human B complex can also be substituted since B vitamins are water soluble and any excess amount is excreted in the urine. Some vitamins (A, E, and D) can easily be overdosed since they are fat soluble. If it was a hatch problem, she could just get over it the more she runs around. Good luck.

 

[happyhens1972]

I find it simply amazing that nature can fix itself so well. My little Penguin has just gone from strength to strength despite all her problems at the beginning. I have been giving her a single drop of Nutridrops each day and gently manipulated her neck for the first couple of days but now you can barely tell there was ever anything wrong. Her head doesn't QUITE sit as far back between her shoulder blades as that of her siblings but the s-bend has gone from her neck now and she has a normal chick stance. She is not quite as vigorous as the others either, I think she'll probably be a ways down in the pecking order but wow, the improvement is phenominal!

She will shoulder in to the food, has started perching already and claims her space under the electric hen with her 9 siblings, no problem. I worried about using the electric hen to start with as it tends to keep the chicks in a 'neck down' position when they are under it and I thought this might exacerbate her issues but I think it helped the neck actually as it is a more direct contact heat which was right on the back of her neck, enabling a real warm up of those muscles, loosening them up so she could move them.

Here is my little girl today....

 

[Shabana]

Awww I am so very pleased to hear your great news !!!
Hope she continues to go from strength to strength xx