TooTall69
Hatching
I obtained 5 roosters all brothers from a good friend of mine several months back. They were young stags say maybe 10-12 months old. All healthy strong birds!! None have showed a single sign of being unhealthy until today. I went out in my chicken yard to relax and watch my flock like I do nearly on a daily basis. I sat in my swing bout 2 mins when I noticed one of these brothers I mentioned was acting wierd. I sat and watched him a lil longer before getting up and moving closer. He was moving his head in odd positions and angles and was constantly doing so. I moved a lil closer and I noticed he wasn't running from me like he usually would. So I caught him up and instantly his head curled up in the most awkward way I ever seen!! I sat him back down and noticed he didn't have very good balance. He was still beating his wings and crowing but when he crowed it seemed really forced and threw him off balance. I also noticed he acted as if he couldn't see very well. So I observed a while longer till I had to leave for a while. Later on feed time came I went back out fead all the others and came back to him and he was laying down head curled down towards his breast wings in crazy directions so I stood him up and he just had no balance and his left foot was curled up. I threw his feed on the ground and he acted as if he had no idea there was feed there. He still chirped and sang and crowed but acted as if he lost his mind!! I first thought heat stroke!! Brain damage!! But it was just a guess. So roost time I went out and he wasn't on roost just laying on ground in same fashion as earlier. So I brought him inside few hrs later and he couldn't stand up at all then. Idk exactly what is wrong can anybody help me?? I have a video of him that I can send u so u get a better idea of what I'm talking about bc I really don't know how to explain his symptoms!! He was fine yesterday at feed time and all the sudden today he's gone mad crazy!! Plz somebody help me here!! I have very high dollar bloodline show chickens and I can't risk losing all of em!! What do I do??
I tried to load video but it's only letting me do it as a photo. I will send video to anybody that can help me just ask and give me number or whatever!! Thanks for any and all help!!!
Sounds like he has wry neck or crook neck from what you have described. This can be quite an alarming ailment when it's not been encountered before. This can be caused vitamin deficiency, head injury, disease or genetics. You will need to keep in if you want to give him a chance of survival. As they can't control there movements he would need to be hand fed and watered very regular. Dehydration and starving can kill them. Vitamins as soon as you can may help, but it's not a quick fix I'm afraid. The vitamins need chance to work and get in his system. Boiled eggs really help too and it's a tempting food for them. 
