Hen can't lift head, lethargic, walking backwards

[amoequos]

Hey all!

I have a white leghorn who has been acting kinda strange the last week or so and steadily deteriorating. At first I thought she might be egg bound, but now I'm not so sure.

Today, I found her in the coop asleep. Normally, she is super afraid of humans and will run away, but when I petted her she kinda jolted awake, took two steps forward and sank to the ground and just let her head fall to the ground. After a few minutes she stood up and then took a few steps backwards. She sunk to the ground again and let her head fall, her eyes closed before she was all the way down. This happened a couple more times with the walking backwards so I put her in a box and brought her inside to monitor her more closely.

She pretty much has just slept, but every 10 minutes or so she'll stand up and look up at me. She will eat a couple bites of food but is not very precise with her pecking. I've drippled some water into her mouth and she has drunk that but isn't drinking on her own. After a couple of pecks at the food (she seems hungry as she goes after it pretty heavily) her head drops on it's own and she kinda twitches her neck to bring it back up again but it falls again and she lays down and goes back to sleep.

I've attempted to do a little research, and I don't think it's Merek's disease because her head isn't thrown back.

Any thoughts?
Thanks!

 

[MochaDuck]

I'm sorry to hear about your hen. Idk if this will help, but maybe try giving get Gatorade. That's what people recommended for the weak chick I had. Hope this helps.

 

[Eggcessive]

It sounds like she is having neurological symptoms including wry neck, which causes the twisted neck and walking backward, although she may be off balance as well. Some possible causes could be a head injury, Mareks disease, in vitamin deficiency, or other things that can affect the brain. Treatment consists of helping them to eat and drink, and giving vitamins—a E 400 IU capsule and some thiamine (B1) which is found in most chick vitamins and in vitamin B complex. I would mix up some watery chicken feed and a little cooked egg and feed her often in case she is not able to eat.