Hen Pecked with Wry Neck

Cris122280

In the Brooder
May 9, 2018
15
13
44
Swainsboro, GA
Hi... I have two sick fuzzy butts in hospital (my bathroom) at the moment. Zohanna is in a splint recovering from an injury to her hock and ButterBean is recovering from a pretty nasty hen-pecking incident on the left side of her face. Both are 2months old. I had these sweet girls quarantined in a safe place within the larger coup so that they could still be with my other chickens. My little boy changed their water and forgot to close their special pin back up. One of my older hens went to attack Zohanna and ButterBean covered her.. took a bad beating. I am looking for help with ButterBean.
She has always done this thing with her head whenever she is scared.. holds it close to her body all curled up andwhen she feels that its safe, would pop back up and voila..normal chicken again.
Eats good, drinks good, no issues there so I haven't really worried about it until now. After the hen pecking she seems to be stuck in that position.. I can encourage her to extend her neck but after a few seconds she tucks it right back down..
Administering antibiotic for facial wounds, Neosporin cream to wounds, high protein feed, vitamin e, and poly vi Sol. Poor girl cannot get comfortable. She won't eat scrambled eggs.. questions..

What's the prognosis on this baby?
Any tips that might work to speed up the recovery process?
Should I separate the two hens?
Did the face pecking trigger the wry neck?
Thank you so much.. look forward to feedback.. gotta get her well.
 
With Wry Neck usually the head/neck is twisted, not scrunched in. Can you post some photos?

Yes.. She pretty much stays like this.

Even when sleeping. The pecking wound is much better, some dried blood, I do not want to rub her face to get it off, but the swelling has gone down.
 
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Poor thing.
If you have vet care that would be good, you may want to try Prednisone in addition to the vitamins to see if that helps, but if she has had difficulty like this before the attack, then she may not be able to recover.

I know you are using Poly Vi Sol and that is recommended in a lot of threads, but she may do better if you give her the vitamins individually. Here's a very good detailed treatment plan for Wry Neck

If you are having trouble getting food/water into her this video may help as well
 
I'm sorry if I offended you in some way with the comments I made. I don't believe I was even suggesting that you give up on her.

I'm sorry. I know you weren't being offensive. No worries. I know you understand that it's frustrating when something is sick and you don't know how to help.. almost like having a sick baby. They can't talk to you so it's a lot of guessing and hoping.

Before the pecking incident she would tuck her head, but only when I picked her up. Now she does it all the time. Our local vet doesn't really do a whole lot with chickens, so I am going to try and see if our local feed store will sell me a prednisolone tablet.. he let me buy an antibiotic the other day. I will have to research the dosage.

Thank you for being so willing to help.
 
Update: Wounds on head all healed up and she seems to be better. I'm wondering if the head ducking thing is a defense thing of some sort. Made her an enclosure in one of my flower beds over the weekend.. if she doesn't see me looking she acts completely normal. As soon as she sees people she ducks her head. Walk off and she's back to normal.. it's wierd.
 
Update: Wounds on head all healed up and she seems to be better. I'm wondering if the head ducking thing is a defense thing of some sort. Made her an enclosure in one of my flower beds over the weekend.. if she doesn't see me looking she acts completely normal. As soon as she sees people she ducks her head. Walk off and she's back to normal.. it's wierd.
I'm glad to hear she is doing better!

That is a bit odd for her to be ducking her head like that when you approach. Do you notice if she does when the top members of your flock come near her too?
 

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