How to feed wry neck chicken

[Chickenladyfromthesouth]

Hello,
I have a hen, she's a polish, and she has wry neck. I saw her chasing her tail a couple of weeks ago and thought it was mites causing her to do that so I treated her for mites. Two days ago I saw her with her head upside down and I knew it was wry neck. She has been eating and drinking, as long as I put her next to her food. But today she's really bad, just has her head upside down and I tried to feed her some crumbs mixed with water (her vitamins are coming today) but she won't eat... Any suggestions how to get her to eat? I don't want to force feed her with a syringe because I don't want to kill her accidentally.
Thanks.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC!

I'm sorry that your hen is unwell. You can try holding her like shown in the video below.
Does she have lice or mites too?

 

[Chickenladyfromthesouth]

Welcome To BYC!

I'm sorry that your hen is unwell. You can try holding her like shown in the video below.
Does she have lice or mites too?

I'm going to try to do that. Thank you!
Yes she does. We're treating her with DE. Going to do it again Thursday.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm going to try to do that. Thank you!
Yes she does. We're treating her with DE. Going to do it again Thursday.

If the DE doesn't take care of the bugs, then use a Permethrin based powder to treat her. I've seen quite a few people say they have used DE and it was ineffective against an infestation.

Keep us posted on how she's doing.

 

[Chickenladyfromthesouth]

If the DE doesn't take care of the bugs, then use a Permethrin based powder to treat her. I've seen quite a few people say they have used DE and it was ineffective against an infestation.

Keep us posted on how she's doing.

Will do for sure! Thanks

 

[Chickenladyfromthesouth]

Hello. Sooo i've been giving my hen the nutri drench through a syringe. I also been trying to spoon feed her some baby food, she eats soooooo little and she's real skinny. I really don't want to try to feed her with a syringe bc I fear causing her to choke or worse .
She has been a little more active, I let her out a little and she walked and drank water, with difficulty because of her neck.
Question: any idea how I can get her to eat more?
How long does it take for chickens to start to improve once the vitamins are being given?
Thank you in advance!
-worried momma hen.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hello. Sooo i've been giving my hen the nutri drench through a syringe. I also been trying to spoon feed her some baby food, she eats soooooo little and she's real skinny. I really don't want to try to feed her with a syringe bc I fear causing her to choke or worse .
She has been a little more active, I let her out a little and she walked and drank water, with difficulty because of her neck.
Question: any idea how I can get her to eat more?
How long does it take for chickens to start to improve once the vitamins are being given?
Thank you in advance!
-worried momma hen.

Poultry Nutri-Drench is good, but I would try to get more Vitamin E into her. Do you have a WalMart or CVS? I would try to get 400IU Vitamin E gels and give her 1 a day.

You can crop/tube feed a bird to give them nutrition. That will be less risk than trying to syringe it into her beak.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/crop-feeding.75454/

There's no way to know how long it will take to recover. Some birds do well with vitamin therapy while others decline. A lot depends on the cause.

 

[Sea Wolf]

Ditto on the permethrin powder. DE is ineffective and can also cause serious problems if the bird breathes it in. If one bird has mites then they all do. Look in the farm store for the poultry dusting powder and sit down one by one and powder them all well. It isn't going to help with the wry neck but the mites cause serious stress on the bird and it isn't helping her.