I don’t know what’s wrong with my rooster! Please help!

[Ilovemyduckkids]

I have a silkie rooster who’s maybe half a year old now, and today when I went into the coop he was acting strangely— he seemed to be trying to preen his chest aggressively, but there’s nothing wrong on the outside of his chest. I noticed he had poop in his eye so I brought him in to flush it out and inspect him, and after flushing his eye out I noticed a few things: he sometimes opens his mouth and sticks his tongue out almost as though he’s dehydrated(?) but won’t drink when offered water, and where he appeared to be trying to preen was where his crop is supposed to be but it’s hard to detect as he apparently hadn’t been eating enough grit.
I was rubbing/poking him there to see if he had any pain there and though he didn’t seem to express pain when touched there he slowly sat down as I rubbed him there so it seems to be an internal issue. Right now I have him in my lap and he seems calm but as he’d been doing since I found him, while he isn’t “preening” he’s sitting with his head explicitly upside down and won’t sit still if I try to move it upright. His eye also seems to possibly be infected from the poop that was in it as it formed pus or an “eye booger” which isn’t good either. Please help me asap if you can, I’m very worried about my poor baby boy.

 

[Wezdin]

The head being upside down is a sign of wry neck, a common disorder in silkies. This condition may be chronic if it was from an injury but could also be from a vitamin deficiency. I would start giving him vitamins orally asap, nuti-drench will work but if that's not available he needs vitamin, B, E, and selenium.

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you post some pictures of him and his eye? I would clean it with saline eye wash and a clean cloth. Get any pus or crusts out of the eye with QTips. Apply some plain Terramycin eye ointment or plain Neosporin or Triple Antibiotic Ointment twice daily. Has there been any sneezing, head shaking, or gasping? I would feel of the crops of the other chickens and compare them to his. Pecking at his chest could be a sign of impacted crop. A crop should normally be empty in early morning, and gradually fill up with feed during the day. If it is hard or puffy and full in the morning,something is wrong. Vitamin E 400 IU daily with a little cooked egg daily for wry neck.

 

[Ilovemyduckkids]

The head being upside down is a sign of wry neck, a common disorder in silkies. This condition may be chronic if it was from an injury but could also be from a vitamin deficiency. I would start giving him vitamins orally asap, nuti-drench will work but if that's not available he needs vitamin, B, E, and selenium.

Thank you!! I hadn’t heard of wry neck before and I got a little hospital tub set up for him

 

[Ilovemyduckkids]

Can you post some pictures of him and his eye? I would clean it with saline eye wash and a clean cloth. Get any pus or crusts out of the eye with QTips. Apply some plain Terramycin eye ointment or plain Neosporin or Triple Antibiotic Ointment twice daily. Has there been any sneezing, head shaking, or gasping? I would feel of the crops of the other chickens and compare them to his. Pecking at his chest could be a sign of impacted crop. A crop should normally be empty in early morning, and gradually fill up with feed during the day. If it is hard or puffy and full in the morning,something is wrong. Vitamin E 400 IU daily with a little cooked egg daily for wry neck.

I’ll see if I can get a pic of it when my mom comes home so I can get a good hold of him and a good pic as well; as of when it was checked it seemed empty and it was about 5:30-6 pm so I’d guess he hasn’t eaten much today, my poor boy and thank you for your advice!!!

 

[Eggcessive]

Try to get him to drink from a scoop or small bowl of water. Mix a little chick feed with a lot of water, and offer that and some scrambled bits of egg. Here is a video of feeding a silkie with wry neck:

 

[Ilovemyduckkids]

Try to get him to drink from a scoop or small bowl of water. Mix a little chick feed with a lot of water, and offer that and some scrambled bits of egg. Here is a video of feeding a silkie with wry neck:

Are all wry neck conditions like that/are they all specifically in that position?? That one has its head turned outwards but Popcorn is just leaning forward with his head upside down in a way that has his beak turned toward himself instead of away— might that mean he has a different condition or is the bird’s head position not specifically one way of affected?

 

[NatJ]

he sometimes opens his mouth and sticks his tongue out almost as though he’s dehydrated(?) but won’t drink when offered water

If he's not able to hold his head in a normal position, he may not be able to drink properly either. (Because of how chickens let the water run down their throat.)

Sometimes a chicken can manage a feed-and-water mixture when they would have trouble with just one or the other, and sometimes not. It's pretty easy to get a small spoonful of feed wet and see whether he is able & willing to eat/drink it.

 

[Eggcessive]

Wry neck or torticolis can be a twisted to the side neck, upward to the sky, or bent under with thead between the legs and twisted. Here are some examples:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/55/41/a3/5541a376b5932e583f0e6ecaaa8528b4.jpg

https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/6366376/width/350/height/700

https://blog.meyerhatchery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wry-neck1.jpg

 

[Ilovemyduckkids]

He’s been inside with a friend in the hospital tub and I’ve been spoon feeding him a mix of water, nutri-drench and baby chicken food! His health has been improving and his friend, a hen who he’s never separate from, I think is helping him she keeps him company and he will often start or continue eating if she eats and tonight she hopped up to see what I take him out of the tub for (spoon feeding) and wanted some of the food too! I think them sharing may have helped him eat more too, sometimes he’d ignore it but I’d let her have a bite or some and he’d go right back to eating! His head is luckily no longer entirely upside down, though he does that weird preening thing still so I’m concerned about that, and thankfully his eye that had the poop in it seems to be alright! I check it each time I spoon feed him and thankfully stuff is going well thank you all for your help btw!! I’m quite grateful