INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[kittydoc]

@twoacrefarm Never use sawdust or anything fine. As you found, babies are too young yet for straw. The best bedding for littlest chicks, for 3-4 weeks, are first newspaper or puppy pads for a week, then large flake wood shavings. After 3-4 weeks, then straw is ok but we used large wood shavings for 3 months the last time and found it easier to keep clean and lower in odor than straw. Straw is safe, though, certainly.

 

[Indyshent]

Need some advice please. We have our first sick chicken and we are unsure how to help it. We have a 4 month old silkie that my daughter hatched at school. We have had it inside our house since we brought it home. Planning on putting it out with our other chickens when it warms up. Has been healthy until earlier this week. She was fine one night, then the next day she couldn't walk straight or hold her head upright. She flopped around, twisting her head almost 180 degrees. I gave her water with a dropper and made scrambled eggs. She drank and ate well. The next day seemed fine and was fine the rest of the week. Then last night her symptoms started again mildly. Today she is as bad as the first day. We noticed her scratching at her right ear this morning. I looked and both ear canals looked clean, no odor or drainage. But her right "ear lobe?" looked swollen. I'm sorry I don't know what is called. It's the blue skin below her ear canal. Any advice or suggestions  would be greatly appreciated. She is the sweetest chicken and I hate feeling helpless to help her. Thank you. 

Try multivitamins first. That sounds like wry-neck possibly. You can also try antibiotics like Tylan

 

[Mother2Hens]

Need some advice please. We have our first sick chicken and we are unsure how to help it. We have a 4 month old silkie that my daughter hatched at school. We have had it inside our house since we brought it home. Planning on putting it out with our other chickens when it warms up. Has been healthy until earlier this week. She was fine one night, then the next day she couldn't walk straight or hold her head upright. She flopped around, twisting her head almost 180 degrees. I gave her water with a dropper and made scrambled eggs. She drank and ate well. The next day seemed fine and was fine the rest of the week. Then last night her symptoms started again mildly. Today she is as bad as the first day. We noticed her scratching at her right ear this morning. I looked and both ear canals looked clean, no odor or drainage. But her right "ear lobe?" looked swollen. I'm sorry I don't know what is called. It's the blue skin below her ear canal. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. She is the sweetest chicken and I hate feeling helpless to help her. Thank you.

@good2016 ~ I agree with @Indyshent that it sounds like wry neck (torticollis). You've probably googled it by now and hopefully, you can get some professional advice to find out exactly what's going on.
For general information re torticollis, I ran across this link, which interested me because of my recent personal experience. For the past year off and on, I've been awakend by extremely painful muscle cramps in my legs that often start at the thigh and twist around to the calf—much worse than a common charley horse. I recently heard about tumeric, a spice that's also in yellow mustard, and it has made all the difference. This link mentions its use on chickens. I am not a professional, but I thought you may be interested in reading this and you can make your own decision. WryNeck-NaturalTreatment

 

[Indyshent]

Another neat Craigslist find, but I can't post the link. Someone near New Castle is selling older juvenile pea fowl $30/each. Old enough to be easily sexed. Look around. It had been around 350 ads in late last night on the Indianapolis farm and garden page. They're crosses between white shoulder and India blue, if I remember right. Very pretty birds.

 

[Finnie]

Another neat Craigslist find, but I can't post the link. Someone near New Castle is selling older juvenile pea fowl $30/each. Old enough to be easily sexed. Look around. It had been around 350 ads in late last night on the Indianapolis farm and garden page. They're crosses between white shoulder and India blue, if I remember right. Very pretty birds.

Here you go Indyshent
https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/grd/5969917039.html

 

[good2016]

Thank you @Indyshent and @Mother2Hens . We are pretty new to having chickens and I hadn't heard of wry neck before. From what I could find online that is what it looks like.
@Mother2hens have you tried magnesium supplements? I've read where your body absorbs it better topically rather than orally. So I bought magnesium flakes on Amazon and mixed it with water. I apply it every day and it has significantly reduced my leg cramps. I thought you might look into it if you haven't already.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@good2016

For the types of issues you're having, the need for "b" vitamins are usually the cause. (Thiamin in particular, then riboflavin and others.)

Are you feeding medicated chick feed? If so, discontinue it immediately. Amprollium - which is the med in the feed - is a thiamin blocker.

A natural cure that often works is to get some good quality liver, cut it into tiny pieces....very tiny....and feed it to them RAW...but find good quality that has been grass-fed.) Sometimes people see a dramatic turn-around overnight with this. (Sometimes not depending on how advanced it is.)

Another item is good brewers yeast. Lewis labs is the only one that is grown on a non-GMO substrate. You can get a canister at most health food stores. The birds love the stuff and will take it free choice from dishes. For your sick bird, you'll have to try and see if she'll take some from your hand.

A quick "not natural" item that often helps is getting some childrens poly-vi-sol NO ADDED IRON. These are drops you can usually get them in most places that sell baby items. Folks use a dropper to administer.

 

[ellymayRans]

Here you go Indyshent
https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/grd/5969917039.html

There's no such thing as a "White Shoulder".

Perhaps they meant Black Shoulder. ??

 

[Finnie]

Or, maybe they have no idea what they've got, and they're just saying that cuz the wings have white on them. ?

 

[Leahs Mom]

@good2016

Wanted to re-post it as I'm hoping it may be of use to you. I was talking about the leg issues, but it is also indicated in wry neck as well.

I originally posted this here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/730582/indiana-bycers-here/13530#post_12000215

If the pages won't come up large enough to read from THIS post, you can go back to the original posted place linked above. (click on the image in this post and they will come up larger)


********************************************************
Here's the repost:
Oftentimes B vitamins - particularly B1 and B12 (Riboflavin and Thiamin) are at issue with new hatched chicks. Some very finely chopped liver is a great help if you have a good source to get some.

The first is this link that talks about some of the leg issues and causes. Note particularly the info on vitamins. There are various issues that "usually" affect birds during specific age ranges as a "rule of thumb". There exceptions to the rule of thumb however.

There is a lot of info here...keep reading all the way down
https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry


When I first heard about various "B" vitamins having an effect on leg issues w/chickens was a few years ago in one of Joel Salatin's books. Here is some info that is very interesting on riboflavin in young chicks in particular. I think if you click on the images they will come up large enough to read.

Quote:
Pastured Poultry Profits
Author: Joel Salatin
Chapter 26 In It's Entirety
For Educational Purposes Only. No copyright infringement intended










ETA: Someone had remarked earlier how they wondered how the birds could be fine one day and not able to walk the next. In another part of JS book, he mentioned that was what happened. One day they were in that condition. After feeding the liver, they recovered quite quickly as well.