Injury or Illness!!!!????

[chickenmomva]

Seriously have not been on in over a year!!!! All has been well in the chicken world for us until today........we are on our second round of meat birds the first round went off with out incident but our new birds are now 5 weeks old and we have had alot of trouble........we have 75 male cross rock chicks in the nursery and today one was alittle disturbed.........by that i mean its head was turned completly turned around it is eating and drinking and walking in circles.......but its head turns upside down and all around I swear just like an owl.......it doesnt seem to be in distress but i have to say this very weird.....i am assuming that it has gotten injuried but my question is could this be a sign of some kind of illness??????

 

[d.k]

* I think it's a sign of botulism toxicity. I don't remember all the specifics of treatment, but it's serious-- site search for botulism and find and follow dlhunicorn's posts on the topic.

 

[sammi]

could be a B vitamin deficiency...(thiamine)
separate...a division will be enough so the chick will not get pecked or stepped on..and not have to compete for food.
get some Poly-vi-Sol liquid baby vitamins, Enfamil brand, no iron..give by dropper 2 drops on beak once a day for a week or so, then taper off for a week..
also give chick vitamins in drinking water..
the longer this goes, the worse it gets..since the chick cannot really eat properly or get enough nutrition..

check for any spilled feed that might have got wet and gone moldy, and clean up..this can be a source of a form of Botulism..or other bacteria.

good luck..
hope the chick recovers.