This chick hatched a little less than 48 hours ago during the night. I found him in the morning flopping around and laying on his back. Not my first rodeo with flip-floppers like that, and I had another one that kept winding up on his back so I followed my usual protocol of putting them in chick chairs and giving some nutridrench. The other chick spent a day and a night in his chick chair and was on his feet and is now in the brooder with everyone else, but this little guy is not so much ...
I can't keep him in a chick chair because he is literally a chicken Houdini, so I've got him in a sock which is working much better. When you take him out of the sock he goes absolutely nuts for about 5 minutes
but will eventually calm down
I would also like to add that he has TONS of energy and is ridiculously strong. Definitely full of spunk for sure.
When I try to give him nutridrench he goes absolutely nuts the split second I touch his beak with it. I am not a fan of using droppers and syringes with chicks this small due to aspiration risk, so I busted out my trusty tube feeding supplies. I have a TINY suction catheter tube and an insulin syringe that works great (had to tube a chick last year with it) so I have been giving him kaytee exact with some nutridrench this evening. Its not been enough time to see any improvement, but I'm starting to wonder if this is actually wry neck or something more neurological? I've only had one wry neck experience and it was with an adult silkie and was nothing like this chick AT ALL.
He seems really content in his sock and spends a lot of time trying to preen himself. But the way he moves his head, almost like he has vertigo sometimes (he looks like how you feel when you've had too much to drink and need to put a foot on the floor to keep the room from spinning if that makes sense, thank goodness those days are behind me
), makes me wonder if it's not something more than just wry neck? Here is another video of him chilling in his sock and trying to preen himself.
He will try to peck at things like a sock string or my necklace, but I can't really give him food and water without him knocking it over or winding up in it.
I live in the literal middle of nowhere and we only have one feed store in town and they were out of selenium paste. I will be making a trip to a neighboring town on Friday and see if their feed store doesn't have some.
I'm hoping someone can give me insight as to whether or not this is truly wry neck, and if not, are there any ideas?
I can't keep him in a chick chair because he is literally a chicken Houdini, so I've got him in a sock which is working much better. When you take him out of the sock he goes absolutely nuts for about 5 minutes
When I try to give him nutridrench he goes absolutely nuts the split second I touch his beak with it. I am not a fan of using droppers and syringes with chicks this small due to aspiration risk, so I busted out my trusty tube feeding supplies. I have a TINY suction catheter tube and an insulin syringe that works great (had to tube a chick last year with it) so I have been giving him kaytee exact with some nutridrench this evening. Its not been enough time to see any improvement, but I'm starting to wonder if this is actually wry neck or something more neurological? I've only had one wry neck experience and it was with an adult silkie and was nothing like this chick AT ALL.
He seems really content in his sock and spends a lot of time trying to preen himself. But the way he moves his head, almost like he has vertigo sometimes (he looks like how you feel when you've had too much to drink and need to put a foot on the floor to keep the room from spinning if that makes sense, thank goodness those days are behind me
), makes me wonder if it's not something more than just wry neck? Here is another video of him chilling in his sock and trying to preen himself. I live in the literal middle of nowhere and we only have one feed store in town and they were out of selenium paste. I will be making a trip to a neighboring town on Friday and see if their feed store doesn't have some.
I'm hoping someone can give me insight as to whether or not this is truly wry neck, and if not, are there any ideas?
my poor little bud!
