Just noticed wry neck in 5 week old Australorp chick--what do I do?

[sarahandbray]

OK, chicks have been fine since shipment (McMurray, first week in Feb, 86/100 survived).
We have 25 in a big brooder in the basement.
They had electrolytes and probiotics in the water for the first two weeks. Now on regular water and Dumor chick feed.
I just noticed tonight that one black Australorp has his head tucked under himself sometimes and walks backwards!! He seems of a good weight and the same size as the other chicks. Maybe I caught this early enough?
I have Sav-A-Chick and Probiotics on hand so I added that to the waterer. What other steps should I take to help this girl? What am I doing wrong? They have been brooded at the appropriate temperatures in my basement boiler room and have a big window for light. Could it be lack of fresh, outdoor air? Lack of fresh greens? I haven't started them on any veggies or anything and don't have grit in there yet.
What other things should I be doing? Do I need to separate her? I hate to do that and she seems fine with the others. Just want to make sure she's eating and drinking ok.
Sarah

 

[MARANMAN2011]

You need to separate her just in case to not spread anything to others. Keep her with food and water, and keep an eye on her. Google chick diseases and symptoms, could be many different ones.

 

[lazy gardener]

Do a thread search for Vitamin E encephalopathy, or Crazy Chick Disease. I can tell you what I did with one of my chicks. While it did cure the initial symptoms, it did not prevent internal damage. Hopefully, your chick was caught sooner, and is a bit older at onset, so you may be able to save it without any long term complications. So, even though I'm telling you what I did, and that it made a huge difference, I'm not at all qualified to give medical advice: I started with a standard vitamin E capsule, and nicked it open so I could squeeze a drop out. I put this up to the chick's beak, and got him to eat the "drop". If the chick can't or won't be enticed to taste the drop (my chick did very well with this) you can mix it up in his food, or just wipe it off on the side of his beak. I also gave a tiny bit of selenium shaved off the side of a selenium tablet. Remember, these pills are designed for a 100# person, so just a tiny bit is plenty. Think: the amount of several grains of salt. I bought Poultry nutri-drench, and also gave the sick chick a drop of that several times/day. You can put the nutri-drench directly in the water for all of the chicks. Excellent product. I treated the sick chick with the supplementation several times/day for several days, then cut back to daily for a week. Initially, my chick was unable to stand or hold his head up. I had to hand feed him. After the first day, he was able to stand with support, and able to eat his "baby bird feeding formula" with some assistance. I hand fed him 3 x / day. On the 3rd day, he was standing alone. By day 4, he wanted to perch on my finger. After that, I had to chase him to catch him for his vitamins, and soon, even though he lagged behind his 2 "brothers" because of his rough start, I couldn't tell the difference between him and his brothers, until the secondary signs started showing up as he neared puberty.

 

[Folly's place]

Make sure that your feed is fresh; vitamins deteriorate over time. This one chick may not survive, and a post mortem exam may pay off for a diagnosis if so. Contact the feed store, better yet the manufacturer. Purina was very helpful to me the time I had a similar issue, and a confirmed Dx of vit E deficiency from pathology. It was so worth it to me, and the one chick I lost (out of over 50) just had a genetic need for more than normal vit E levels, poor thing. Mary

 

[sarahandbray]

Feed is fresh
Vitamins and Electrolytes now in water along with probiotics
Haven't separated out of the flock yet--I didn't think wry neck was contagious? Is it?
All are from McMurray and vaccinated for Marek's and Cocci.
Will get some Vitamin E squishy tabs tomorrow and Selenium (is this in with the regular vitamins?)
Thanks! I have a separate brooder I could set up if I had to, but they all get along so well, I hate to mess things up!
Sarah

 

[CozyFanatic]

I hatched 3 babies in my incubator and one of them had the wry neck. She couldn't keep her head straight, it was twisted to one side and she would fall down when she tried to walk. I didn't know you called it wry neck, but I researched her problem online and found out that one solution was feeding her yeast. This I did, just plain cooking yeast, sprinkled it on her dry food and she got perfectly normal in just about a week. Now she is the prettiest of the 3 and just a fantastic little hen!

 

[CliffB]

I have a little duckling with wry neck and i have been adding basil and oregano to its food and one waterer has fresh water the other has an oregano/basil mix and the neck has improved drastically in the last 2 days.

 

[Raltarnee]

I'm confused! I recently lost my favourite rooster to wry neck. The vet & I did everything I could to help him overcome the condition but the advice my vet gave me was that it was caused by a vitamin B deficiency which had them affected his nervous system?

He was fine when I put them all to bed but then in the morning I found him totally bent. I'd had this happen to one of his siblings at a much earlier age so I immediately I'm confused! I recently lost my favourite rooster to wry neck. The vet & I did everything I could to help him overcome the condition but the advice my vet gave me was that it was caused by a vitamin B deficiency which had them affected his nervous system?

He was fine when I put them all to bed but then in the morning I found him totally bent. I'd had this happen to one of his siblings at a much earlier age so I immediately took him to the vet who gave him Vit B injection and fluids and devised a splint to help keep his head in the correct position.

Unfortunately after taking him home overnight (he ate what I fed him by hand, he drank, was happy enough and I was very hopeful that his prognosis was somewhat positive) the next morning brought trouble with the splint so back to vet we went. I had to leave him overnight and when I went to collect him vet told me he needed to be put to sleep as he had asphiciated and was in shock!

I really loved that **** rooster so completely devastated me. I held him as he went but honestly now am pretty confused as to the treatment given... did I kill him? The vet said he'd spoken to a chicken friend so assumed he knew what he was doing????

 

[lazy gardener]

Vitamin B also is implicated as a cause of wry neck. It is a neuro issue. According to some reading I've done, the wry neck is the first outward sign, but there can be internal damage that goes along with it. My little rooster, while he recovered from the initial signs of the wry neck, and the backwards walking, had other issues that showed up: severe scoliosis, and congestive heart failure. He also had vent gleet towards the end. The question of it all is: since the issue seems to be related to lack of certain vitamins, is it because of mal-absorption or is it because of deficient diet. IMO, malabsorption seems to be the issue, otherwise more chicks in any given brood would be affected. Usually, when the missing nutrients are provided in larger doses, the chicks seem to straighten out. Unless they are severely compromised, they go on to lead productive chicken lives. After dealing with this issue in my first brood of chicks, I go to extra lengths to give my chicks more than the basic nutrition provided by the chick starter.

 

[Folly's place]

I've got a different viewpoint here. Saving a life is great, but because I'm interested in producing healthy chicks in my flock, I want to start with individuals who have good health and good genetics. Special needs chicks will not ever go into my breeder population, although they may be delightful birds as pets and layers. Mary