Lethargic, unsteady, crooked neck - how long before my young chicken gets better?

Kaerin

Hatching
Jun 21, 2020
2
0
9
Hello everyone - looking for advice as my daughters and I are complete newbies to raising our hens. We have a White Delaware and a Barred Plymouth Rock, about 20-24 weeks old. We suspect our Delaware to be on the older side and the Barred Plymouth based on their size when we first picked them up.

About 7-10 days ago, our Barred Plymouth was lethargic and sleeping far too much during the day. After searching the forums and getting advice from the farm where we got them, we started giving her water with vitamins and electrolytes. It seemed like she perked up, but the last couple nights she wasn't roosting or making her way back into the coop at night. We had to pick her up and place her inside. This morning, she started showing a wry or crooked neck. Essentially, she wasn't lifting her head and twisting it to the side. At one point, her head got so heavy that she toppled head over heels and did a rolling somersault twice. When she is "active", she tends to be unsteady and weak in the legs and not using her wings.

We don't want to give up on such a young bird, but I also want to set my own expectations of when, or if, she'll get better. For what it's worth, our Delaware is going strong and showing now signs of slowing down.

We're in Long Beach, CA. Nothing out of the ordinary with weather, other than some high temps a few weeks ago. Coop, run and food are not accessible by other critters. Haven't seen any other birds around the yard or in our citrus trees with the potential to contaminate.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!
 
I'm not an expert, but it sounds like Marek's disease. Its uncommon in chickens older than 6 weeks but it can still happen. This is the only thing i could think of other than she has some form of heat related problem that's only showing more symptoms now. you might want to isolate her and give her extra love and care. a dog crate works great. but again, not an expert i would get a second and third opinion. If you could keep us updated on her condition that would be great!
 
Just checked with the farm, our hen was vaccinated for Marek's. I'm curious what other treatments other members have tried to nurse their chickens back to health. Our hen is still showing signs of paralysis. She can stand and walk, but not very long.
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Research "wry neck" ... it's best to separate from the rest of the flock to prevent being picked on for being different. It's treatable but takes alot of time and patience. Vitamin E is the supplement that is used to treat. PolyVisol (children's vitamin) minus the iron is another supplement that may be used.
 

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