Mentally Challenged Chicken?

[Karinjjj]

We just got two silkies a couple weeks ago and one of the is acting strange. In the brooder she sleeps a lot and stays in a corner and when the other chickens run out to explore she just stays put. When we try to pick her up she flaps aggressively and starts screaming and then she closes her eyes but she is shaking vigorously. She also just doesn’t seem to be all there. Should we be concerned? She is eating and drinking just fine.

I once had a rabbit who showed a lot of those symptoms, he was always shy, and did not like being picked up, he seemed socially awkward almost. He was young too, and started having seizures, he had two that I know of before he died, I never got a complete diagnosis from the vet, but I believe he had epilepsy. Of course my case was a rabbit, and yours in a chicken but i hope you find this helpful, and I wish your chicken good health!!

 

[drumstick diva]

As a breed Silkies often get picked on because they look so different from other chickens. The same thing applies to Polish breed.

 

[MysticUniKitty]

Hi!
I have learned that shaking is a big flag for stress. For checking temp I'd take a picture of the chicks in brooder, if possible, in the morning and evening... Rule of thumb is if everyone is laying with wings dragging outside of the light circle it's too hot, if they are poofed up and huddled right under light they are still cold. Taking the pics will help with not only noticing if it temp but it'll help you see what chicks are where or paired up. I did this recently and caught on to who was being a jerk and needed a chickie timeout.
If wings look like they drag a bit make sure to give vitamins in their water, and provide a little extra chick grit scattered around to help if bored. I hope your chickie is ok, it's definitely a cutie!!

 

[Chiknsrcool]

Update: We put the chickens in their coop today for a few hours while we were outside and minky was having such a great time! She was running around and scratching and exploring with the others! I think all she needed was to go outside and have space to play but she was just a different chick!

 

[AllenK RGV]

The lights are all in my past. I only incubate with my 13 dollar walmart heating pad without an autoshutoff(search for "MHP"). My usual brooder is a backroom bathtub for the first few weeks in winter. In summer we are usually 80/95F so a 20W heat pad is all that is needed and outdoors. My first batch got that horrible 250W beast of a light here in a Maimi, FL type of environment and I was fighting pasty butt issues daily. Regardless, I'm happy to hear you think it was lack of stimulation, but my vote is she was happy to be away from that horrible slow cooker lightbulb and perked up just based on my initial experiences with them.

Also we do raise Silkies and they are mentally slow compared to our game type breeds. They keep culling themselves by deciding to go brood themselves outside the fence line and get picked off by predators and dogs. It happens so often that we have decided on a no more Silkie policy here. It is pretty sad we have a night time checklist with every silkies name on it so we know when to form the search party if it is a hen, and it is a conversation my wife and I hold near daily on who we haven't seen in a while...