Mentally handicapped chick?

[EricaRay]

Wasn't really sure which forum to add this too but it seemed like a chicken behavior thing as it's not an emergency or disease . I ordered chicks from a hatchery about 4 weeks ago. Well I have 2 buff silkies and one of them started acting very weird this last week and a half. I'll attach the videos and hopefully they work. I'm mostly just curious if anyone has ever seen anything like this before? He does the tumbling thing like he has to get at something on his belly and there's just something wrong with his neck and the way he moves it. Spins a lot of circles too. If you pick him up he will just lay there and hold his neck crooked. Eats and drinks fine on his own. Spends most of his time eating actually. Didn't act like this when I first got him though.

 

[DraigAthar]

I love that you call him Special Eddy.

The walking in circles thing is new to me, but I have a chicken that does that backing up trick. She never did it as a chick, but about the time she started laying, she also started walking backward now and then. She'll duck her head and squat low and back up. I've seen other chickens do that if someone pecks them on the head, or if they walk into a cobweb. But Agnes does it all the time. But she eats fine, lays fine, gets along with others fine, has no obvious symptoms of disease (and I inspected her thoroughly on multiple occasions, I was so baffled, lol). She's just our special needs chicken. It seems to be associated with any time she is nervous, like when the other chickens try to bully her at all, or if we move suddenly around her, or if there's a loud noise. All we can figure is that she's got a wire crossed somewhere and this is how she reacts, kind of like a nervous tick.

Craning the head/neck backward is a symptom of wryneck/stargazing/torticollis, you might want to read about that and see if it fits. But I don't know if that would also explain the walking in circles. Some infectious diseases can cause neurological symptoms, but they're also usually accompanied by other symptoms. Plus he seems like such an active little fella, it's hard to believe he's sick.

 

[EricaRay]

Just in case anyone is looking at this looking for answers like I was-
Special Eddy is not a normal rooster but functions just fine and is not the lowest rooster on the pecking order (Mostly due to his befriending my top hen who is actually a turkey so she doesn't allow any crap amongst the chickens!) He doesn't crow or roost and is really not a pretty bird but as weird as he is, he's perfectly fine!