My Hen is Walking Backwards

[Attack Chicken]

It is a deformity in their neck when their hatched.Sometimes it gets better but sometimes people have to cull them for it cause it causes balance issues

 

[opihiman911]

My crookneck was caused by trauma, being pecked on the head. I posted the question here and got the answer from dhlunicorn: http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=casestudiesemergencies&action=display&num=1160927052
I was able to do everything except giving it the predisone. I gave it the vitamin regamine for about 2 weeks and it straightened its neck up, but only to return. SO I kept up the regamine up for about a month and it cured it.
I still have her and she is doing fine, giving me eggs everyday. However the month of being sick took its toll and she is about half the size of her sisters and is on the bottom of the pecking order, but she is still part of my flock.

Aloha,
Cory

 

[BarnGoddess]

I have had something like this before and I treated for nutritional - lack of certain vitamins and diet. Some chickens don't get started as well and eventually it affects them. I have seen it happen with chicks and you can have a whole flock that seems fine and one who doesn't. Does she shake her head at all - like she has an ear problem? I was told it can make them feel funny and loopy and that they shake to get rid of the feeling. The walking backwards is a symptom of the same thing and can sometimes be a neurological effect from the vitamin deficiency. Is she eating and drinking okay or just picking at stuff?

When I had this problem with a 2 week old chick about four years ago, I was beside myself. I had an old chicken farmer tell me to buy a vitamin supplement (comes in a little bag and you mix it with water) to put in her water, to isolate her, and to force feed her the vitamins any way I could. I also did a small drop of vitamin E every day or rubed it onto her beak. Within 4 days - she was acting better. It was less than a week. She went to work with me everyday and I fed her six times a day - sometimes forcing it with a dropper. Bread soaked crumbs worked good too. She had another attack of the same thing all of a sudden about a year later and I did the same thing and it worked again. Now Sarafina is a great litle hen - lays well and has not had the isues since then and is 4 years old now.

I can't tell you that this is definitely the problem but it worked for me. Twice!

Hugs to you both!

 

[ji]

Thanks all of you for your answering my question on crookneck.
I have isolated her and have been feeding her extra nutritious food. She did shake her head like you describe and even scratched at it a little unusual. She does seem improved since being isolated. She gets lots food and rest and can still hear her buddies outside. I tried to herd her back outside and she resisted so I thought "Well, if she wants to stay here longer than so be it". Maybe she doesn't WANT to stay there longer (this is a chicken after all) but it isn't hurting anything
That being said she seems healthy in every other way. Quite alert , hungry and makes happy chicken noises.
I saw this disorder referred to elsewhere as 'stargazer'.
I really like that name thats what her name is now... her Indian name I guess. hahaha
I will get the vitamins for the water.
Thanks again.
(PS I confirm your comment BG that a 'whole flock seems fine and one doesn't' . My "Stargazer" is one out of 50 chicks that I have raised to 7 months old now. No illness of any kind untill this.)

 

[Beekissed]

I have a young White Rock that does this on occasion.....puts her head low to the ground and walks backwards very rapidly. I've seen her do it twice. I didn't see anything on that website that pertains to neurological symptoms that caused walking backwards.....so I'm interested in what folks have to say about this behavior?

The rest of the flock are just fine, no illnesses, no other neuro type symptoms at all.

 

[ji]

Hi Beekissed,
Well its been four months since my comments here (right above yours) and here is the update on my chickens and crookneck.

The rest of the flock is still normal - chicken normal... which is a little nutty.

The stargazer has made quite a bit of recovery from four months ago. Her head is almost normally upright except at night when it drops down and curls around to the stargazer postition. She is definatly more capable in getting around and forageing, lays eggs like nobodys business but is still not normal.
If I let her out to forage with the other chickens they will chase her. They know something is still wrong with her. They won't let her get near their house to roost at night. I keep them seperate most of the time because of that.
She doesn't walk backward anymore but it appears she may be impaired for life. I am curious about your Michael Jackson moonwalker chicken ... do the other chickens attack her at all or does she seem to still fit in?

 

[Beekissed]

No attacking at all. She is a very large, healthy WR hen of 8 mo. old. The rooster just watches her little bowing and scraping routine~ like one would do when backing away from royalty....maybe he thinks he deserves the homage!

My WR are the bossiest ones in the flock, so no other hens peck her. It happens so quickly and looks so weird. She doesn't have a crooked neck nor does she shake or scratch at her head/ears.

I have a flock of 30 with 20 of those 8 mo. old, the rest are varying ages of older.

What do you think?

 

[ji]

Well, she seems to be missing all the other symptoms of crookneck although I never did see anything that stricktly defined it (it hasn't come up on any episodes of 'House' either or I would know everything about it).
If it were my chicken I would not be too worried about it at this point.
Even the degree of disability my chicken has is not serious except for the social problem of being picked on which in lieu of culling her means that I have to give her seperate quarters, seperate food and water... a seperate life.
It does not appear to be contagious so... I would que up the THRILLER album and just accept that I had a chicken with an interesting quirk.
Hey, Quirk would make a good name. (My name is Kirk... very simular in sound and connotation)

 

[MoodyChicken]

A friend of mine had a chicken that did that. She said it got a fox burr in its eye that got stuck in its sinuses and caused a minor infection. It would walk backwards for great lengths and then stare at a cactus for 10-20 minutes. One day it just stopped doing it and went back to being a normal chicken. lol. Odd bird.

 

[MoodyChicken]

Quote:
My birds do that too. I think it's a challenging behavior. After my birds scoot backwards they charge another bird and bump chests.