My Silkie is behaving strangely

[Anna loves chooks]

Dont know what is wrong ,the vet doesnt either.my lovely little blue silkie is trying to feed but her vigorous pecking doesnt get her any feed.shes not blind,she can feed if i hold a container for her but pecking really hard.Could have had a peck on the head?Ive tried separating her incase shes been bullied but shes very eager to be with the others.Im fairly new to keeping chickens,any ideas anyone.

 

[robin416]

How many feathers are occluding her sight line? She just might simply need a hair cut to improve her ability to see the food.

 

[Anna loves chooks]

She is quite young no feathers blocking her sight.this was an obvious over night change in behaviour.Vet thinks she may have brain damage but just a guess.Plan is to rule out disease then sort extra coop and run for her and let her male silkie friend join her.My hunch was that she was afraid to eat because of bullying but im not sure now,its the same away from the others.

 

[robin416]

OK, then it sounds like she might need some encouragement to eat.

Have you seen her droppings? They will tell quite a bit of info, like if she hasn't been eating.

I have a favorite product that I keep here for downed birds or birds that I want to be kept built up or build back up after being broody. Its called Exact Hand Rearing Formula for birds by Kaytee. Its wonderful stuff and you can generally get a bird that is not terminal to eat it.

Cook up some oatmeal and feed that to her. Put a couple of drops of polyvisol vitamins in it to keep at least that part of her diet up. You might have to work at it to get her to eat, be patient because chances are she'll give it a try.

Brain damage has some very specific physiological responses. Head tucking, weaving. So unless you are seeing that with her I doubt that its brain trauma.

 

[Anna loves chooks]

thankyou,weve had a bad day been back to vet with poo sample.as bloody mucus found.and very sick looking.Decided to put her back with flock as isolation was making her worse and stopped eating all together.Shes a different bird much happier and trying to feed again,i have to hold a container for her.Vet wasnt worried about poo ,does think its neurological.Need to watch her closely.Thankyou for tips will try.ps What is head tucking?

 

[robin416]

Their heads are tucked between their legs. With Silkies its quite a problem, brain trauma or nutrition can be quite a problem with highly bred Silkies. I've gone through the head trauma that's why I don't get his provisional diagnosis.

Head weaving happens more when the temps spike suddenly out doors and happens only with the very young.

Give her a raised feeder or raise the general population feeder to see if she does better on her own.

And you're absolutely certain she's not blind? It can be a guessing game on that with their dark eyes, its hard to see the pupil.

Ten days is the time between the first worming and the second.

 

[Anna loves chooks]

She does freeze when she feels threatened making her appear blind,but back in her run she follows me for food ,ive been testing her.its a puzzler the raised feed idea is good will do that and see how she is tomorrow,she`ll be roosting soon.ive not wormed her,can worms cause odd behaviour with feeding?

 

[robin416]

No, not until they are so depleted that it begins to affect them physically.

She has sight if she's following you.

Um, how certain are you this is a girl? That sounds more like boy behavior.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Quote:
Those are classic signs of Mareks.

 

[robin416]

It might be but that isn't what is going on with her bird. And it is very typical with Silkies that are so highly bred.