Neck problem

[chicken97]

I've got about an 8 month old Rhode Island Red that Is tucking her head down to her chest and almost looks like she tries to lift it up but can't. It seems to be every morning and then again at night. My husband says when he checks on them 2 hours after feeding she is fine and you can't tell anything was ever wrong. She's still laying eggs but they have a white film around them and one was almost grey looking. Any ideas on what this is and how to treat? Everyone else seems fine.

 

[katesgardencare]

I've got about an 8 month old Rhode Island Red that Is tucking her head down to her chest and almost looks like she tries to lift it up but can't. It seems to be every morning and then again at night. My husband says when he checks on them 2 hours after feeding she is fine and you can't tell anything was ever wrong. She's still laying eggs but they have a white film around them and one was almost grey looking. Any ideas on what this is and how to treat? Everyone else seems fine.

i would bet highly on this being crook neck or wry neck.

my rooster did this. every morning at breakfast he would put his neck down, like he was trying to look between his knees, and walks backwards, and would do this when trying to go to sleep. we would find him in the corner of the coop practically standing on his head at bed time. but during the day, he looked completely normal like nothing was wrong.randomly through the day you would see him walk sideways and backwards and couldn't balance, would fall all the time off his roost, and looked exactly as if he was drunk. any signs of a "not straight looking neck" i think crookneck.

from what i understood, crookneck can be caused by vitamin deficiencies. my feed wasn't high in vitamins and i didn't have supplemental vitamins in the water.

I would amp up the vitamins/ electrolytes and protein intake of this chicken. feed them cooked eggs/ small amounts of greek yogurt for protein to keep them strong through this. while she is being treated.

we bought children polyvisol which is a vitamin supplement for human babies, can be found in any store usually especially pharmacies in the infant section. we bought it in a dropper bottle.

so what we did for a week or so was brought him in the house for a little while each day, gave him high protein foods to keep his strength, and gave him a full dropperful of the polyvisol. you have to dribble it in the crack of their beaks, or somehow pry it open (that never worked for us) but we dribbled it in his mouth and he eventually got a full droppers worth each day. i washed it down with a few droppers of water, to make sure it wasn't stuck in his throat for too long.

Nowadays we use animal vitamin supplements in powder form bought at our feed store, and he has never had an episode again, and the vitamins made our flock have very fluffy beautiful feathers.

i would try this asap, because it gets worse and longer if left untreated

 

[chicken97]

I was thinking wry neck at first too but didn't know if that was something they came out of during the day. What is the name of the animal vitamin supplement you use?
She's not the tamest chicken, so treating her might be a bit of a challenge lol but I don't want to lose her.

 

[katesgardencare]

I usually just buy a general livestock vitamin and electrolyte powder!