Need advice for chick (updated with photos)....

[Whitney9988]

Later today I noticed one of my day old chicks has a crooked neck. It gets around fine but it can't straighten its neck. I gave it a little polyvisol, vitamin E, and water. I took it away from the nest for now a put it under a light. Anyone have this problem with their chick? What did you do?

Here's a picture of the chick...

 

[bmbetsy]

I hope that someone has a suggestion. I have a two day old mallard and his neck does the same thing. He'She is starting to hold it better but it still is off . This duck was one of the first to hatch and is larger than the rest. I am hoping that it is just kinda stuck in that position from being in such tight quarters for so long

 

[Whitney9988]

Ya this little guy was a little bigger than the rest. He's active like the others but sometimes can't keep himself balanced right and falls over. Poor thing. Does anyone know how much polyvisol and vitamin E I should give him? I've just been putting a little on the tip of his beak and thats it.

 

[kinnip]

That looks like the pics I've seen of wry neck. It's scoliosis for chickens. I really don't think there's much you can do that you aren't doing already. All of the books, etc. that I've read recommend culling such chicks. Personally, I'm not very good at culling. If the little sweetie wants to live and can eat and drink, you can keep it as a special needs chickie , just don't let the other chicks kill it.

 

[Whitney9988]

I've had one chicken that had wery before and it did alright. Someone told me it was due to a vitamin E deficiency. So I'm trying to do the same thing with the other one. Today he seems a little better. I put him back under the mother because he likes to be held and won’t let me sleep if I put him in a box. She and the other chicks don't bother him luckily. I'm giving him small amounts of polyvisol and vitamin E twice daily. Only problem is I don't know the correct amount to give him since he is so much younger than the last chicken that I treated so I'm a little concerned I could give him too much. Anyone know the correct amount?

 

[chickenlady]

You can give the chick 1-2 drops 3 times daily of the poly vi sol. However, you dont want to use that long term. Try it for a week and if you see improvement, put them on a vitamin/mineral suppliment like avia charge 2000. Good luck.

 

[dlhunicorn]

Dosage for the Polyvisol is three drops a day for a week then taper off the next. If you possibly can get it (walmart and agway and other stores carrying supplements will have it ) get the combo vitE/selenium as the two are dependent on each other. You will need to ensure that the amount of selenium per tab does not exceed 50 MICROgrams (not MILLIgrams)... for a chick give half a tab (p r ic k open and squeeze out contents) once a day every other day three times as the initial dosage (you do nOT want to overdose)
wry neck is a symptom accompanying several conditions (many can be helped with vitamins and often breeder bird deficiencies cause the symptom)
Quote:
scoliosis is called Spondylolisthesis in poultry (commonly referred to as "kinky-back") is something entirely different and rather rare and you can read about that here:
http://www.worldpoultry.net/poultry_kinky_back/

 

[2manyhats]

Here's the physical therapy suggestion. Tip the chick on its side so that it has to straighten its neck to see you. Do this for a couple of seconds at a time each time you pick it up. If it's just from the close quarters, this will help to strengthen the weak (stretched out) side of the neck. I started this with one of my new turkey poults yesterday and is already looking better.

You can GENTLY lift the head to a straightened position if the chick can't. Don't stretch aggressively or you'll do more damage. Human babies have this at times too and I occassionally get to treat the cute little buggers.

 

[Whitney9988]

So I tried taking the chick off of the vitamins but it didn't take long before his neck got worse again. I'm going to try to give him the vitamins on a weekly basis hopefully he wont need it more than that. I think he'll need the vitamins for the rest of his life. He is happy and pretty health though. I got him into a routine where if he takes his vitamins then he get a bug as a treat lol. He also likes to be held after lol. Here are a few new photos. As you can see his neck leans to one side a little bit.

 

[dlhunicorn]

there are some conditions that cause malabsorption of nutrients....
I had a bird like that and I had to give supplements for six months before he finally seemed to get over it. Unfortunately some vitamins are retained and too much can cause just as many problems ... this is then difficult because you are really guessing what it is and some vit will cause the exact symptoms you are treating for and some will interfere with another one (for instance too much vit A will interfere with vit E absorbtion... and selenium has a very narrow therapeutic range ).
I would do for this chick as I did for my Pepper (he also had neurological symptoms that was only helped with vit supplements) :
Get a good general complete supplement like Avia Charge 2000 (available online from McMurry) ... you can add this daily to his feed or live culture yogurt... (it is a general supplement so not in therapeutic quantityso in the right dosage can be given daily. This will ensure that it gets the full range of nutrients/vit at the proper ratio to each other)
Get some Wheatgerm Oil and mix a half tsp of that through its feed 3 or four times a week(great source for micronutrients like vit A and even has a bit of selenium)
Find a source of ONLY the B vitamins (for babies) instead of the polyvisol and give a couple drops of that ever two or three days (cant overdose really on the B vitamins but you can on the vit A and I am concerned that at a certain point the vit A might interfere with the uptake of the vit E which is a known issue) slowly reducing (as with all these supplements) over time.
Once you have this in place (hopefully within the next week) ease off on the vitE/selenium supplement to once a week then every couple weeks (you get the idea) only supplementing at the first sign of neuro symptoms (walking backwards, head flicking over back/crookneck etc) ...
It sure is a cutie!