GingerAle87
Songster
Hey All, I work at a shelter and we recently had like 30 something chickens dropped off in our night drop. We have to consider them strays since the person who left them gave us no information so we don't know if they were hatchery chicks or home hatched. Anyway, one was walking around on day 1 with a twisted neck so our initial thought was Merek's Disease. This chicken was still eating and drinking fine and has in the last 5 days improved to not have much of a noticable head tilt at all (unless he is looking up at you). The rest of the chickens have all been doing well, no signs of neuro problems in them and eating/drinking/active as expected. So we looked a bit closer today and have noticed this thickened patch of skin on the back of his neck (on the side view you can kind of see the difference between his normal skin and this patch). When they first arrived, he had a small red spot, thought maybe he was being pecked but now this doesn't really look like trauma from recent pecking to me. Now the concern is that the neck twist could have been from trauma of some kind or maybe a skin parasite/irritation. Vent is clear, weight is good, no signs of lice. I am hoping some of you may have dealt with this before or can give me an idea of which direction to look into. Thanks, as always!!