Need help with a skin/neck thing...

GingerAle87

Songster
Sep 13, 2019
48
111
119
SC Alaska
My Coop
My Coop
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!!

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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.
Looks like picking/injury. You can put a little Neosporin on the skin.
If the neck is still twisting, the chick may be suffering those symptoms from trauma.
Try vitamin therapy at 400IU Vitamin E along with 1/4 tablet human B-Complex once a day for a couple of weeks.

You may need to separate out this chick with a couple of other more docile ones if you notice he's getting picked on. Crested birds can sometimes suffer neurological issues from being pecked in the head.
 
That makes sense now, I didn't feel like it looked right but today I noticed that he was even hitting the sides of it himself. I guess from just irritation. If it were Merek's, would it be highly likely that we'd have multiples with symptoms vs just the one?
 
That makes sense now, I didn't feel like it looked right but today I noticed that he was even hitting the sides of it himself. I guess from just irritation. If it were Merek's, would it be highly likely that we'd have multiples with symptoms vs just the one?
Hitting the sides of what?

Marek's is a very confusing disease at times. Often there's only one symptom, so it's something I would not absolutely rule out.

edit to clarify statement.
 
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