new born chick with crooked neck

[pnuts]

the last chick to hatch i had to help out of its shell since it had been in there for a few days and i figured it was prob my fault that the membrane in the egg dried up since i opened the bator to take the chicks out frequently.

it was on its back for a while scratching at the air and i decided to take it out & into a box w/ a heating pad. i dried it w/ a hairdryer and fed it sugar water with cooked eggyolks mixed in (w/ a syringe)

its a tiny lil chick and its neck is crooked like an S to the side. it sits upright now after i showed it how to do so and i have it in a teacup right now in the brooder with the rest of the chicks.

does anyone know what on earth i should do?

 

[Rozzie]

Try giving it infant vitamins -- the liquid ones without iron. Make SURE they are without the added iron.

If you can't get those and have bird vitamins (Vita sol or something similar) then try those.

Also, try electrolytes.

I have just been treating a 3 week old button quail that had strange symptoms and these are helping. He's substantially older than your bird, so it probably isn't the same cause, but it might be worth trying as a treatment. (If you want to read the whole long story, click through to the Quail forum and look for the thread about a Button Quail with possible Wry Neck...it's near the top.)

 

[pnuts]

thank you

i'll pick up some child vitamins w/o iron tomorrow i hope his neck gets better and your poor quail also:[

 

[Rozzie]

Thanks! My little quail is doing tons better. I thought I'd lose him but he's doing well enough that I think he's going to be okay. He even crowed yesterday evening for the first time. Considering that my others that are 3 weeks older have not even crowed yet, that was a surprise!

 

[aymer]

i have a hen that was born with a crooked neck. the feed store was going to kill her so i took her home. i put a liquid multivitamin in her water and made scrambled eggs for a few weeks to get her strong enough to live with my other chicks. she always wanted to be with the rest of the flock but i took her out to feed her. i have had her for a year and a half now and has become my favorite chicken!

 

[pnuts]

aw i will try to look after my crooked neck chickie the best i can

 

[Rozzie]

Just a quick update...

My little button quail is still doing better! I am seeing a SLIGHT lessening of the curve in the neck, though it is just a hint of change. It is getting around quite well and doing all the normal button quail things. I am going to start mixing the electrolytes with water tomorrow and gradually wean it off of those. I'm still feeding it boiled button quail eggs--it's eating EVERY BITE of those that I give it -- two a day -- plus Manna Pro. (I've only given it one egg today because I felt like it needed to eat more Manna Pro!)

I did try to put it together with its two hatchmates but that didn't go well - they all freaked out -- so I separated them. Upon reflecting back, these three babies have "startled" much more easily and been more flighty than the others I have raised. So, perhaps there was some problem they could sense but not me prior to all of this. Once I removed this one for isolation, the other two settled down and have only normal freak-out levels. The minute I put them all together everyone went back into freak-out mode. I will not try to put them back together until this one is 100%, if then, as it was probably a stressor, even though it was only for a few minutes.

I'll just have to be on the prowl for yet another cage (or build yet another...) Watching the thrift stores for more BIG pet carriers. They must think I am a crazy cat lady or something by now.

 

[Rozzie]

Posted this on the wrong thread, but that's okay since I had mentioned this here, too!