New chick seems to be having seisures?

[Mulemom]

One of the chicks seems to be having small seisures. It flips over on it's back and one leg comes up to it's head and it shakes/scratches and cries for a few seconds. I pick it up and after it stops, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. It just goes back to eating. I thought it was just because she was a little smaller then the others, she was getting run over a lot and having trouble getting righted, but just now, we had her out by herself and she was pecking along and then just fell over on her back and started with the shaking and crying again. It only lasted a few seconds and then she was fine again. Does anybody know what this could be?

 

[Jsto]

Has she been pecked on a lot? Possibly on the head? I don't have much experience with this, but I recall having read about chicks getting brain damage. I believe it's prominent in Silkies. What breed is your chick?

 

[Mulemom]

She's a barred rock. There doesn't seem to be much aggression in the bunch at all. There is some pecking, but not much. It is kind of hard watching them running all over each other. It seems kind of rough.

 

[Jsto]

I was just rereading the original post and trying to picture it in my head. Do you immediately pick her up as soon as she does it? Are you sure she's not about to start on a nice dust bath? Like I said, it's hard for me to picture. Does she go flat out on her back or kind of on her side/halfways on her back? My chicks peep sometimes while dust bathing, others act as if hypnotized. They kind of lay on their side, kick a bit, then get back on their stomachs and kick shavings or grass up all over their bodies.

I've also had one of my chicks play dead, which freaked me right out as I didn't think they did it until they were older. It was on the first trip outside. She stepped out of the 'activity bus' onto the grass, stretched one leg out, and almost as if in slow motion, laid down on her side/back, flat out, not moving. Never saw any other chicks doing it and she hasn't done it since.

I'm not discounting anything, but sometimes they look a little weird when instinct takes over and they start doing something they've never done before. Don't want you to be upset and worried if it is by chance something else. What happens if you don't pick her up?

 

[Mulemom]

She was on the carpet the last time she did it. The first time, my daughter came running in saying "something's wrong with one of the chicks!" By the time I ran in there it was over and she was walking around again. I saw it in the brooder the next time and picked her up right away, and then later I her her crying and ran in and it was happening again. I think it is some kind of a seisure. I don't mind having a chicken that is going to have a funky fit once in a while. I had a dog that had seisures all his life, long ugly ones too. I hope she grows out of it, but if she doesn't, oh well. She's already quite the cuddler. Maybe she's just figured out how to get attention.