I was wondering how your wry neck babies are doing? I just experienced this for the first time and all I can say is WOW! I have never felt so bad for a creature in all my life! My little Dusty is a 2 week old silkie pullet. She was fine I thought the night before it started and the next morning her head was between her legs, walking backwards and turning away from food and water. She was in with four other pullers of similar age, but my barred Plymouth Rock, Formerly Dot, now Dotzilla is 3-4 times the size of the rest. Purely on instinct I pulled her from the nursery and set her up by herself. No change. By noon, she was breathing hard and not moving at all and screamed when I picked her up. I went online and through hours of research and reading boards I figured out this was wry neck. I followed the electrolyte/vitamin e recommendations giving with an eye dropper every 2 hours. By the next day she had the hang of the dropper and looked for it to the best of her ability, but I was still seeing she was turning to the left when dropper was on right and vice-versa. I got to where I would just put the mix in my hand and hold her head up just enough to keep her from aspirating. I was still reading and researching and found the info on the selenium being needed to absorb the e. Good luck finding selenium!! You can order online and keep on hand but I was afraid I didn't have 3 days to wait. I bought the poli vi sol vitamins and mixed up a batch of my own blend for her including: electrolyte (2/3), water vitamins, e and start and grow food. The food does not dissolve completely, but it does dissolve enough to get some nutrients in there. As of Saturday, day 3 she still has an occasional spasm, but it is mostly when she scratches her head. She has been eating and drinking on her own since Friday but still tries to get me to feed her with the dropper! We call her bossy butt and always have!
I have noticed that the vast majority of wry neck cases are silkies, and I also realized she will never be able to be housed with the "big girls" thankfully we originally bought a coop only to realize we needed more room so built one of our own design. I know I am now the proud mom of a special needs chicken, but they also don't do well alone, so Saturday I brought home a bantam Americana for Dusty. (Yes, my special needs chicken has a chicken of her own! Lol!) Cinder the beautiful little bantam will always be smaller than her so less risk of a peck to the head, and we won't have to have an indoor lap chicken! Hubby would not be pleased! To my surprise and delight, Cinder brings Dusty right out of her "episodes"! When it happens she goes and sits quietly in front of Dusty and makes a soft cooing noise. I have also picked up poultry conditioner for show birds which has the added e and selenium. I ground it up and sprinkle the food with it and put the pellets in with her in place of scratch. Sunday morning Dusty was sleeping on the roost bar for the first time since Tuesday!
I want to thank all of you for what you share as it saved my baby! Thanks again!
