What about making a flexible, but sturdy splint to help hold her neck up?Thank you everyone!
I took my 8 ish month old Pullet black Australorp into the avian (including chickens) vet Thurs am, gave her a full exam and history, and she said based on the fact nothing else appears wrong with her but her obvious twisted and sideways "neck" and of course balance issues, (circling etc), taken with the fact that she can straighten her neck to an almost normal posture in order to to eat, drink preen.... and also that this is simply one sided issue - she decided it was single sided inner ear nerve inflammation ( did not say why this happens, but it can...) and or an infected inner ear, bacterial or viral. She can't say which, so need to consider them all.
A nerve inflammation or the infection of inner ear can all produce same symptoms, she said and cause the "wry neck" or neck torticollosis (vet's official term) and can of course affect her neck posture and her general balance. She ruled out all other neurological diseases ( they would be progressively getting worse and my bird would not be appearing so healthy). She also wanted to be sure and rule out internal parasites which she said isn't typically a cause of this but would be good to check off the list, and so she checked her poop for Ova and parasites just in case, which all came back negative.She sent me home with two RX's, an anti inflammatory in case it was nerve inflammation and the antibiotic in case it was bacterial inner ear infection... Said it will take 5-7 days to see much relief and that not to be too surprised if she is eft with a small curve that would be permanent to her neck.
I had a migraine (agh stress!) and I forgot to ask about vitamin E and Selenium, etc, but started what was recommend here on this site, and got some Poultry cell solution for her water ( I used super avian pack with lots of B complex before that) . I'm to check in to tell vet the progress next Wed. I hope the vits and antibotics together do not confuse the issue as I use both at same time, we wont know which is the agent helping. Darn....
I also asked about inner ear meds for people such as meclazine (sp?) and she said it was ok to give small dose twice a day for a few days, if it is not helping then discontinue. So we are on day 6 of illness onset and day three of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory. shes eatting ok even with neck almost upside down most of the time, or sideways. I'll give another update here once we start to see a turn around.
Vet thinks she will recover fine as she has not been progressively getting worse and very healthy in all other ways.
Also, just a note: The neck "getting worse" (my quotes) isn't really so... She said in her experience the hen gets tired too and if you watch her it changes with her mood and energy. so from sideways to upside down and all varients in-between can just be tiredness...it is NOT a good indicator of the chicken getting "worse" or sicker per se. That was relieving to know!
I just wanted to share all this and hope this helps another newbie. BTW, this wasn't cheap....
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