- Jun 6, 2013
- 18
- 0
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Hi everyone. I am a new member, but have been reading these boards for a couple of years now. Wanted to say Thank You to all the great people on here sharing their advice and information, ect. You have been invaluable to me and my girls! We started off with 7 chicks from TSC in May of 2011. We lost 3, one as a chick, (she failed to thrive), one to an unknown illness (was fine one day, the next we found her dead on the coop floor, and one to a hawk. We have 4 ladies left and they all seem healthy and happy. I wanted to add to our flock, and have been interested in silkies. I ordered 6 white silkies from MyPetChicken and we received them May 7th, 2013. They all seemed to be doing good, then one day I noticed one of them, "Twitter" was tilting her head a lot but was still eating, drinking and acting normal. That night I checked on them before work (I work the night shift at a group home) and Twitter was all twisted up, her head literally upside down, and all the other chicks were stepping on her and pecking at her. I felt so bad for her, and I thought if I left her in there she would be dead by morning. So I packed her up and took her to work with me. Made a rice sock and heated that up every hour to keep her warm, gave her water every hour or so with an eyedropper, and researched her condition. I found out (mainly from this forum) that she likely had "wry neck." I found a thread where somebody mentioned making a neck brace from paper towel and tape, and I thought that was a very good idea as her neck twisting seemed to make her so uncomfortable, and I couldn't hold her head upright all night, so I made one and it seemed to help a bit. I found out with vitamin therapy some chicks could recover from this and that gave me some hope, although I really didn't think she would make it through that first night, she was so weak. When I wasn't right there holding her or anxiously peering into her box, now and then I would call her name, and she would tweet back every time, so cute. I thought, "If she survives she will definitely know her name!" 
In the morning, I bought some poly-vi-sl (no iron), vitamin e, selenium, molasses, and some poultry vitamin and electrolyte powder. Started making her a custom solution of a tiny bit of water, 3 drops of poly-vi-sol, 1/4 of a 100mg tablet of selenium, crushed, 1 drop of molasses, and a couple of drops of vitamin e. Would give her that mixture 3 times a day. I also gave her boiled egg yolks (from our hens) mixed with water and the vitamin/electrolyte a few times a day. I am very happy to say that she has recovered 100% and I haven't seen any head tilting/twisting for almost 2 weeks now! And from all that handling, she is the sweetest little thing! She uses me as a playground, perch, and snuggles on my lap. I love her, and I think the feeling is mutual. So, this brings me to my question for you all today. She is supposed to be a white silky, but looks nothing like her sisters. First, she has pink skin instead of black, she has only 4 toes, and her legs are yellowish now turning a little darker. Her head poof is getting huge! Much bigger than her sisters. And her feathers look more "feathery" and not as silky, like the others. She's also the only one that seems to like to perch up high, she even tries to perch on the top of my head. lol So I'm starting to think she's a cross, or freak of nature? I was hoping you could help me figure that out. Also, hoping you all could give me some opinions on whether she's actually a she (I HOPE) or a he. I know it's a bit too soon to really know for sure, but I really would like to know. It would break my heart if she's a he, since we live in a suburb and can't keep a rooster. I will post a link to some pictures...(a video of Twitter, too) the latest ones were taken when she was 4 weeks old. Thank you for reading if you got this far. I would really appreciate any help.
http://s67.photobucket.com/user/melanieschade/library/Chickens
In the morning, I bought some poly-vi-sl (no iron), vitamin e, selenium, molasses, and some poultry vitamin and electrolyte powder. Started making her a custom solution of a tiny bit of water, 3 drops of poly-vi-sol, 1/4 of a 100mg tablet of selenium, crushed, 1 drop of molasses, and a couple of drops of vitamin e. Would give her that mixture 3 times a day. I also gave her boiled egg yolks (from our hens) mixed with water and the vitamin/electrolyte a few times a day. I am very happy to say that she has recovered 100% and I haven't seen any head tilting/twisting for almost 2 weeks now! And from all that handling, she is the sweetest little thing! She uses me as a playground, perch, and snuggles on my lap. I love her, and I think the feeling is mutual. So, this brings me to my question for you all today. She is supposed to be a white silky, but looks nothing like her sisters. First, she has pink skin instead of black, she has only 4 toes, and her legs are yellowish now turning a little darker. Her head poof is getting huge! Much bigger than her sisters. And her feathers look more "feathery" and not as silky, like the others. She's also the only one that seems to like to perch up high, she even tries to perch on the top of my head. lol So I'm starting to think she's a cross, or freak of nature? I was hoping you could help me figure that out. Also, hoping you all could give me some opinions on whether she's actually a she (I HOPE) or a he. I know it's a bit too soon to really know for sure, but I really would like to know. It would break my heart if she's a he, since we live in a suburb and can't keep a rooster. I will post a link to some pictures...(a video of Twitter, too) the latest ones were taken when she was 4 weeks old. Thank you for reading if you got this far. I would really appreciate any help. http://s67.photobucket.com/user/melanieschade/library/Chickens
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