Poor bantam is all twisted up

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm so sorry my heart breaks for you.

Do the best you can to keep her drinking and eating. Sometimes the vitamins will help, but not always.
Here's a video that might help you with her eating/drinking. Please keep us updated.

 

[staceyj]

If she's eating and you have access to polyvisol- *without iron* You can put a few drops on a little piece of bread or something similar for her to eat. You do not have to dose the liquid straight into her mouth if you are worried about aspiration.

 

[Eggcessive]

All we can do is be there for them and try to make them as comfortable as possible, so they know they are loved as they live. When they appear to suffer, that is when we must help it to stop, and put them down. Take care and sorry that she is not getting better.

 

[RodNTN]

How is she doing?

 

[izzy434]

Yes I am in agreement with that. Suffering crosses the line. I'm also not going to force feed her or anything like that, if she can't have her own desire to eat then she needs to move on to something better. Death is a weird thing. God doesn't seem to mind it. In the animal kingdom death is equal to food. One creature dies so another can live. Painful truth.

 

[izzy434]

Well this afternoon I heard her moving around in the box. Her beak was bumping up against the side of the box. Her eyes were open and she was moving her head around up, instead of burying it in the towel . I opened a can of corn...... her favorite, and offered it to her. Once she saw it , she turned her head around and ate vigoursly for while, and then all of a sudden quit eating, buried her head, and was down for the count again. So I repositioned her and put the towel underneath her head and lo and behold..... she is still laying. There was an egg underneath her. It's like her equilibrium is totally out of whack, yet her reproductive system still works.

I decided to just let her life have it's way and honor her. , Whatever she wants I just support whatever it is. And just honor her life and the time whatever it is that she has left. Who knows? Maybe she's having a really meaningful experience, she doesn't seem to be minding.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I lost track of this thread. That's a good video Wyorp Rock posted. I'm in agreement that if she's suffering...that crosses a line. However if she's happy and eating and doing relatively well...that's really good.

I have a line of Silkie cross siblings where the roosters have suffered from wry neck. I spent a lot of time with the one fellow who made slight improvements but would also make some declines as well. He stayed in the general population. When it seemed he wasn't getting better quick enough with winter approaching, I did put him down. That was the first year I had chickens and I know more now. I'd probably do a few things differently. However I've had one of the siblings experience wry neck and he got better and is still out with the rest. I kept the entire line from breeding but still kept the males to see how well they'd do. They've never shown another instance of it. I just wanted you to know this as someone who has dealt with it. I did find the rooster who got better seemed to respond well to sunlight.

But also consider too, IF she did get injured...it could take quite a while to recover. I'm thinking specifically of a concussion for a person...it takes quite a while before they recover.

 

[izzy434]

To me this is not so much a nutritional deficiency, but a neurological imbalance of some sort. As far as the selenium and the vitamins, I believe that that's helpful for nerve support. And so many have assumed that since Improvement is scene when these supplements are provided that means there's a deficiency. But I don't think there's a deficiency. I think it's just that in addition to their diet now they have the additional support of these vitamins that are often given for neurological support to humans also.

What do others think?

Millie is preening herself this morning, she does it for 5 or 10 seconds then she drops dead again. There seems to be a little Improvement.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

To me this is not so much a nutritional deficiency, but a neurological imbalance of some sort. As far as the selenium and the vitamins, I believe that that's helpful for nerve support. And so many have assumed that since Improvement is scene when these supplements are provided that means there's a deficiency. But I don't think there's a deficiency. I think it's just that in addition to their diet now they have the additional support of these vitamins that are often given for neurological support to humans also.

What do others think?

Millie is preening herself this morning, she does it for 5 or 10 seconds then she drops dead again. There seems to be a little Improvement.

I'm glad she's showing these good signs.

Not in chickens...but in my experience with lines of related genetics in the purebred sheep I breed and raise...it seems that there can be a related heritability component to an inability to properly utilize certain vitamins/minerals from the feed where others in the flock do well. I started with 4 main lines and have kept the best female breeding (and some male) stock for almost 20 years. I've had ewes who appear healthy but have been culled because they've consistently given lambs who do poorly and seem to succumb to illnesses that stem from deficiency. One ewe in particular had three lambs; two became stargazers (lack of thiamine) that I saved with a simple injection and the last was prone for getting infections. The ewe herself had no issues but she was the common denominator.

I've also seen it more specifically with prolapsing and false ring womb and seemingly being prone to deficiency with the uptake of calcium and the other vitamins/mineral that work in synergy. I've had lines of ewes that will display problematic trends 2 or 3 generations down. It's been an interesting learning tool.

I should note that I did give my cockerel that got better...poultry vitamins as well, and not just sun.

*One thing I will also note that as careful as I've been at not breeding the female silkies of this line...I have gotten a couple of oopses that have been hatched. One of the oopses is displaying a very slight tendency to prolapse. I find that interesting as well since the Silkie part of the equation is the only genetics that has displayed issues. It's not related to wry neck specifically...but it shows there might be a common denominator of a deficiency or at least an inability to utilize key nutrients. The rest of my birds do not have any related issues at this point. I breed and raise my own birds and have been cognizant when picking breeding stock.

 

[Eggcessive]

Since wry neck (torticolis) can be caused by many different things, most start with vitamins (thiamine, E, and the mineral selenium.) Vitamin deficiency is more common in baby chicks, or from those who have had stale feed or an incomplete diet. Heredity, accidental head injuries, and certain neurological diseases are common. So, sometimes it just takes time to tell if it will get better. Many wait a couple of weeks if they have time to devote to care, but I think it is good to let her do what she will do.