Retarded/Mental baby chick?

[kyeschicks]

Oh im sorry about that chick. I always get sad when I see something wrong with my chicks. I hope that he/she heals, i have my fingers and toes crossed for him/her

 

[KellyHM]

If you haven't started the vitamins yet you need to ASAP. The egg is good for some protein, but won't correct the deficiency. Good luck!

 

[Ferngully]

I wanted to give you hope and to second what Ruth had to say.

Last week, we awoke to find DD silkie with crooked neck. No other previous symptoms. The other chicks and silkie of same age were fine. I thought perhaps that he/she had been injured in some way. It was tucking head under body, falling backwards, the whole gammet. I just knew it was a gonner since it was such a sudden onset. All I could promise DD was that I would try to help the chick. But that she was very ill.

We ran out got the poly vi sol, vit e, and selenium (to help with the absorbtion of the Vit E). I couldn't get my hands on prednisone. It took a week but it has been a complete turnaround so far.

We spoon fed the feed moistened with water to almost a slurry to ensure adequate hydration, scrambled eggs, vitamins. We made sure there was a heat lamp. We noticed that the chick had lost weight.

I went to the feed store for more feed and then realized that the last time I purchased feed that they had given me the WRONG feed. It was for laying hens. (Southern States feed in our area has one bag for all their feed, you have to read the paper label attached at the bottom to make sure you are getting the correct one.) I was so angry at them and at myself for not paying attention when they loaded it for me last time. I don't know if this was the cause or not but I am sure it did not help the situation.

Just continue with the vitamins, eggs, feed. I read it can take some time for a recovery, but it can happen. The chick has perked up tremendously, she would seem to go down hill at the end of the day and first thing in the morning but with some tlc she is improving and slowly getting weight back on (we hope it continues).

Keep your chin up and continue what you are doing, it can take up to 3 weeks I read in some situations.

 

[kyeschicks]

This disorder affects crested birds, like silkie chickens.

I am pretty sure it is due to a brain injury. Silkies have vaulted skulls which means there are places where their brains are not coverd by their skull. If the chicks are eating and one chick pecks a silkie in the wrong spot it causes the brain to swell and puts pressure on the brain at the edges of the skull. And this causes wryneck.

Maybe even after the swelling has subsided there could be brain damage from where the blood was cut off from a section of the brain for a period of time.

but I have read that Prednisone is the best thing for traumatic brain injury.

you can treat him/her with Vitamin B Complex and childrens motrin (until you get Prednisone).

I lost a silkie chicken about 2 months of age. she developed pnemonia.
I had a lot of silkies with this same problem. It seems that the three (out of 50 birds and a few years of breeding) that have come down with this have all been about 2-3 months old.

I treated them with the vitamin B complex and childrens motrin until i got Prednisone but on some it was to late, because they've developed pnemonia, like I said a while ago.

I really hope this helps.

 

[conny63malies]

i guess my little Dumdum had a vaulted skull. He lived to be 5 month. He ran circles fell over but i never noticed the neck thing.
he wasnt the sharpest tool in the shed either. He had hatch problems and was almost dead and just floppy for the first 48 hours.Good luck

 

[ruth]

By the time it reaches this point, neck curved, running in circles, falling over it will seem to get worse before getting better. Keep up the Poly-Vi-Sol which has the necessary B vitamins and continue with the Vitamin E capsule. You may have to help hold its neck straight for it to eat and drink. Or, you could make a little neck brace which I've used before with great results - though they will run backwards and act totally crazy when you first put it on but they will adjust to it and it will keep the muscles in their neck from curving and will allow them to eat/drink. I made one by using one piece of toilet paper and folded it to about 1 inch wide and wrapped that around its neck and taped with a piece of scotch tape. I only wrapped it once and left it a little loose so it doesn't choke them. You can trim off the extra length once you determine how long it needs to be to go around once - then just secure at the seam with a small piece of Scotch tape and you can easily remove the brace if you need by cutting at the seam where the tape is. The tape also helps keep it waterproof so you could go all the way around if you want. I know it's going to look like you're torturing the poor thing and it will run backwards and slam into walls and throw itself on the ground but it will soon learn to get along just fine with its neck brace and the brace will allow the chick to control its movements.

If you watch and notice, most of the flipping and running in circles and going backwards starts when the neck starts to curve. Once the brace is on and the chick gets used to it, the neck can't curve and the "fits" don't happen.

It will take a couple of weeks for it to be good as new but I've seen it work more than once.

Good luck.

 

[pixiechick]

Don't give up yet. The same thing happened with my polish chick last year, and it took at least a week and a half of prying his little beack open for vitamin supplements before I felt cofident that there was any improvement. In the meantime, I felt like I was just traumatizing the poor thing in the last few days of its short life. AT times, I thought it would be more humane to cull him, but I'm so glad that I didn't because he's beautiful and healthy now. He sure does crow a lot though.

 

[maymiegirl]

Try mixing a little puppy formula into his food. Get the kind with colostrum. 4 times a day or more. It works wonders.

 

[alpacachicken]

I saw this forum when I was querying about my silkie acting retarded. How do you know how much muffin and vitamin b to try and is it just a drop of children's vitamins and a drop of vitamin e. I want to use the correct dosage.

 

[alpacachicken]

It is suppose to be how much motrin. My phone likes to do some crazy auto correcting sorry