Rooster Help!

[CheyBarr]

Hello,
I am new to being a chicken owner. I have sought out many different opinions, we do not have an avian vet around us but need some guidance. I have a rooster, about 3 weeks ago he was found to have a wry neck. we moved and isolated asap. I asked a couple of other chicken owners and they recommended vitamins in the water. After running to my local tractor supply and picking up some vitamins to put in water others started posting. they recommended poly vi sol and selenium for him. We had done that for about a week when someone else told us to get vitamin E capsules to add into the mixture. So we did poly vi sol, a pinch of selenium and vitamin E capsule 2x a day. Yesterday we stopped the vitamins because we thought being a small bird we might be giving him to many vitamins. This morning we did the poly vi sol, selenium and vitamin E capsule but I think we might just go to once a day. We thought he was getting better. He does stand up more and his neck is not completely upside down but he sleeps a lot and sleeps with it upside down.

We have found multiple articles on Mareks Disease but looking at the symptoms he only has wry neck. His hair follicles are not raised with lumps and his pupils are still reactive to light and yellow-colored (not grey). He does put his head down after he eats his eggs (we mix his vitamins in with that to get him to eat) he will also still eat pellets. He has been drinking water but not a lot. He puts his beak down into the water then his neck falls down and he swallows upside down. We are on week 3 now. If able I am going to post pictures

Picture 1: was January 28th (3 weeks ago when I first found him and was separating him)
Picture 2 & 3: was on January 31st.
Picture 4: February 5th
Picture 5: February 11th (last night)

** Picture 2 is how he still sleeps. I also wanted to post a video of him and how he shakes his head. I posted it on a chicken Facebook group and they still think it's related to the wry neck.

any help or recommendations would be grateful. Thank you.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. Sorry about your rooster with wry neck or torticolis. Wry neck can be a sign of head or neck injury, vitamin E or B1 thiamine deficiency, and is seen in some diseases that affect the brain, such as Mareks, fowl cholera and others.

He should get 400 IU of vitamin E daily, and a source of thiamine, such as the Polyvisol. You can also use 1/2 a crushed human B complex tablet instead of the polyvisol without iron. Since you are feeding it in egg, you do not need to give the selenium, since egg has plenty, and too much is not good.

Time will tell if he gets better, or if this is a sign of Mareks. Mareks affects young birds in their first year usually. It can be brought in by a carrier bird which can affect older virds. There are 4 types of Mareks symptoms, and most may only see one type. Those are nerve or neural symptoms, such as paralysis of a leg or wing, or wry neck; ocular or eye Mareks, skin lesions, and the occurrence of tumors in organs. Wry neck is seen more often than Mareks. Let’s hope he recovers soon. Here are some of the best articles on Mareks:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/ext...Preventing Mareks Disease in Small Flocks.pdf

 

[diana lim]

I was just reading about the rooster with wry neck. I am also experiencing the same problem with a young hen. She developed the neck thing a couple days ago and is now completely unable to hold her head up She is very thirsty so I am giving her medicated water via syringe. I don't know where to get selenium but I did crush up a 100 mg B vitamin & put 1/4 of that in the water. I wonder how much of any of the medication or vitamin actually gets into her system! I am feeling very sad and powerless right now. I am more hopeful for your rooster as after a week he is still alive! I hope he is recovering. I love my birds so much and I am sure you r going thru the same gamut of emotions that I am. I think I will try feeding her some egg as she isn't eating at all.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I was just reading about the rooster with wry neck. I am also experiencing the same problem with a young hen. She developed the neck thing a couple days ago and is now completely unable to hold her head up She is very thirsty so I am giving her medicated water via syringe. I don't know where to get selenium but I did crush up a 100 mg B vitamin & put 1/4 of that in the water.

@diana lim I'm sorry to hear about your hen. Do you have a thread about her?
You mention that she is very thirsty, how does her crop feel?
Since she seems to be dehydrated, you may want to tube fluids into her to see if that helps.
I would not look for Selenium. You can give her a little egg daily and that will provide plenty. If she's getting poultry feed, that usually also has Selenium added as well.

How old is she? Give her 400IU of Vitamin E daily. The 1/4 tablet of B-Complex should be fine.

 

[CheyBarr]

Welcome to BYC. Sorry about your rooster with wry neck or torticolis. Wry neck can be a sign of head or neck injury, vitamin E or B1 thiamine deficiency, and is seen in some diseases that affect the brain, such as Mareks, fowl cholera and others.

He should get 400 IU of vitamin E daily, and a source of thiamine, such as the Polyvisol. You can also use 1/2 a crushed human B complex tablet instead of the polyvisol without iron. Since you are feeding it in egg, you do not need to give the selenium, since egg has plenty, and too much is not good.

Time will tell if he gets better, or if this is a sign of Mareks. Mareks affects young birds in their first year usually. It can be brought in by a carrier bird which can affect older virds. There are 4 types of Mareks symptoms, and most may only see one type. Those are nerve or neural symptoms, such as paralysis of a leg or wing, or wry neck; ocular or eye Mareks, skin lesions, and the occurrence of tumors in organs. Wry neck is seen more often than Mareks. Let’s hope he recovers soon. Here are some of the best articles on Mareks:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/ext...Preventing Mareks Disease in Small Flocks.pdf

So we stopped giving the selenium, only thing was poly vi sol and vitamin E in eggs. He now has stopped drinking all together, flops around like he loses his balance and ends up on his back, he no longer keeps his head up. Its like hes declining. We are debating culling but this is such a hard decision for me. Any advice? Thank you.

 

[Eggcessive]

Culling him is up to you if you want to get a necropsy and testing for Mareks by your state poultry vet. Since this has been going on for 3 weeks and he is worse and not drinking now, he may not last much longer. Most state vets are open M-F, so I would decide by morning, or wait until Monday if you feel he should be put down. I really hope this is not Mareks, since it can affect other chickens. Here is a list of state poultry vets:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/PoultryLabs.cfm