Sick chicken jerking her head backwards while pushing her body against the wall

JuliaSunshine

Songster
Apr 3, 2022
235
233
128
West coast Canada
One of 31 week old Light Sussex pullets looks sick since this morning, 7 hours ago. She doesn't move, eat or drink. I tried to feed her water but she couldn't swallow it.
She drooled for awhile and then keeps jerking her head backwards while pushing her body against the wall. There's some poo dried out hanging under her vent but the vent itself looked clean even though it kept pulsing. What could it be? I couldn't feel her crop which means it's empty? She free range with no fence all day.
 
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She looks to be having a neurological problem causing the twitching. It could be seizure activity or something affecting her brain. A head injury, vitamin E deficiency, or disease could be possibilities. Does this activity stop? Could you start giving her some human vitamin E softgels 1 daily into her beak, along with 1/4 tablet of B complex or other chicken vitamin? Is she drinking or eating? Oh I see that she is not. Try holding a cup up to her beak and dipping her beak for a second.
 
Looks like it could be wry neck which, can literally happen overnight due to a vitamin deficiency.
I meant to say this to you as I haven't replied yet but I ended up replying to another person by mistake. So I'm repeating the same thing:
Thank you for your reply. I just want to let you know that now she's doing much better. Her jerking stopped after the first night. I gave her a jelly multivitamin for 2 days as I didn't have anything else and it might have helped. Now she's slowly blending in with other chickens but I keep her in a minimally heated room at night just in case. Unfortunately now she's the bottom of the pecking order. She used to be the second from the bottom lol
 
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I tried to give get water with a tube but she couldn't swallow it. Now she jerks her head so hard it's not easy to hold it still to do anything...
I'm trying to get vitamins now.
She looks to be having a neurological problem causing the twitching. It could be seizure activity or something affecting her brain. A head injury, vitamin E deficiency, or disease could be possibilities. Does this activity stop? Could you start giving her some human vitamin E softgels 1 daily into her beak, along with 1/4 tablet of B complex or other chicken vitamin? Is she drinking or eating? Oh I see that she is not. Try holding a cup up to her beak and dipping her beak for a second.
 

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