Sikie chicken wet droopy head

[Sandfly45]

Hi I have an adorable handraised Silkie. Alphy is 3.5weeks old and until yesterday was very normal. He has a vaulted skull and yesterday his head was soaking wet and he was standing with his head between his legs like he was trying to pick his chest feathers. This was the first day I day I didn't have him under a heat lamp all day. So I put him back under the heat and he seemed to come right. This morning his head was wet and droopy again. He has since dried up and is happy again. I've heard vaulted skulls are prone to brain problems... could this wetness be brain fluid? Any help is much appreciated

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

Hi I have an adorable handraised Silkie. Alphy is 3.5weeks old and until yesterday was very normal. He has a vaulted skull and yesterday his head was soaking wet and he was standing with his head between his legs like he was trying to pick his chest feathers. This was the first day I day I didn't have him under a heat lamp all day. So I put him back under the heat and he seemed to come right. This morning his head was wet and droopy again. He has since dried up and is happy again. I've heard vaulted skulls are prone to brain problems... could this wetness be brain fluid? Any help is much appreciated

Any photos of the wetness?
I haven't had experience with head wetness unless from water - like he dipped his head in the water bowl? Any water leaks /drips that could drop on his head? .. If you can immediately dry him if you see he is wet that would be best, chicks that young could get chilled easily so he needs to be kept dry and have warmth available.

 

[Sandfly45]

OK I got a video of him, hopefully it will post OK. His head goes droopy first, then he runs around backwards with his head in between his legs and ends up running his head through the water. Then he comes right and starts picking at bits of food. Epilepsy maybe??

 

[Sandfly45]

Videos won't load so here's photos of him walking backwards upside down

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Post video to YouTube or Vimeo, then copy and paste the link here.

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

Oh wow, backwards!? That doesn't sound good at all!.. Possibly neurological or vitamin deficiency?.. Maybe someone else can chime in here? @Weeg ? @Eggcessive ? Might have suggestions or someone who they can tag? Or other Silkie owners may have had this happen?- @LadiesAndJane @LynnaePB ?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Hi I have an adorable handraised Silkie. Alphy is 3.5weeks old and until yesterday was very normal. He has a vaulted skull and yesterday his head was soaking wet and he was standing with his head between his legs like he was trying to pick his chest feathers. This was the first day I day I didn't have him under a heat lamp all day. So I put him back under the heat and he seemed to come right. This morning his head was wet and droopy again. He has since dried up and is happy again. I've heard vaulted skulls are prone to brain problems... could this wetness be brain fluid? Any help is much appreciated

Poor baby!
Sounds like a possible head injury as you know Silkies with vaulted skulls are more prone to these. Could also be Marek’s disease if he has not been vaccinated, this causes neurological symptoms. But I don’t think it would come on this quickly. Unfortunately I don’t know what more you can do for him except wait it out and see if he recovers. In case it is a neurological issue or a contagious disease, you should separate him from the rest of the flock and maybe give him some Nutradrench or other type of supplement. Sorry I couldn’t be more help. I hope he recovers.

 

[Sandfly45]

Interestingly he seems to be fine now... I have put him back under his normal heat lamp which is a bright light bulb and he hasn't had an episode since (2 hours). His new heat lamp that I installed yesterday is a black one with no light.....I wonder if he is sensitive to dark

 

[LynnaePB]

I'm so sorry your little silkie isn't doing well. From what I can see he is displaying wry neck symptoms. I've seen this exact behavior in many of the silkies I have that get wry neck. It could be from a head injury or it could be a vitamin deficiency. Unfortunately silkies do seem to be prone to both vitamin absorption issues/deficiencies and also head injuries in my experience.

Putting their heads between their legs, walking backwards, and flipping over are all very common when they have wry neck.

I would go ahead and treat him as though it was a vitamin deficiency. Vitamin E and sometimes vitamin B deficiencies can cause wry neck symptoms. He'll also need some selenium to help him absorb the vitamin E. I usually treat wry neck by mixing vitamin E, selenium, and B complex and giving it via a 1 cc syringe. Him being only 3 weeks I'm not sure if he'll be quite big enough to take the syringe well as you'll need to stick it part way down his throat past the tracheal opening to avoid aspiration.

In your position I'd try getting some poultry cell if you can (it's a poultry vitamin you can put in the water, it shouldn't hurt your other chicks to have it too). I'd also get some selenium goat paste and try giving him a pea sized drop a couple times a day. Sunflower seeds are a good natural source of selenium and vitamin E so if you ground some up and sprinkled it on the food that might help as well.

Sometimes the condition is cured easily or goes away on its own. Other times it can be a long process for them to recover and in some cases they may not (I've personally never lost one to this condition though). In the more serious cases they can progress to where they can't eat or drink on their own and have to be tube fed to survive until the treatment takes effect. These serious cases it is not unusual to need to tube feed for a couple weeks and treat with vitamins for around a month or more before symptoms completely subside. Sometimes the ones with the serious cases are just fine afterwards and don't have a recurrence and other times they have recurring episodes.

With young silkies I always like to have something to tube feed on hand along with some kaytee baby bird formula to feed them until they can eat on their own again. I've found size 14 french to be a good feeding tube size for silkies around 5 weeks old to adults (I haven't had one younger than 4-5 weeks needing to be tube fed). For younger silkies I might try something around size 10 although I'm not sure how well the food would go through. Some breeders choose to put down a chick if it can no longer eat on its own and of course this is a valid choice as well. I do not put them down for wry neck (unless they never fully recover and suffer quality of life issues) but I will not use a chick that had wry neck for breeding.

If they are having bouts like your little guy it's a good idea to put them someplace where they don't have access to water to dunk their heads in (I've heard of cases of them drowning since they can't lift their heads up during an episode). If possible he should only have access to water when you can supervise until he has stopped having attacks. Stress will often aggravate the symptoms, expect symptoms may be worse when you have to give him vitamins/handle him.

Good luck, hopefully he has a mild case that he will recover from easily!

 

[Sandfly45]

I'm so sorry your little silkie isn't doing well. From what I can see he is displaying wry neck symptoms. I've seen this exact behavior in many of the silkies I have that get wry neck. It could be from a head injury or it could be a vitamin deficiency. Unfortunately silkies do seem to be prone to both vitamin absorption issues/deficiencies and also head injuries in my experience.

Putting their heads between their legs, walking backwards, and flipping over are all very common when they have wry neck.

I would go ahead and treat him as though it was a vitamin deficiency. Vitamin E and sometimes vitamin B deficiencies can cause wry neck symptoms. He'll also need some selenium to help him absorb the vitamin E. I usually treat wry neck by mixing vitamin E, selenium, and B complex and giving it via a 1 cc syringe. Him being only 3 weeks I'm not sure if he'll be quite big enough to take the syringe well as you'll need to stick it part way down his throat past the tracheal opening to avoid aspiration.

In your position I'd try getting some poultry cell if you can (it's a poultry vitamin you can put in the water, it shouldn't hurt your other chicks to have it too). I'd also get some selenium goat paste and try giving him a pea sized drop a couple times a day. Sunflower seeds are a good natural source of selenium and vitamin E so if you ground some up and sprinkled it on the food that might help as well.

Sometimes the condition is cured easily or goes away on its own. Other times it can be a long process for them to recover and in some cases they may not (I've personally never lost one to this condition though). In the more serious cases they can progress to where they can't eat or drink on their own and have to be tube fed to survive until the treatment takes effect. These serious cases it is not unusual to need to tube feed for a couple weeks and treat with vitamins for around a month or more before symptoms completely subside. Sometimes the ones with the serious cases are just fine afterwards and don't have a recurrence and other times they have recurring episodes.

With young silkies I always like to have something to tube feed on hand along with some kaytee baby bird formula to feed them until they can eat on their own again. I've found size 14 french to be a good feeding tube size for silkies around 5 weeks old to adults (I haven't had one younger than 4-5 weeks needing to be tube fed). For younger silkies I might try something around size 10 although I'm not sure how well the food would go through. Some breeders choose to put down a chick if it can no longer eat on its own and of course this is a valid choice as well. I do not put them down for wry neck (unless they never fully recover and suffer quality of life issues) but I will not use a chick that had wry neck for breeding.

If they are having bouts like your little guy it's a good idea to put them someplace where they don't have access to water to dunk their heads in (I've heard of cases of them drowning since they can't lift their heads up during an episode). If possible he should only have access to water when you can supervise until he has stopped having attacks. Stress will often aggravate the symptoms, expect symptoms may be worse when you have to give him vitamins/handle him.

Good luck, hopefully he has a mild case that he will recover from easily!

Thank you this seems to be exactly what he has. I dont have easy access to vitamins and chicken first aid so I'll take him to the vet tomorrow. He's really uncomfortable now and in the downwards position almost fulltime