Silkie chick ate molded chick treat

[Swbertrand1]

How much vitamin E are you giving her? Is it 400iu? How many times a day? I'm thinking you might want to increase the dosage. And do the vitamins have healthy amounts of B2 and B6? Those are important for repairing nerve connections that could have been damaged by the toxin.

Yes, 400iu twice per day. The Vitamins are via Rooster Booster and she's getting healthy amounts of B2 and B6 from both the granules and the powder mixed with water. I've also added a small amount of B-Complex vitamin crushed in Yogurt-moistened feed and the Rooster Booster.

However, I think I am giving her too much selenium...

I've found this treatment regimen that folks seems to swear by. Have any of you seen this or used it?:

Treatment Regimen:
https://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/Crookneck/Crookneck.html

Where I found the above link:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...nize-updated-with-great-results.382088/page-3

 

[Swbertrand1]

Update 8:45A:

She was up before us, patiently waiting for food. She looks worse this morning, but I think that's because everything in her system had been processed, and she needed a food "re-load". After the dosage of therapeutics described below, she's now (9:30A) outside with her sis doing what they do

Based on the information in the first link in post #31, we're changing her treatment plan slightly by adding the prednisone and backing off some on the Rooster Booster crumbles, giving her a couple of crumbles in each mix therapeutic mix. We're also cutting back on her Selenium intake by about 50%, opting for 25mcg twice per day where we were giving about 50mcg twice per day. Last, we added fresh cooked egg to her therapeutic food in place of the larger amount of Rooster Booster. So, her therapeutic mix looks like this at the start of the day:

About a Chapstick size cap-full of Starter Mash
About a Chapstick size cap-full of fresh Fried Egg
About 1/2 a Chapstick size cap-full of Yogurt (strawberry flavored if you care)
About 1/5 of a B-Complex tablet
About 1/3 of a 5mg Prednisone tablet
Just under 25mcg of Selenium (dropped to once per day)
One (1) 400IU Vitamin-E removed from its gel capsule.

Afternoon treatments are adjusted to remove the Selenium (still have Selenium in the egg she's getting) and reduce the B-Complex.

How we do it:
We mix the Yogurt and Starter Mix together, crush the hard tablets in a mortar/pestle, then mix it in with the egg, adding the Vit.E at the end, mixing it all up until we have a dose about the size of the last joint on a man's index finger, and make sure she eats ALL of this. This morning, I offered her the Starter Crumbles AFTER the dose, and she ate for another 5 minutes, so that was good - still can't get her to drink on her own, so that's a manual operation for now.

Though she looks worse from the head-hanging perspective, she's alert, whistling, chirping, and making all the other little happy sounds that chicks make. We're in this with her for the long haul! We will NOT give up on this chick! She's such a doll and a pleasure to have with us.

NOTE: Something I failed to mention about this chick is her origin. She was hatched at our home on April 03 of this year. We have a Silkie rooster and three (3) eligible hens that give us baby chicks each spring. The Rooster came from one flock, and the hens from another, so we're confident there is no in-breeding, at least in that group of adults' generation. Further, we won't allow two (2) other Silkie hens we have to mate with the Roo because he's their daddy... We ONLY allow eggs to hatch if they come from those hens that aren't his offspring.


Wondering why I have the camera out again this morning...

But eating her Starter Mash after her dosing this morning. Food is just WAY too important to worry about photographers!

 

[Swbertrand1]

Update 9:45P:

Chick had a day that wasn't as good as the last three, but I think that's our fault. We mistakenly assumed she would get the same dose of Selenium from cooked eggs as she would from a tablet - WRONG.

So, though she was out with her sister about the same amount of time today and took the same naps as yesterday, she just didn't look as good today: more neck wringing, head lower generally, but there was an upside. We saw her using her waterer for the first time since this started Tuesday morning! That's a relief to us since we weren't sure that she was drinking at all. She's still eating from her feeder too, so that's good.

After she came in for the night (to the house), she got the cocktail I described in my last post along the Selenium. Within the hour, she was doing better, so lesson learned... I think we've still got a long road ahead of us for this chick, but she's just so happy all the time that we're going to stay behind her and give her everything we can to bring her though this.


Better days shown below:

May 17, sitting on my boyfriend's leg just enjoying the early evening outdoors...

May 22nd, doing her thing

June 2 - just watching us/me as we're getting ready to button the chickens up for the night. She just sat in the door opening watching, talking, and enjoying the night air

 

[Swbertrand1]

Update, Sunday June 27:

Our little girl has not had a good day today. Yesterday was about the same as the preceding days, but she seems more disoriented and aggravated today, possibly due to the hand feeding and watering, but we have to keep her hydrated and nourished.

I'm really stumped as to what to do and for how long. I almost feel like we're overdoing it on the supplements. How much is too much?? How much is enough? How do we tell the difference?

 

[Swbertrand1]

Update: Monday, June 28:

Baby got about a dozen live mealworms mixed in with her morning dosage of Starter Feed, Yogurt , Selenium (25mcg), and Vitamin-E (400 IU), then a few dropper shots of water.

Then, it was off to the run to be with her sister. Though her head is canted heavily to the right, almost horizontal, and she often drops it to the ground, she spends as much time with it up to about the 10:30 position (as you face her) and moving around doing all the things she normally did before this Wry Neck stuff started. Other times, however, it's on the ground, upside down with her seeming VERY disoriented... This is so frustrating! :-(

I've been researching, extensively, the nutritional requirements for chickens, and I keep coming across Choline (Vit-B4). I find that in NONE of the supplements I have for her. Does anyone know how critical this is, or if it's obtained through other things in most Starter Feed and Supplement?

Here is a quote from one of many sources I've been researching over the last 24 hours regarding what Choline does:
Other major functions of choline chloride are building and maintaining cell structures, the formation of acetylcholine (essential), and being a methyl-group donor (non-essential) via betaine. Moreover, choline chloride also helps in the formation of an excitatory neurotransmitter-acetylcholine, which is accountable for the proper functioning of the nervous system.

That last sentence stands our like a thunderbolt to me! Does it for you as well??

 

[Swbertrand1]

Nobody has ANY information on Choline??

 

[Swbertrand1]

How much vitamin E are you giving her? Is it 400iu? How many times a day? I'm thinking you might want to increase the dosage. And do the vitamins have healthy amounts of B2 and B6? Those are important for repairing nerve connections that could have been damaged by the toxin.

I have a question about 400IU Vit-E. Could she take three of these per day at 7AM, 3PM, and 11PM? She's doing well after each dose, but 8AM and 8PM are so far apart that she slides backward before the next dose.
I sense that she is getting better; I hope it's not wishful thinking.
Thank you!

 

[azygous]

For a few days, it won't hurt. It can accumulate in the fatty tissues and could cause blood thinning over longer periods. The first sign of too much E is diarrhea, so that would be your signal to stop giving it.

 

[Swbertrand1]

For a few days, it won't hurt. It can accumulate in the fatty tissues and could cause blood thinning over longer periods. The first sign of too much E is diarrhea, so that would be your signal to stop giving it.

How many is a few?? I was considering lowering the dosage of Vit-E to go to 3-a-day therapeutic treatments. She does VERY well in the morning after her 8AM dose, but as the day wears on, she backslides.

So far, her poo is perfect, the right color, the right consistency, just a little moisture. Heck, I can pick them up, drop them in the can, and I don't even have any real residue on my fingers. She's maintaining her weight at 1.25# since this ordeal began too. She looks healthy, acts healthy (in the morning), but the wry neck is ever present.

Thank you for your input. I'm going to start her on the 3-a-day treatments and use about 66% of each of her doses and see if we can't make her response more level. I'll keep a close eye out for "the runs" and monitor her closely...

 

[azygous]

Give her the three doses a day, and just watch for the change in her poop from normal to greasy diarrhea. If that happens, then you'll need to stop.

But she should respond to the E before she gets to that point.