Silkie hen keeps twisting her head around

[BravewingTheHen]

Hello. I have a Silkie hen that seems to be constantly twisting her head around kind of like a snake, she tilts her head back a lot too, and she hasn't been eating much. She also has trouble drinking because of her head and seems to tilt it right back and then can't swallow it. I've seen this in one of my other hens a while ago but she ended up dying. Is there anything I can do for her, or anyone who knows what is wrong? There is rats in the barn we keep our chickens in, maybe she ate some rat poo and became sick? I have isolated her in a warm pen (temperatures are below freezing here) with an americauna, and have been putting tetracycline in her water.

 

[Wyandottes7]

It sounds like she may have wry neck. I'd do some research on that, and see if it seems to fit your bird's symptoms. Wry neck is usually caused by a vitamin deficiency, so vitamins are the treatment. Either special poultry vitamins or Poly Vi Sol infant vitamins from a supermarket will work. Keep her isolated from the other chickens and make sure that she is eating and drinking enough. Silkies seem to be especially prone to wry neck and other neurological problems. Hopefully, vitamins will help.

 

[Eggcessive]

Wry neck can also be caused by an injury to the head and diseases such as Mareks, which silkies are prone to. Use the the vitamins--B1, E, and selenium especially--daily for a couple of weeks. Click on these links for more info: http://oureggbasket.blogspot.com/2013/04/wry-neck-or-crook-neck-understanding-it.html
http://extension.unh.edu/resources/files/Resource000791_Rep813.pdf

 

[BravewingTheHen]

Thank you both. Yes, I think it is wry neck. I have some Vitamin E drops I will give her and some special poultry vitamins. She doesn't seem to have Mareks, but I'm still not 100% sure she doesn't. She did have a light fall off the roost a few weeks ago, so she might have hit her head then. But all I can really do now is give her the vitamins and hope she gets better.