silkie is twisting over backwards and upside down, udate Please help:(

[tiki244]

http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/Crookneck/Crookneck.html

here it is good luck

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

I just had to put down one of my best birds because of this. Treatment is largely a guessing game that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Vit E and Selenium are the most common treatments for this condition.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Had a silkie that had this problem. It lasted about 2 days and I isolated the chick in a dog carrier.

She is running about the barn a happy little bird.

 

[tiki244]

It is sad,,,I had the same problem and if I would have known about that treatment then, or what it was I could have at least given it a try.

 

[patyrdz]

Wow, I have a Salmon Favorelle that was doing the same thing! I thought at first that the big rooster hurt him (he might have). This was about two weeks ago, and he would have "episodes" where he would tuck his head between his legs and stumble backwards until he fell. The rest of the time he just layed with his head tucked. Now he is walking around and only has a slight kink in his neck. He still stays in with the little chicks (by his choice) sometimes he will come out. I am learning sooo much here!

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Quote:
Dont beat yourself up over it. I DID try it, and it still didn't work. Wry neck, in my opinion, is most definitely a crap shoot. Sometimes you get lucky, and other times the odds are against you.

In my case, the hen suffered for a week, and was then getting better. After a week of what seemed like recovery, she relapsed and it was even worse than the first time. It was so bad that anytime she tried to move, she would cut flips. I couldn't stand to watch her suffer like that, and treatment wasn't working, so I had to put her down.

 

[MarlaKaye]

Hey everyone,

Not only is Susie sitting up and taking nurishment, she is holding her head up by herself, most of the time.

I am appreciating every post here. You have all been so helpful.
I am learning so much through this experience. I wish I could write it all down, but will give you a few hilights.

I went to a sight that showed skulls of silkies, recommended by one of you dear people, and apparently the top part of a silkies skull is as though it were cut off, and there is a mere thin bone, like a wire across the top middle from back to forhead. I wonder what that bubble is like that is mentioned here. Can't be right to have brain right against skin tissue....hmmmmm

And then I ask myself if the ones who don't have the crest,
have skulls formed in the same manner. Perhaps the non-crested silkie's skull just doesn't stick up as high. Are they also subject to brain injury. I know what brain injury can do, it is a horrible thing and this seems to me to be an issue to take up with those who deal with Silkie breeding. WE owe it to the species to at least look into it. Can I get an "Amen". Who do I talk to?

Well at least it is a fascinating quirk in design, and it is seemingly created by man as a pet, so this leads me to ponder the questions of species and difirsification a great deal.

I don't know if I told you that Susie is one that would have been culled from the first if I were capable of it. She has a bum foot, curled toes. I put her in special boots for the longest time, but they are still curled. She uses them for balance, and doesn't seem to have much feeling in them. She gets around well, but probably won't be able to roost. I decided that for long as she is able to be with us and be happy, we will just enjoy her.

For now she has a sling made from a cloth napkin held with a clothespin over the edge of the 20 inch plexiglass side of the brooder.
Her birthmate is Sophie, and she has been nearly beating HER head against the plexiglass trying to get to Susie. with Susie snuggled inside her sling, they are happy for now. By the way, the sling supports here better and makes it easier for her to untwist her head.

This way Susie can be with her birth-mate Sophie, while the seramas can't reach her to bother her should they take such a notion.
Weather is warming and I am looking forward to them being able to be outside. DH Craig is building quite the park for all our sweet minatures, and housing too. So much yet to be seen.
More updates tommorrow, and if you have any ideas about names for Susie or Sophie should one of them turn out to be a roo, I'm all ears.
Any of you who have prayed for Susie, God Bless You! I OFten find myself whispering a prayer for someone's beloved pet.
All my best,
MarlaKaye

 

[luvarabhorses]

Is there any chance that there is a similiar malady where the bird is off balance, stumbles around, mostly lies around, twists neck strangely? I had an adult hen last year come down with this, I put her on doxycycline and she fully recovered. I've had other chickens get it, tried different things and this is the first one that totally recovered. I don't think it was Mareks, she was older and had been outside since birth, exposed to everything.

 

[MarlaKaye]

Lisa,
Yes, it sounds like the same thing to me. I think the problem in identifying these things is that when we see them if we haven't read about it before we have to come up with terms to describe the illness and symptoms.

It reminds me of the tv mysterys when the officer interviews several witnesses of the same occurence and gets several discriptions.

I think that when I first presented this ordeal the other day, I called it twisted neck. Thank God someone came up with Wry neck for a term right away. That quickened my search.

My Hubbie was researching this at the same time I was, by computer and apparently we read many of the same articles.

Not realizing this, we still had differant perspectives and were coming at the question in a differant manner, with prejudices of thought, thusly in conversation we used differant terms and spent a great deal of time trying to make our point, not realizing we were saying the same thing and in agreement at the conclusion of each point. Such conversations are exhausting and exasperating.

I wouldn't want a chick to have to go through this for me to gain this experience, but I am glad for what I am learning, even about myself. LOL

I need to slow down and let him talk, just so he has the benifit of talking even if it is something I already know and I am anxious to make my own point and he needs to be patient and allow me to conclude my entire thought, so he doesn't jump to contusions.

I will post again and tell you all how Susie is doing this morning. It is good news.
Regards all and Lisa
MarlaKaye

 

[chicklady63]

I had this happen with my silkie roo, Colonel Sanders, when he was a young cockerel about 6 mths old. He would do the backflips, shaky-head, twisted-neck thing mentioned in several other descriptions here. (Terrifying to a new chicken keeper).
A long-time silkie breeder said that a vitamin B deficiency can cause these symptoms & the crested breeds were prone to it. I started adding this to his water (which I was dropper feeding him at the time) & he revived & never had another bout as long as I kept a vitamin supplement in his drinking water. He lived to be almost 10 yrs. old.
I think your girl will probably be okay.
P.S. FYI I use the "Durvet" brand Vitamin & Electrolyte water soluable premix. There are others just as good I'm sure.