Silkie thread!

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I have had a small flock for the past 4 years. I have RIR, Leghorns, Wyandottes (silver laced ), Minorcas and Speckled Sussex. I have learned sooooo much about chickens through mine and all of you, thank you for sharing. The Silkies are just amazing to me and fascinate me to no end. Can someone tell me, is there standard silkies or are they all bantams???
Thank you all again for sharing info and pics, they 're so fun.
 
Silkies are on the larger scale of bantams, but they are bantams. I've had no success with my silkies mixed with standards, they get beat up... but some people have several silkies with standards and have better luck with multiple birds. They seem to keep to their own though.
 
Hi all. I have a silkie chick a few mos old that I at first though had wry neck but now I think might have had a head injury. I didnt see anything happen and he was in the brooder so the only thing that could of happened to him is one of the others pecked him in the head or something. Anyhow for 2 days he had his head between his legs and pretty much stayed that way. I tried to get him to eat and drink but he hardly would at all he just kept putting his head back down. The third day I could tell he lost alot of wieght and I was thinking of putting him down. I tried giving him vitamins etc like the wry neck threads say to. Today is the 4th day and he seems to have come out of it. He is preening himself and eating and drinking. I am wondering if it was a head injury and he had swelling on his brain and it is now resolving...??? Is this common with silkies?
I am so happy he is feeling better.
 
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YES he had a head injury! Chickens with wry neck is very rare! Rabbits are more prone to it. Wry neck causes an inner ear imbalance thus causing the critter to turn the head SIDEWAYS for balance. The animal will eventually start rolling sideways, like a dog rolling over. It progresses, over days. Not overnight!I have had a rabbit that had this, and was treated, leaving a permanent tilt showing the effects of wry neck. Silkies with head injuries, tuck there heads under their butts, they can go so far as doing forward rolls. The main thing is help the get water, and eat. The brain will start to heal, in really bad cases, they down recover. If it makes you feel better you can treat with vitamins. But I never do & they get better on their own. The worst cases, will when older & recovered, can show signs by doing the bobble head shaking, when under stress, like at a show. You can walk down the rows at a show & pick out the birds that have had head injuries. The worst one I had would start to bobble after the second day at the shows, she won tons even BV at the ohio national, but by the time to coop out, she would start to shake her head alot. So was retired to the breeding pen, and have never had a problem since. So I guess the jist of what I am saying is, if you have silkies, expect head injuries often, especially as chicks, just help them out with food & water, and they will 95% of the time recover on their own. Good luck with your little one, if she isgetting better within two days, she will probably never show signs of hurting herself. I came home from a show one day, found a 2 yr old cock, with his head tucked & flopping about. I took him, and put him by himself. tried to feed & water him, he wasn't doing good, so after a week, decided to put him down, went into the bard, and found him out of his box. He jumped out, not able to walk well, mostly flopping on his side. So threw some feed down on the ground, and he was better the next day. Well 2 days later he was perfectly fine. Had his head tucked a bit, but went out with the girls and is happily showing no signs. He also had hit his head, but if someone who didn't know silkies saw him, they would have thought he had some sort of terrible illness.
 
Hi, thank you for your reply. I do believe that it was a head injury the poor little guy. He is alot better today even drinking totally on his own. He still will go into the tucked position but if I talk to him he comes out of it on his own and stays out of it for alot longer than he did before. He was sleeping with his head tucked under his wing last night instead of under his body. He is still separated from the others right now. So when should I put him back with the others?
I dont want him to go into his tucked wierd postion and then get stepped on again LOL. I have him next to the other silkies so he can hear them and pick him up and let him see them so he won't be so lonely. Thanks again for your help.
 
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Once he stops "tucking" his head, wait a few days. Then put him in, watch the reaction, if he starts to stress, tucking or showing other signs, take him out. Wait a few more days, then retry. When he can go back in, and show no reaction, as if he never had the injury, he will have healed the nerve endings and should be fine. This is how I do with mine.
 
Head tucks. I still have a girl who was nailed as a young pullet, she is now six years old. Her name is Head Tuck because she still tucks from time to time.

She was treated with Prednisone after it first happened. Her recovery was amazing in just 24 hrs on the pred. She still has issues, like last night. Most of the time I've found its a problem with the feed. Maybe its too old and many of the nutrients are leached from the feed. Maybe she's just one of those that needs the absolute freshest food. I feed her a more nutritious food for a few days and she straightens back out.
 

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