Silkie with neck problem, *UPDATED*

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

My 12 wk old Silkie Cinnabar started having neck problems Saturday
morning. It started out slightly leaned to the side, but at midnight it's
almost looking upside down. What if anything can we do to help it?
One of my large fowl had a similar problem Christmas eve, but it
massaged out. What could be causing them to all of a sudden have
this happen? Is it from sleeping with their head tucked in their wing
for warmth? Outside of these 2 chickens having this happen, I never
experienced it before.
Please could someone help with this?

Kat M.

I remembered after I logged out last night, the 2 Silkies were clowning around Friday night and I think Blaze might have bobbed Cinnabar in the head. One of them squawked loudly at that time.
I looked up Wry neck/crooked neck in silkies and if I were to follow Alan Stanfords treatment for it how much would I reduce the 2.5 MG of Prednisone to ML for a 3 month old Silkie?

Here is his treatment...
The following is for an adult about 2 pound bird. Scale back for smaller birds.

For the first week I give

Twice a day
2.5 mg of prednisone
400 IU of vitamin E

Once a day
A piece of human vitamin B complex pill or a squirt of human liquid vitamins
Selenium (50 micrograms/day for half size juvenile for 3 days)

For the second week I give

Once a day
2.5 mg of prednisone
400 IU of vitamin E
A piece of human vitamin B complex pill or a squirt of human liquid vitamins

Every other day
Selenium (50 micrograms/day for half size juvenile for 3 days)

For the following weeks I give

Once a day
2.5 mg of prednisone
400 IU of vitamin E
A piece of human vitamin B complex pill or a squirt of human liquid vitamins

Every third day
Selenium (50 micrograms/day for half size juvenile for 3 days)

Do not abruptly stop prednisone, the swelling rebounds, decrease dose
gradually.
Vitamin E recovery can be slow; continue the vitamin E for several weeks at
least.

You can get the prednisone from a vet; just describe the problem of
swelling in
the brain probably due to injury. Yes Silkies' brains do stick out through a
hole on the top of the skull.

You can get the vitamin E, selenium, and vitamin B complex or liquid
vitamins at
any pharmacy.

Thanks Again.

 

[Zoey]

It's probably 'Wry neck' . and the treatment is poultry vitamins in the water for 1 week..

you may hve to separate her, to be sure she is eating and drinking... sometimes this breed is suseptable to this condition, because of their vaulted skull, and or/ being partially bullied away from the feeder ...

 

[my3jsons]

Agree with Zoey... we lost one last year to wry neck. Very sad to watch. Good luck!

 

[BlacksheepCardigans]

Wry neck in vaulted breeds is usually a brain injury, not a vitamin deficiency. So you pump in the vitamins but you're doing it to try to get the swelling down, not because they were deficient.

I think the "best" solution is a combination of supplements and prednisone to bring the brain swelling down, then you gradually wean off the prednisone. If the OP has an avian vet or a friendly vet who will prescribe pred, do it.

I got a Polish over it just recently. It took a month but we did it. She got half a capsule of super-stress B complex (tucked down her throat and then we'd give her a drink to wash it down) and a capsule of salmon oil (punctured and squeezed in her mouth) every day, and we worked hard to eliminate stress. Even picking her up would make it dramatically worse, but if she was quiet and alone she could unbend enough to eat and drink. Remarkably, she never lost condition or her good spirits, though it was awful to watch her flop and flip around whenever she heard a sound or someone approached. She became quite a pet, as you can imagine. When it went away, it went away as fast as it had come; one day we saw that she could walk forward instead of backward, and within a couple of days after that she was barely tilting her head. We moved her downstairs to the transitional brooder for a few days to get her used to lower temperatures again and then she went back out with the flock. She's been doing absolutely beautifully ever since.

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Bumping up...
I added more to OP, Cinnabar is in a pet carrier and eating and drinking fine.
Need help to convert MG to ML tho.

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Well since I wasn't sure how much of the prednisone to give to Cinnabar I gave it only 2 drops. Cinnabar is relaxing, and holding it's head up and looking around. I'm gonna follow the treatment for the duration suggested, and keep Cinnabar in the carrier til it can hold it's head up on it's own while standing. The only stress will be at treatment time, and I'm gonna hope/pray it heals back to normal.
Thank you Zoey, my3jsons, and BlacksheepCardigans for your help.

Kat M.

 

[viktoriacl]

you cant convert mg to ml.
One is a volume(ml) and one is a concentration(mg) amount of drug. There is usually a mg/ml written on a medication bottle/package. If you can find that I can help.

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

It is Veterinary prednisolone 15mg/5ml suspension ML strength. I hope it can be used I only gave Cinnabar 2 drops so far. That was around 12:30pm -1pm.

 

[viktoriacl]

Do you have syringe to draw it up? Steroids have to be dosed very carefully. They need to be weaned off of them to not cause an adrenal crisis. The volume does is going to be less than a ml at that strength. I will have to do the math. If you are giving 2.5mg as the above regimine stated I think it's about 0.5ml. Tiny amount.

 

[Kat's Silly Chickens]

Yes we have a 1 ml dropper that we are using. We only have a half of a bottle, it's for mom's chihuahua. So maybe 5 drops twice a day, for the 1st week. Then 5 drops a day the 2nd and 3rd week, sound ok. Then reduce it less the following time for a week or 2. I've never had to medicate a chicken and was unsure how to go about it.
Thank you for your help,
Kat M.