Silkie with the tic... What Can I do?

[danicakes]

Hi,
We took our Silkie to the vets yesterday as we thought she had a blocked crop and at the start of the week she started tipping her head back every now and then and rubbing it on her back. To start off with I thought she was trying to scratch the back of her head and noticed a few lice on her, so treated her for the lice with pestine.
The vet gave her plenty of water to flush her crop out and massaged it managing to reduce the swelling and move some of the food stuck in there. She thought that if some of the food was fomented she could possibly be getting drunk from it. And also said that a few different things could be causing 'the tic' which can be a mental issue, from a few different causes. But the fact that she can be snapped out of it when she is walking round the garden, there's a possibility she could recover from it. When she sits down or goes into her nesting box she gets the tic again and starts rubbing her head on her back until we call her or clap our hands to distract her or snap her out of it. It's awful to see her like it and I wondered if anyone knows anything about it or anything we can do to help her or bring her back round.
I can't find much information about it so any suggestions or info would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome to BYC.
Can you post some photos or video of her actions?

It's possible she may have a neurological/developmental/ genetic disorder. Tipping her head back makes me think Wry Neck. You can try
treating her with vitamin E and selenium, which are both in found Poultry Nutri-Drench and Poultry Cell. Dosage is 1ml per every 3 pounds and see if that helps.

Make sure she is eating and drinking well and has a source of poultry grit as well. If she is having crop issues you may want to limit treats that are hard to digest (corn, sunflower seeds, etc.) and stick with wet feed and give extra protein like egg, tuna or mackerel.

WRY NECK
http://www.raising-happy-chickens.com/wry-neck.html
http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/Crookneck/Crookneck.html

WRY NECK VIDEO

https://poultrykeeper.com/blog/diseases-common-to-silkies/

 

[danicakes]

 

[danicakes]

Thankyou so much for the info!! Her crop is much better now and she is still eating and drinking.
I don't think it's wry neck, it's more of a spasm she goes into when she tips tee head back and rubs it from side to side on her back. When she is let out in the day and with the other chickens she seems to be doing abit better although she still has the odd spasm that she sometimes gets herself out of or if we see her doing it we call her and tip her head forward and she snaps out of it. But she a lot worse at night when she goes into roost and spasms a lot.
We're thinking it may be more of a mental issue? Not sure!!
She doesn't seem to be getting worse but she doesn't really seem to be massively improving although she isn't spasming as much in the day

 

[danicakes]

I can't seem to upload a video but I've uploaded a photo and will try to upload more