Something strange is happening with my hen… Updates with video’s attached. Any help and suggestions needed!

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Very interesting case, indeed!

Did she have an accident recently? Do or did you have a rooster in your flock? If so, he might have tugged her head the wrong way while mating, thus displacing her neck/cervical vertebras (first and second = atlas and axis) which would cause pressure on one ear and loss of equilibrium when positioning the head in a certain angle as often done when deeply asleep.

In the video where she is looking down an at the same time twisting her head/beak to the left to scratch behind her right ear, she starts to lose equilibrium when reaching a certain angle.

Just to rule this out: When did you lat deworm her?

I don’t or didn’t have a rooster in my flock… but I did have her in the broody breaker cage with another broody hen. They were mad about being in there and pacing/jumping. They had to stay two days before being broken of their broodiness. It’s possible she could’ve gotten trampled while they were both pacing or she could’ve hit her head wrong at the top of the cage because she tried to see if she could jump out. This neck issue did start the first night she was back in the coop after being broody broken…
The flock got dewormed 2 months ago!

 

[LaFleche]

Supplementing her with vitamin E and B complex will help in case of deficiency and also with regenerating possible nerve damage.

Sadly, I don't know of any vet or even avian vet willing or able to perform ostheopathy on a chicken, so time will tell if she recovers.
But until then I think it best to not let her sleep on the perch and even put a rolled up towel or similar underneath her head at night to prevent it sagging down to the triggering angle.

 

[LaFleche]

but I did have her in the broody breaker cage with another broody hen. They were mad about being in there and pacing/jumping. They had to stay two days before being broken of their broodiness. It’s possible she could’ve gotten trampled while they were both pacing or she could’ve hit her head wrong at the top of the cage because she tried to see if she could jump out. This neck issue did start the first night she was back in the coop after being broody broken…

Yes, this might well have been the cause as they are reckless in their attempt to get out and back on their nest.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

Supplementing her with vitamin E and B complex will help in case of deficiency and also with regenerating possible nerve damage.

Sadly, I don't know of any vet or even avian vet willing or able to perform ostheopathy on a chicken, so time will tell if she recovers.
But until then I think it best to not let her sleep on the perch and even put a rolled up towel or similar underneath her head at night to prevent it sagging down to the triggering angle.

I’m definitely going to be picking up some bottles of vitamin E and B complex. It’s nice to know that they can both help a potential deficiency and regenerate any possible nerve damage. She’s absolutely not going to be sleeping on the perch at night, I don’t want her to break her neck by falling. I’m going to take her off before I close up the coop and let her sleep on the floor until I notice some (hopefully) progress.

Yes, this might well have been the cause as they are reckless in their attempt to get out and back on their nest.

The timing totally makes sense. Before, she was always on the roost in the morning and waited a bit before the crowd got out of the coop. The night she went to sleep in there again after being in the broody breaker is when I saw her fall off and have the fit. I thought she was mad someone was in her spot and she fell weird while trying to push them. I thought the flapping was because she was shocked that she fell off, that episode didn’t last nearly as long as the one that I recorded. After that I always noticed she was on the floor of the coop when I went to let them out in the morning… didn’t actually catch her having an episode until the night before last night.

 

[LaFleche]

As she has already suffered these fits even while sitting on the coop floor, maybe put her in a carrier at night with the rolled up towel underneath her head/beak to be safer.

Her beak injury looks as if she was scratching it alongside the metal of a fence or feeder or metal cage.

I hope she will make a full recovery.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

As she has already suffered these fits even while sitting on the coop floor, maybe put her in a carrier at night with the rolled up towel underneath her head/beak to be safer.

Her beak injury looks as if she was scratching it alongside the metal of a fence or feeder or metal cage.

I hope she will make a full recovery.

I can try that!
That beak injury was actually probably from the broody cage (it’s hardware cloth). I noticed the hen that was with her has the same one just less noticeable.
Thank you! I hope she will too. I’m picking up the vitamins at the store tomorrow and will start the vitamin treatment right away. I’m going to continue giving updates as well.

 

[Shadrach]

I read through your thread for a second time and their situations are very similar but I also see some differences. Percy only did it a couple of times throughout the night and slept in a completely normal position for the rest of the night. She was on the roost sleeping like normal for about an hour and a half before she fell off in the first video, which is very odd. I corrected how long she's been doing this, which is around 2.5 weeks (I originally thought it's already been 3-4 but I looked at my run camera sd card and saw she was in the broody breaker 2.5 weeks ago). So far this morning she came out of the coop like normal, acting as if nothing happened last night. She's been scratching around, eating and drinking all morning. Right now I'm still researching and weighing all of the possible options it could be. Hopefully it does turn out to be some weird phenomenon like your hen had and she'll overcome it by herself. I may try the vitamin E and B because it can't hurt to try. I'm going to be moving her off of the perch and onto the floor at night so she won't end up hurting herself or breaking her neck by falling off of the perch. I'm hoping it's not something like Mareks, she's not vaccinated for that.

I hope you will keep posting. This is really important information and you've got some great video to back the observations up. It's important because it tells us something about a topic we do in general know very little about and that's broody hen behaviour. Unfortunately we haven't progressed much from believing it's an on and off switch confined to a twentyfiveish day period; something I have never believed from my own observations.

 

[Shadrach]

I’m definitely going to be picking up some bottles of vitamin E and B complex. It’s nice to know that they can both help a potential deficiency and regenerate any possible nerve damage. She’s absolutely not going to be sleeping on the perch at night, I don’t want her to break her neck by falling. I’m going to take her off before I close up the coop and let her sleep on the floor until I notice some (hopefully) progress.


The timing totally makes sense. Before, she was always on the roost in the morning and waited a bit before the crowd got out of the coop. The night she went to sleep in there again after being in the broody breaker is when I saw her fall off and have the fit. I thought she was mad someone was in her spot and she fell weird while trying to push them. I thought the flapping was because she was shocked that she fell off, that episode didn’t last nearly as long as the one that I recorded. After that I always noticed she was on the floor of the coop when I went to let them out in the morning… didn’t actually catch her having an episode until the night before last night.

I would place a very large bet that this has absolutley nothing to do with an injury recieved while she was in the broody breaker. Bracket didn't go into a broody breaker. The similarities in behavoiur are so similar that despite the differences in keeping arrangements I'm not buying different causes.

 

[Shadrach]

This is what I used at night. I placed her in the corner and it seemed to work.

 

[CaliforniaMountainChicks]

UPDATE: I’m just updating that I’m going to be picking up vitamins E and B complex tomorrow and starting Percy on those straight away. Right now I’m planning to give it to her daily for 2 months, and hopefully there might be some progress if the cause is a deficiency or neck vertebrae trauma. I’m also not allowing her to sleep on the roosting bar that way she won’t fall and break her neck. I’m leaving the camera in the coop again tonight so I can see how often she tosses her head back with those odd movements while she’s sleeping on the floor. I’m going to continue posting updates about her throughout this process and hopefully we’ll be eventually celebrating her recovery.

Here she is today, enjoying a dust bath like a completely normal hen. She also laid a perfect egg today. I actually looked at the camera while she was laying her egg and she didn’t do any of the odd head movements then.