Sudden blindness and head tilting/twitching in old chook

[Featherlight-]

Today I fed my chooks and everyone was fine, running around pecking at their food as they always do,
not long ago got a call saying my old bantam hens head was twitching and she couldn’t walk properly and that she was just sitting on the edge of the water container, go out to check her myself and she has no reaction to me getting close other than popping her head up at the sound of the gate and freaked out when I picked her up (she’s not used to being handled, usually just does her own thing and doesn’t appreciate people getting too close) kinda just dug into me and put her head on my shoulder freaked out when I tried to hold her properly.

Sat her on my lap and checked comb, legs, vent and all that nothing that stood out much other than the wattles being slightly discoloured, they’re usually red but were more of a peachy cream kind of colour closer to the face that wasn’t really noticeable till you looked there specifically, then due to the rather concerning head tilt I checked her eyes, no reaction, it seems she can notice movement just barely if it’s prominent enough but otherwise wasn’t able see.

I put her on the ground to see if she was able to walk and surprisingly she was, she walked around rather cautiously not sure about where she was or where she was going, walked into a platform and got a bit startled like she didn’t know it was there, she did manage to jump up but then walked to the edge, got a bit startled that nothing was there and turned around and started to wipe her beak on the ground till she turned back around tried to do it over the edge and figured out there was nothing there, I was talking to her while she was doing it and she kept moving her head to try and look at me still twitching, so she could atleast hear me and knew where I was at the least.

TLDR
Chook found standing there head twitching unable to walk properly, seems to have suddenly gone blind, unsure of any possible causes other than perhaps a stroke or fall.

(Not good at typing things out and explaining very well without massive paragraphs so I do apologise for the drawn out explanation!)

Edit: The eyes look normal however slightly dilated and unresponsive unless touched it seems. (I didn’t touch the actual eye, just on the eyelid to see if there was any response.)

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Do you have photos of her or a video of her actions? Upload video to youtube and provide a link.

Since she's disoriented, it may be best to cage her. Do provide her with food/water, but you may need to hold food/water to her beak or syringe/tube feed her to ensure she's staying hydrated and fed.

Get some vitamins into her. 400IU Vitamin E and 1/4 tablet B-Complex daily along with a little egg.

Symptoms you describe sound neurological, whether the cause is disease (like Marek's), nutritional/vitamin deficiency, injury/trauma to the head, toxins, molds (moldy feed), etc. it's hard to know.

Do look her over for lice/mites while you are tending to her.

 

[Featherlight-]

Unable to get a video right now unfortunately, will take one asap.
Did get a carrier cage for her as it’s easier to tend to her overnight if needed when she’s inside.

I placed food and water and she does seem to be attempting to eat with terrible accuracy but she will eat anything she manages to get, I still think I might have to end up syringe feeding her as she doesn’t manage to get much even when you put it in front of her face.

I can’t seem to find 400IU vitamin e where I live unfortunately, there does seem to be B Complex tablets though so I’ll look into that best I can.
Then as for egg do I use my other chickens eggs or do I buy eggs from a store incase there is a vitamin deficiency?

I may have to do a full clean out of the pen incase it’s mould as it has been a bit wet lately, will also check her for mites when I try to get a video of her.

 

[Featherlight-]

Her poop is a concerning colour, nothing I see about yellow poop looks very promising.

Then heres her having a walk on the grass.
.1
.2
I tried to get more videos uploaded, one of which showed how she didn’t react to things getting close to her face but they didn’t upload which was a bit annoying.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Can you get photos of her eyes?

Poor girl is disoriented it seems.
Work on hydration. See that her crop is emptying.
Can you get any vitamin E softgels? If so, that would be good.

You're right, yellow poop is not always the best news. See if that improves once she's hydrated and eating some. For egg, you can give from your own flock.

 

[Featherlight-]

Poo seems to have thankfully gone back to a normal colour, I did manage to get her to drink by herself a little when she went for a walk, she definitely wanted to drink just wasn’t sure where the water was.
Will check her crop again soon, had a bit in it when I checked before, she has managed to find the food and eat it in the carrier which is a decent improvement.
Unfortunately can’t seem to find any gummies that are simply vitamin E just multivitamins or capsules, boiling an egg for her now, will see how she goes.

Edit: forgot to add picture of eye, will try to get better one of both when I can.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Her pupil looks dilated.
It's good that she's finding her food in the cage, I'd make sure she's drinking well, you don't want her dehydrated.

I'm not sure if I've ever seen Vitamin E as gummies?
You can find E at stores like Walmart, CVS, etc.

 

[Featherlight-]

She seems to have found the water aswell, I forgot you said softgels and somehow manages to make that into gummies…
For softgels the only ones I can find are 1000iu otherwise there isn’t anything else in softgel that is vitamin E, I don’t live in America so I don’t have access to Walmart and other stores like that unfortunately.

What would not the vitamins do for her overall, would there be any chance of her regaining her sight to what it was, be better coordinated or to help the head movement, or would it simply be to help her overall health?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She seems to have found the water aswell, I forgot you said softgels and somehow manages to make that into gummies…
For softgels the only ones I can find are 1000iu otherwise there isn’t anything else in softgel that is vitamin E, I don’t live in America so I don’t have access to Walmart and other stores like that unfortunately.

What would not the vitamins do for her overall, would there be any chance of her regaining her sight to what it was, be better coordinated or to help the head movement, or would it simply be to help her overall health?

I see.
I'd get the 1000IU then. The softgels contain Vitamin E oil. You can prick the gel coating and squeeze the oil out. If you did this and mixed with something like 2 teaspoons of yogurt or soft food, then that would give you "2 doses" at approx. 500IU (probably a little less). This would be o.k. to give daily for several weeks.

Vitamin E along with B1 (Thiamine) can help with neurological symptoms. The vitamins may help or not depending on the cause. As for the eyesight, I don't know if that can be restored or not.

 

[Featherlight-]

I apologise for the rather late reply, Ive been busy with afew things for awhile.

Put her in a little pen that’s completely enclosed by herself and given her some vitamins, she seems to have figured out how to get up and down to roost at night by herself after gaining confidence in her safety and figuring out where she is.

Seems to be doing a lot better in terms of the constant head movement stress levels ect still a bit twitchy but better than before, eyesight will most likely stay as is with the barely able to see shadows and movement unfortunately.

Again I apologise for taking so long to reply, and thank you for your advice!