Treating Wry Neck from Injury

[Al93]

We've got some young chickens who are about 13 weeks old. One of them is a Polish, and her eyes were covered by her feathers so she could hardly see for a while. I wasn't sure how much she was getting to eat or drink. We gave it a go giving her a feather trim and she could see out of one eye as a result, although we had a bit of trouble so it took as a bit of time to get around to finishing the job. I noticed she was cocking her head with her seeing eye to see better I suppose.
This morning mum found laying down looking up with her good eye, also getting pecked by one of the other chickens. I separated her and noticed once she found the water I'd given her she drank quite a bit, although she wasn't so interested in eating. She's spending most of her time with her head to the ground, good eye facing up, and sometimes she gets into a bit of a tiff trying to correct her posture. I googled it and figure it is almost certainly wry neck.
I thought maybe it's vitamin deficiency due to not being able to find the food due to blindness (and she seems a bit smaller than the others) but then the thing with the eye is too much of a coincidence. She can eat, but doesn't seem to have much of an appetite. Most likely I think she's managed to strain her neck from walking around like that all day for a week.
We've cut the feathers covering her other eye. What else can we do to help her recover?

 

[FluffyButtBabies]

Well apart from wry neck, I know Polish chickens are also very prone to concussion. If only one eye was seeing through her feathers, her depth perception was probably off and she ran into something. Because of their feathers, Polish can't see where they're going very well so they have a tendency to run into things. Plus, the crest-shaped skull they have is actually much like a human baby's in the way that it is very soft and sensitive. I had a polish rooster who (even after face-feather clipping) rammed into a wall while walking. For a few days he couldn't walk, eat, or drink. I'm surprised he lived at all. Even after he started eating, his looked drunk when he walked and constantly lot his balance and fell. His behavior changed too, he stopped crowing and became really docile and separated. It actually took him a few months to go back to normal (head injuries take a while to heal). So I don't think your bird got wry neck from vitamin deficiency, I think it was from head injury. In that case, there isn't really all too much you can do other than make sure she can eat and drink, and wait it out.

 

[cooingdove]

Well apart from wry neck, I know Polish chickens are also very prone to concussion. If only one eye was seeing through her feathers, her depth perception was probably off and she ran into something. Because of their feathers, Polish can't see where they're going very well so they have a tendency to run into things. Plus, the crest-shaped skull they have is actually much like a human baby's in the way that it is very soft and sensitive. I had a polish rooster who (even after face-feather clipping) rammed into a wall while walking. For a few days he couldn't walk, eat, or drink. I'm surprised he lived at all. Even after he started eating, his looked drunk when he walked and constantly lot his balance and fell. His behavior changed too, he stopped crowing and became really docile and separated. It actually took him a few months to go back to normal (head injuries take a while to heal). So I don't think your bird got wry neck from vitamin deficiency, I think it was from head injury. In that case, there isn't really all too much you can do other than make sure she can eat and drink, and wait it out.

seems like good advice, hope she makes it through any ideas @WylieChick @Wyandotte Wrangler @WyncoopFlockMom @455662ducks?

 

[Al93]

Thinking about it a bit more, she may have been showing signs of it before we gave her a clip, although I really can't be sure. Either way I suppose injury is most likely. But it was quite sudden, like two days ago she was just tilting her head to see better, then yesterday she was half crippled.

Well apart from wry neck, I know Polish chickens are also very prone to concussion. If only one eye was seeing through her feathers, her depth perception was probably off and she ran into something. Because of their feathers, Polish can't see where they're going very well so they have a tendency to run into things. Plus, the crest-shaped skull they have is actually much like a human baby's in the way that it is very soft and sensitive. I had a polish rooster who (even after face-feather clipping) rammed into a wall while walking. For a few days he couldn't walk, eat, or drink. I'm surprised he lived at all. Even after he started eating, his looked drunk when he walked and constantly lot his balance and fell. His behavior changed too, he stopped crowing and became really docile and separated. It actually took him a few months to go back to normal (head injuries take a while to heal). So I don't think your bird got wry neck from vitamin deficiency, I think it was from head injury. In that case, there isn't really all too much you can do other than make sure she can eat and drink, and wait it out.

One thing that concerns me is the position she holds her head in most of the time looks pretty bad for her and I worry it's going to make it worse leaving her like that. Is it a bad idea to try and correct it? Like maybe gently holding her head in place or massaging her neck, or maybe fashioning some sort of brace?