Treatment for torticolis after predator attack - help please

[A Swede in France]

Hi everyone,

The day before yesterday, Margot our three year old silkie was attacked by what's called a buzzard over here in France. Might be a hawk in American parlance. The gang was free-ranging in the enclosed but sizeable back yard. I was alerted by their calls and came in time to avert the kill, but Margot lost feathers and had a bleeding injury below her ear on one side. Once she stopped bleeding and got over the shock, she seemed alright - eating, drinking, moving. The only slightly of thing was turning her head a bit towards the injured side.

We desinfected the wound (small) and put her inside for the night in a safe nest with food and water. Yesterday morning and seemed fine so I put her in with the rest of them in the run. Then we left for the whole day (planned since before) and came back after dark. I checked on her and she was sleeping in her usual place.

This morning, she didn't come out with the others. I thought she might be laying an egg, and indeed she was - but when I went to check on her I found her in a terrible state, still in the nesting box.

Which brings is to now. I got her out and she's spasming horribly, twisting her neck and turning it 180 and down so her head is basically on the ground in front of her looking up and backwards. Seriously disturbing. When I first brought her up to the house she was super stressed, off balance, spasming incessantly, panting and making a lot of distressed noises. One of the more awful things I've seen in terms of poorly chickens. We moved to a dark room (I imagine open skies are very stressful after a buzzard attack) and gave her metacam (an anti inflammatory) with the hope that it would decrease any pain or swelling. She was very keen on eating so she also had a good meal. My assumption is that the buzzard pecked her head and she's now swelling, having a brain bleed, or such. There's no outward sign of head injury beyond the small wound on her neck. I guess it could also be a spinal injury.

It's now been 30 minutes since she had the metacam and meal. She's back inside in the sickbay and is calmer. No noise, still involuntary head movement but less dramatic - mostly twitching and turning and only the occasional full exorcist move, and standing steady on her feet. I haven't seen her drink but gave her some grapes and bread soaked in water to get at least a little fluid into her.

What can I do to help her? What to watch out for? We've got a small pharmacy at home. No vet today because it's Sunday

Many thanks for any and all advice!

Picture of Margot bleeding after the attack, after getting over the shock and the wound closing.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry that your silkie was attacked. Usually buzzards don’t attack, only eating dead animal remains, but several types of hawks may strike chickens. Vitamin E 400 IU and 1/4 tablet of human vitamin B complex or riboflavin B1 daily may help treat torticolis (wry neck, crook neck.) It is caused by head or neck injury, vitamin E or thiamine deficiency, and is seen in certain viral diseases that affect the brain. I would mix some watery chicken feed and a spoonful of cooked egg for selenium and feed her 2-3 times a day, while holding her. She will need to be kept separated from other chickens for her protection, but I would allow some supervised visits with her flock. It can take days to weeks to see improvement. Hopefully she will recover.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here are 2 videos showing how to feed and water a chicken with torticolis/wry neck:

 

[A Swede in France]

Sorry that your silkie was attacked. Usually buzzards don’t attack, only eating dead animal remains, but several types of hawks may strike chickens. Vitamin E 400 IU and 1/4 tablet of human vitamin B complex or riboflavin B1 daily may help treat torticolis (wry neck, crook neck.) It is caused by head or neck injury, vitamin E or thiamine deficiency, and is seen in certain viral diseases that affect the brain. I would mix some watery chicken feed and a spoonful of cooked egg for selenium and feed her 2-3 times a day, while holding her. She will need to be kept separated from other chickens for her protection, but I would allow some supervised visits with her flock. It can take days to weeks to see improvement. Hopefully she will recover.

Thank you @Eggcessive for sharing your knowledge so generously, as always. Yeah, in the US you call them hawks, in Europe we call them buzzards. It's the same species/family (buteo in Latin). Took me forever to figure out. I think what you in the US call buzzard is actually a type of vulture (so indeed a carrion eater).

I'm glad to hear Margot could recover, that's a relief! I'm sure it's from the attack rather than deficiency but vitamins never hurt so I will make sure to give her extra, as well as egg yolk like you suggest. Luckily she is still able to eat by herself but those videos are very helpful should the situation worsen.