UPDATE!! Silkie going crazy?? NOT CRAZY!!

[sadies chicks]

My 4 month old silkie "Lola" is showing some strange behaviour. Lately she has been keeping her head down, shaking it back and forth and shuffling backwards all at the same time. I am not sure if this is a "hen" behavior and I am scared to think it is a "rooster" behavior??

I am going to trim her feathers around her eyes tonight, I wonder if she is having trouble seeing now that her head feathers are a bit longer.

Has anyone else seen this and has some input?

thanks!!

 

[ThinkingChickens]

Could be a rooster, could be gapeworm, or could be nothing at all. Have you check her poop? Is she gaping at all or making any strange noises?

 

[sadies chicks]

Quote:
Can you explain gaping? She has always done a little sneeze honk sound, but all of the silkies did that (I recently got rid of her two brothers) and their poop has always looked normal and from what I can tell they have been healthy. I will look again when I get home though...

 

[ThinkingChickens]

Mouth open, gasping for air, gurgling sound in her throat or weird flemmy noises. It's hard for me to say from personal experience because this is just what I've read. However, if you go to diseases you can read about it. You can always do a course of dewormer if this is occurring more and more. Of course, this could be a silkie thing in which case I wouldn't know as i only have standards. Don't want you to worry too hard because I'm not an expert!

 

[sadies chicks]

Ok thanks!! I have trimmed her face feathers (into a rockin' mohawk) to see if that will help. I am about to go back out to "observe" for a while to see if I can notice anything and to inspect poop. I have researched gapeworm and I am not convinced that is what is going on...but time will tell I suppose.

thanks again!

 

[franklinstreetwest]

I've got wry-neck on the brain, cuz I've just been through it with one of my birds about the same age. You might check it out to compare to her behavior.

 

[sadies chicks]

So I cut back the feathers around her face and the head shaking stopped! The poor girl couldn't see!! I did check for gapeworm and found nothing (but maybe a new respect for the inside of a chicken mouth!!

)

THANKS EVERYONE!