Thank you thank you thank you BYC for advising me what to do with our Eve. Eve is a 3 year bog standard brown hen (called Eve because she was bought as a companion to the last of our original 3 hens). 5 weeks ago Eve went up the perch in full health and the next morning stumbled off it in a confused state as if she was drunk. I searched for "Do chickens have strokes?" and yes they do but her symptoms did not fully match her behaviour. So I searched for "Hens with crooked neck" and WOW I was amazed at the amount of stuff that came up. Eve matched the profile to the letter and I realised she had got it bad. Although it seems it is more common in chicks and Eve is a fully grown laying hen(when she can be bothered), however there was no doubting she had Wry neck all right. I rang the Vet to see if they had anything that I could purchase but sadly they didn't really know what I was talking about. So I decided I was not going to have her put down she is a fighter, her comb looked good and her eyes were bright, so I set about treating her myself with the advise of BYC subscribers. I went to the local animal feed place and bought a multi Vit boost. I diluted this as per instructions and socked bread, cereal and cucumber in the liquid as Eve could not eat or drink by herself. She would do a sort of swiping action to "scoop" up little mouthfuls and then have a little nap before having a bit more. We kept her indoors in the cool with her crooked head resting on a cushion so that she didn't chaffe her head and offered her soggy food whenever she woke. We did this for a week with no real signs of improvement so I decided to take the plunge and try the Vit E capsules. At first I only gave a few drops as I was too scared to give a human doze but the more anxious I got for her the braver I was with the dose and by week 3 I was giving a whole Vit E capsule plus a few drops of dissolved Selelium tablet soaked in bread and washed down with multi bit boost. Very gradually after 4 weeks Eve has regained her neck strength and feeding and drinking herself and looking eagerly for treats such as sunflower seeds.It's now 5 weeks and Eve is doing great. She is still a bit wonky and ever so often she will have a dizzy spell if she looks up at you at the wrong angle (we found we need to be the side of her she is looking at you) she isn't confident on the perch yet so still sleeps in a straw bed on the coop floor, but is so much better than those first few weeks when we really didn't know if she was going to pull through. One sad bit to my story is that Eve has lost her place in the pecking order and is chased quite a bit by Squarky who has usurped her place. Eve is able to run like the best of them and just avoids being near Squarky when there is food to share. So I just wanted to say one more thing really and that is DO NOT GIVE UP, with time, energy and patience your girls can pull through but boy it's exhausting and an emotional roller coaster! Just one thing. Does anyone know how long I should continue with the Vit E I don't want to overdo it but as Eve is still a bit wonky I don't want to stop if she can recover fully?
