I have seen the wet looking neck problem that you are describing. I think it is a symptom of infection. I had a bird that had an eye infection and she has the wet neck appearance that you are describing. I think it's just the chicken is greasy/oily as a result of fighting the infection, if it progresses you will probably start to notice an odor as well. We are currently treating a chicken with an eye infection with Terramycin eye ointment and are seeing positive results. Don't be too upset, these things happen and your probably not doing anything wrong. I hope you figure out what the cause of the illness is. With the first sick chicken we had (again with the eye infection) we used we terramycin but it didn't work and then we used an injectable antibiotic and it seemed to work but once we stopped, the infection returned. We then tried Sulmet and did not have great results. I think she was too far gone. At that point we decided to stop treatment becaues we felt like we were battling the inevitable and sure enough she died. So sad, she was the sweetest bird. With this chicken we are just going to use the Terramycin and hope it continues to work. Just like humans, some chickens are just more able to fight off infections. It can't be great to use all those antibiotics bc eventually, whatever your fighting may become resistant. Based on that, we have made the decision that if the eye ointment doesn't work we will not pursue using the injectable. I do have a friend that had very positive results with Sulmet after one of her chickens was injured by a dog. I think the other poster may be onto something with the worming comment. Good luck and don't be hard on yourself! I've bet you've gotten sick plenty of times and it wasn't anything you were doing wrong, sometimes these things just happen.
