Wry neck help

[Jowright]

Hello,

My one year old hen has developed symptoms of wry neck. This came on not long after her first molt this fall. After some research and advice from our local feed store, I went with giving a selenium and vitamin e gel and nystatin for a possible fungal infection. I am on day 8 of twice a day dose of the vitamin supplement and day 4 of the anti-fungal treatment and she seems to be getting worse- More frequent neck twists that last longer and inhibit her ability to act like a regular chicken, including inhibiting eating and drinking normally.

Is there something else this could be or that I should be doing?

I’ve added a picture of what her neck twists are looking like.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Jowright]

Hello,

My one year old hen has developed symptoms of wry neck. This came on not long after her first molt this fall. After some research and advice from our local feed store, I went with giving a selenium and vitamin e gel and nystatin for a possible fungal infection. I am on day 8 of twice a day dose of the vitamin supplement and day 4 of the anti-fungal treatment and she seems to be getting worse- More frequent neck twists that last longer and inhibit her ability to act like a regular chicken, including inhibiting eating and drinking normally.

Is there something else this could be or that I should be doing?

I’ve added a picture of what her neck twists are looking like.

Thanks for any advice!

I should add that we have 4 hens, the other 3 seem to be very well. They eat an organic layer feed with access to clean water that is refreshed daily with intermittent use of apple cider vingegar. They also have access to grit and oyster shells alongside food and water in their enclosed run. I use pine shaving for bedding which I normally clean out poops daily but have just begun deep litter for winter inside the coop. The enclosed run is a mix of sand and dirt that I poop scoop daily and rake and refresh weekly for general maintenance and because the run part can get rather wet after rain.

 

[Debbie292d]

Oh poor thing. I almost think this goes beyond wry neck and may be neurological. I would be giving her vitamin water that has B complex in it, or give that separately. I've never seen such a thing so drastic and pitiful, so I'll tag someone I'm quite certain can help more. @Wyorp Rock

 

[Jowright]

Oh poor thing. I almost think this goes beyond wry neck and may be neurological. I would be giving her vitamin water that has B complex in it, or give that separately. I've never seen such a thing so drastic and pitiful, so I'll tag someone I'm quite certain can help more. @Wyorp Rock

Thanks Debbie. I was beginning to think about vitamin B complex and just ordered some tablets that should arrive tomorrow. It is hard to see her getting more frequent and seemingly worse twists.

 

[Debbie292d]

Thanks Debbie. I was beginning to think about vitamin B complex and just ordered some tablets that should arrive tomorrow. It is hard to see her getting more frequent and seemingly worse twists.

I can imagine.

I'll get this bumped up as @Wyorp Rock or someone has to have more ideas about what's wrong with her.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

After some research and advice from our local feed store, I went with giving a selenium and vitamin e gel and nystatin for a possible fungal infection. I am on day 8 of twice a day dose of the vitamin supplement and day 4 of the anti-fungal treatment and she seems to be getting worse- More frequent neck twists that last longer and inhibit her ability to act like a regular chicken, including inhibiting eating and drinking normally.

Looks like Wry Neck which is a neurological symptom. Some common causes of Wry Neck are Marek's disease, trauma and vitamin deficiency.

I would try vitamin therapy.


Go to your Walmart, CVS, etc. and buy a bottle of Vitamin E (400IU) and B-Complex. Give her 1 vitamin E pill and 1/4 tablet B-Complex daily for a couple of weeks. Offer him a treat of egg or tuna to help with the uptake of E.

I would not use Goat Vitamin E and Selenium.
You would have to give 4ml to get 400IU Vitamin E and that would put you at 46.4mcg of Selnium which is way too high of a dose. Max Selenium dose is 25mcg for poultry, but it can be toxic in large quantities. Vitamin B1 is also a support vitamin for neurological issues and the goat vitamin does not contain that, so you would need to buy vitamins anyway.

 

[Jowright]

Thank you so much, Wyorp Rock and Debbie!! I will start the B complex vitamin today and take your advice about the E vitamin as well. I’ll let you know how she’s doing after some more time!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you so much, Wyorp Rock and Debbie!! I will start the B complex vitamin today and take your advice about the E vitamin as well. I’ll let you know how she’s doing after some more time!

I hope she recovers, please do keep us posted.