Wry neck, how to know if this is a one-way slide?

[aliris]

A second chicken of a flock of four is sick. The first seemed perhaps at first to have a sour or impacted crop; she died. There is a long thread about that. But when I finished attending to her, I realized her best mate in the flock was walking in tight circles. Oh no.

Things have gone downhill I think, but I cannot tell. Yesterday morning she was standing straight upright, head untwisted on her perch - that was the second day. I took her inside to give medicine and food and by the end of that session she was all crumpled up again and it's been sort of downhill since then.

She has not really moved since "breakfast", when I got a lot of food inside of her and she begged for more while awake. But now just conked out for hours. Is this recoverable? Should I awaken her and give more food or just... not?

 

[aliris]

I don't really have a youtube for uploading so will settle for a photo. @azygous and @Eggcessive were really helpful before; thank you.

Reading around there seems to be some indication of mold causing problems. That's not out of the question with all the rain we've had...

In her "sleep" or whatever this is, her head is twitching somewhat. Not enormously, but pronouncedly.

 

[aliris]

She has actually laid two eggs through all of this.

What I've done - fed her 3 400IU pills/day - this is starting on the third day now. On d1 and d2 she consumed a fell scrambled egg+peas+layer feed. As well as other stuff. But on d3 we're on to the second egg, it's mixed with half a crushed multivitamin pill. She's been drinking electrolyte water - loves it. I think a half liter, almost, is gone from over this time, but much of it winds up not inside of her of course. I've also been feeding her "kibbles" I call them - don't know the name, of scratch&peck - it's a formulated layer feed of pellets. They're *great* for getting into her, and I presume they're well-formulated nutritionally so this is a god send. She's had probably a scant 1/4 cup of that over this time frame.

So I don't think she's starving!

But she has to be completely miserable. And if this trajectory isn't going to improve, then....

I will attach a video of her asleep after a big feed. Her head is so floppy I've propped it on the side of a box. This is really quite horrible; I've no idea if I am prolonging pain and suffering pointlessly, or whether this is helping her through a time she'll improve.

I've had the chicks since they were approx 1 week old from a very reputable long-time hardware store in an industrial part of town. I don't remember if they were vaccinated but I presume so; I think that's the point. I was going to phone to check. But I gather vaccination is no certainty they may not develop disease.

Their pen is not closed to small songbirds, of which there are many around. Their feeding is not pristine either, I let them in my yard where there could easily be bad stuff for them to chow.

Her crop isn't gravely and seemed to clear at night.

She's almost 3yo, an Astralorp (sp?).

Any more directives? Thoughts? Instructions? Admonitions? I think the white on her chin is just because I dribbled water while she was eating. She was eager for more and more and more and I stopped at some point. I think I read somewhere that birds slurping an undue amount of water is a sign of something bad. Anyway, it can't be good to swamp her out.

The head movement in her sleep seems neurological as so many have observed. -- I thought it was possible to post video but I'm not seeing how. I'll add when I figure it out.

 

[azygous]

You need to post video to You Tube first, then copy the URL and paste it here.

 

[aliris]

You need to post video to You Tube first, then copy the URL and paste it here.

Is it that important to have the video? She's not actually having those jutters at the moment any longer. fwiw. She's really just quite still, looking like that photo above.

 

[azygous]

Video adds dimension and we often see things not obvious in a still photo.

Mold poisoning produces similar symptoms. Continue with the E. If E doesn't do anything, then we're really heading into a guessing game.

 

[aliris]

Video adds dimension and we often see things not obvious in a still photo.

Mold poisoning produces similar symptoms. Continue with the E. If E doesn't do anything, then we're really heading into a guessing game.

Yikes. I'm worried it is/could be the mold. This one's crop is not nasty like the last, however.... OK, another pill down the hatch now. TY!

 

[azygous]

Along with mold, spring time is also a risky time for botulism toxin under leaf mold. I myself have had two cases of this bacterium in my flock this spring when conditions were just thawing and soil was very damp.

It sounds like your soil could harbor these conditions, as well. Unfortunately, botulism toxin progresses faster than we can figure out what's wrong. Therefore, it would probably be safest if you get this girl started on an antibiotic while we muddle through this. What do you have on hand, including people prescriptions?

 

[aliris]

Hm, I'll go raid the drawers... no antibx bc we use up the course as a rule.

Is there any way to differentiate fungus/bacterium/virus??

I think it's clear there are neurological symptoms. How on earth to know why though??

 

[azygous]

If I was a lab tech and had a microscope and testing stuff, I could see what pathogens are in the blood. A good vet usually has the basic equipment to see if there's a bacterium or if it's fungal. You could ask around if they do basic stuff like that in the office or what it would cost to send a blood sample to a lab.

Botulism bacteria and fungal toxins produce similar symptoms sometimes. What we do is treat the symptoms and see what works and doesn't work and by process of elimination, we arrive at a treatment that works.

Call around to the pet stores and feed stores and ask for fish amoxicillin. That will treat bacteria. If this is bacteria, she will be feeling better after 24 hours after starting the antibiotic.

If this is fungal, protein and frequent feedings can counter the effects. Did you mention you've done a round of Corid? If not, that's another base to cover. It can be given with an antibiotic without harm.