Wry Neck in Four Day Old Chick?

[MMARC234]

This past Thursday my mom brought home a free chick from TS that has a twisted neck. I didn’t think that he’d survived the night cause he was in rough shape, but I plopped him in the brooder with my 6 day old silkies and made sure he could access food and water without drowning and had a place to hide from everyone. The next morning I looked around for something to help build him up and ordered some nutridrench which came in Saturday.

Started giving everyone in the brooder the directed dose, but I haven’t really noticed any improvement so far, although it has only been two days.

At this point Scolly (short for Scoliosis), is doing better. He‘s able to walk around, eat/drink unassisted, and run for short bursts. He just gets tired faster and is slower to eat/drink, and can’t preen very well on one side of his body. I suppose my question is this: is wry neck the issue here? If it is, am I doing enough to slow its progression? If it isn’t, what could it possibly be?

Thank you everyone.

Note: I managed to get a couple of pictures while he was relaxing under the heat. You can’t quite see how twisted his neck is, but I reckon it’s about 75-90ish degrees to the left. He is able to move it to the other side in short twitches.

 

[azygous]

Nutri-drench is great. Continue with it. But the chick needs large doses of vitamin E 400iu. Open a capsule and sprinkle it over a teaspoon of finely minced boiled egg. Give the E every day until the chick is behaving normally.

If the chick won't eat the egg with the E on it, then increase the amounts and give the E laced egg to all the chicks to eat. That will encourage the sick chick to eat it.

 

[MMARC234]

Nutri-drench is great. Continue with it. But the chick needs large doses of vitamin E 400iu. Open a capsule and sprinkle it over a teaspoon of finely minced boiled egg. Give the E every day until the chick is behaving normally.

If the chick won't eat the egg with the E on it, then increase the amounts and give the E laced egg to all the chicks to eat. That will encourage the sick chick to eat it.

Thank you so much! Any specific brand recommendations or is any brand pretty much okay?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Thank you so much! Any specific brand recommendations or is any brand pretty much okay?

Welcome to BYC!

Something (E) that also contains selenium is suggested by the following articles to help with absorption..

https://www.freedomrangerhatchery.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-wry-neck-in-chickens/

https://cs-tf.com/wry-neck-chicken/

I *might* even consider doing a little physical therapy.. helping the bird to move it's neck all around since this appears to be caused by muscle weakness not stiffness

"Free" never really is.

Hope your chick recovers quickly and thrives with your Silkie babies!

 

[MMARC234]

"Free" never really is.

You’re definitely right about that! But it’s worth it to get him up to snuff again.

I’ll start looking for a brand that has both then. Or just get some selenium separately if I need.

I can’t help but like this guy as someone with a moderate physical disability that also slows them down (cerebral palsy). As long as he’s kicking I’ll help him out as much as I can.

 

[MMARC234]

Update! Zoomed to Walgreens after my Dr. appointment and picked up some vitamin E and selenium.

Question about the selenium: do I grind up the entire tablet and sprinkle over the eggs with the E oil or feed separately?

 

[azygous]

No, no, no. Selenium is potentially toxic in large amounts. All you want is a sliver off one tablet each time you give the E capsule. No more than 26mg at each dose.

 

[MMARC234]

No, no, no. Selenium is potentially toxic in large amounts. All you want is a sliver off one tablet each time you give the E capsule. No more than 26mg at each dose.

Okay great to know! Figured that was a lot to use. I’ll start treatment as soon as the eggs are finished boiling. Thanks!

 

[MMARC234]

Update: No real change yet, but I’m not really surprised considering the issues we’ve been having. I’ve tried mixing the E in minced egg, feeding it in a mash, giving it straight, mixing it with water, and mixing it with Nutridrench, but nothing is appealing apparently. Everyone else is having an absolute ball with the variety, but not Scolly. Maybe I’m missing something?

 

[Eggcessive]

Wry neck symptoms can take a while to go away. Hopefully with all of your care, she will get better.