Wry neck in guinea fowl, thank you!

[WayOutThere]

2 days ago around noon I noticed my only lavender hen 9 weeks old) standing off to the side of the flock with her head drooping and my heart immediately sank. I have seen that 3 times before and 2 out of 3 times it resulted in a dead bird by the next day. I watched her for a couple of hours and started to get confused because her neck started to kink up, like it was broken. This was different, I thought maybe the only adult guinea I had injured her because she is the only lavender and gets more than her fair share of bullying from him. Even sadder at that point, then another hour later her neck was twisted with her head pointing up from ground level, more confusion, time to research what is going on. Lo and behold my search for "broken neck guinea" lead me here where I quickly learned about wry neck, vitamin E, B, poly vi sol and generally making sure the bird eats and drinks enough. I went to town and tried to round up all these things and came back with vitamins E, D, some syringes and a few packs of an electrolyte/vitamin mixture called Sav-A-Chick that you mix with water in hot weather supposedly. I couldn't locate any poly vi sol without iron so these would have to do. I came back and started preparing my syringes with food, vitamins and made a gallon of the sav a chick for her to drink. By the time I was ready to give this to her she couldn't lift her head at all, I had to support her neck while she ineffectually tried to eat softened food. She couldn't get her mouth to work right but she tried. I have up trying to feed her and focused on getting her vitamins and water. She didn't do great at that either but she managed to get some of that in her and she was done, exhausted. I let her rest for a couple hours and went back to try again. She was better and managed to eat a little food and had some control over her head but still needed my help. Fast forward to next day and she had recovered so fast that she is now completely normal and back with the flock.
Thank you all for these threads, you helped me save her from certain death.

 

[WayOutThere]

@WayOutThere - how are your guinras doing?

They are doing well, haven't had any issues with them since.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

2 days ago around noon I noticed my only lavender hen 9 weeks old) standing off to the side of the flock with her head drooping and my heart immediately sank. I have seen that 3 times before and 2 out of 3 times it resulted in a dead bird by the next day. I watched her for a couple of hours and started to get confused because her neck started to kink up, like it was broken. This was different, I thought maybe the only adult guinea I had injured her because she is the only lavender and gets more than her fair share of bullying from him. Even sadder at that point, then another hour later her neck was twisted with her head pointing up from ground level, more confusion, time to research what is going on. Lo and behold my search for "broken neck guinea" lead me here where I quickly learned about wry neck, vitamin E, B, poly vi sol and generally making sure the bird eats and drinks enough. I went to town and tried to round up all these things and came back with vitamins E, D, some syringes and a few packs of an electrolyte/vitamin mixture called Sav-A-Chick that you mix with water in hot weather supposedly. I couldn't locate any poly vi sol without iron so these would have to do. I came back and started preparing my syringes with food, vitamins and made a gallon of the sav a chick for her to drink. By the time I was ready to give this to her she couldn't lift her head at all, I had to support her neck while she ineffectually tried to eat softened food. She couldn't get her mouth to work right but she tried. I have up trying to feed her and focused on getting her vitamins and water. She didn't do great at that either but she managed to get some of that in her and she was done, exhausted. I let her rest for a couple hours and went back to try again. She was better and managed to eat a little food and had some control over her head but still needed my help. Fast forward to next day and she had recovered so fast that she is now completely normal and back with the flock.
Thank you all for these threads, you helped me save her from certain death.

Wow! I haven’t seen wry neck before, but that’s some fast improvement! Are you making dietary adjustments for the rest of the birds? Hope your keet continues to do well! I’m sure you already found the following:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/wry-neck-causes-treatment-and-prevention.67732/

 

[WayOutThere]

Wow! I haven’t seen wry neck before, but that’s some fast improvement! Are you making dietary adjustments for the rest of the birds? Hope your keet continues to do well! I’m sure you already found the following:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/wry-neck-causes-treatment-and-prevention.67732/

I have only been raising guineas for just under 2 years and had never seen or heard of this before. I still don't know what the cause was but I am leaning towards genetics because this batch of 6 guineas had 2 lavenders and 4 grey's. One of the lavender keets died after 2 days from appeared to be a prolapsed vent then the only surviving lavender almost died 8 weeks or so later. I haven't seen any other health issues with these at all. I'm considering using vitamins in one of the outdoor water founts as they are cheap and probably won't hurt. Thanks for the link, still learning and haven't read through that thread yet.

 

[Sydney65]

I have only been raising guineas for just under 2 years and had never seen or heard of this before. I still don't know what the cause was but I am leaning towards genetics because this batch of 6 guineas had 2 lavenders and 4 grey's. One of the lavender keets died after 2 days from appeared to be a prolapsed vent then the only surviving lavender almost died 8 weeks or so later. I haven't seen any other health issues with these at all. I'm considering using vitamins in one of the outdoor water founts as they are cheap and probably won't hurt. Thanks for the link, still learning and haven't read through that thread yet.

@WayOutThere - how are your guinras doing?

 

[CassandraDandridge]

2 days ago around noon I noticed my only lavender hen 9 weeks old) standing off to the side of the flock with her head drooping and my heart immediately sank. I have seen that 3 times before and 2 out of 3 times it resulted in a dead bird by the next day. I watched her for a couple of hours and started to get confused because her neck started to kink up, like it was broken. This was different, I thought maybe the only adult guinea I had injured her because she is the only lavender and gets more than her fair share of bullying from him. Even sadder at that point, then another hour later her neck was twisted with her head pointing up from ground level, more confusion, time to research what is going on. Lo and behold my search for "broken neck guinea" lead me here where I quickly learned about wry neck, vitamin E, B, poly vi sol and generally making sure the bird eats and drinks enough. I went to town and tried to round up all these things and came back with vitamins E, D, some syringes and a few packs of an electrolyte/vitamin mixture called Sav-A-Chick that you mix with water in hot weather supposedly. I couldn't locate any poly vi sol without iron so these would have to do. I came back and started preparing my syringes with food, vitamins and made a gallon of the sav a chick for her to drink. By the time I was ready to give this to her she couldn't lift her head at all, I had to support her neck while she ineffectually tried to eat softened food. She couldn't get her mouth to work right but she tried. I have up trying to feed her and focused on getting her vitamins and water. She didn't do great at that either but she managed to get some of that in her and she was done, exhausted. I let her rest for a couple hours and went back to try again. She was better and managed to eat a little food and had some control over her head but still needed my help. Fast forward to next day and she had recovered so fast that she is now completely normal and back with the flock.
Thank you all for these threads, you helped me save her from certain death.

Hi
Was there any other symptoms?
I'm trying to figure out what's going on with mine.
1 adult many months ago started with a bend neck (head to wing almost) lost balance, (their "follow" their kinked head which makes them rolll over their back) dropped wings, lost legs, rolled over and died. Happens quickly
It's happened to 1 adult ages ago. This week, a 5 day old keet and a 2 day old keet.
1 was lavender
Keets in brooder with clean water and game bird food.
Adult on dam water, free range with game bird food

 

[R2elk]

It's sad to see the little babies struggle them die. I love watching them grow.

They are in large bird cage, newspaper on the bottom with meadow hay.

Cage is Inside the house. Weather temp has been pretty average

Small Game bird pallets

Not sure of the temp of the heat lamp but they have plenty of room to get away and I also move it higher as they grow older.

Rain water that gets changed when time they dirty it. Could be once a day, could be 5 times a day. Average would be twice.

Since you are giving them edible bedding you need to make sure they have grit too.

 

[R2elk]

Will do, thanks

Any idea what might be wrong with them?

It could be genetic or it could be a toxin. If it is genetic there isn't much you can do. If it is a toxin again their isn't much you can do except to try to limit potential exposure.

I know that in the case of botulism, wry neck can appear to be a symptom and death can follow quickly. I heard one person claim that giving vitamin B complex mixed at the rate of 1/2 capsule dissolved in one gallon of water may be helpful. It should be the only source of water and should be made fresh daily.

Good luck.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Hi
Was there any other symptoms?
I'm trying to figure out what's going on with mine.
1 adult many months ago started with a bend neck (head to wing almost) lost balance, (their "follow" their kinked head which makes them rolll over their back) dropped wings, lost legs, rolled over and died. Happens quickly
It's happened to 1 adult ages ago. This week, a 5 day old keet and a 2 day old keet.
1 was lavender
Keets in brooder with clean water and game bird food.
Adult on dam water, free range with game bird food

Oh I’m sorry to hear that! What are you feeding the keets? What kind of setup do you have in your brooder with temperature, water, etc?

 

[CassandraDandridge]

Oh I’m sorry to hear that! What are you feeding the keets? What kind of setup do you have in your brooder with temperature, water, etc?

It's sad to see the little babies struggle them die. I love watching them grow.

They are in large bird cage, newspaper on the bottom with meadow hay.

Cage is Inside the house. Weather temp has been pretty average

Small Game bird pallets

Not sure of the temp of the heat lamp but they have plenty of room to get away and I also move it higher as they grow older.

Rain water that gets changed when time they dirty it. Could be once a day, could be 5 times a day. Average would be twice.