Wry Neck or something else?

[MollySunshine]

I am curious what symptoms your Junebug had that you'd call "violent and shocking." My 4 week old Charlotte has what a lot of folks here on BYC say is likely wry neck. She had some episodes the first week I had her where she would scratch at her face, fall over and screech. Her neck would flop over. Based on advice I gave her polyvisol and vitamin E for a few days which seemed to knock out the problem. Then this past weekend she had more episodes and the scratching on her face (both sides) was so bad she drew blood. I had to take her from the brooder and she's been alone since then. I have been giving her E again (as well as eggs and polyvisol) and she has not had any further neck weakness or flopping and her scratching has gotten much less violent and severe, but she's still scratching frequently (we put bandaids on her nails to keep her from cutting herself). I am wondering if anything like this happened to Junebug? Someone suggested that wry neck can make a chicken feel like bees are buzzing in their heads, so that's why she scratched, but I cannot find any other wry neck stories like that.



You're a good chicken mama!

My Silkie experiences the same with the scratching of her neck. Although, she hasn't drawn blood. It seems to be worse in the morning. This morning, her scratching didn't last too long. Usually, it can be so bad that it interrupts her eating. I also noticed the shaking of the head back and forth was far less than usual. I want to say I am noticing a smidgen of progress today. She appears to be able to correct herself quickly and more often while eating. I am still hand feeding her and giving liquids with a syringe. I am cautiously optimistic. I also read, perhaps it was an old post on this site, someone used an antibiotic. They called it Novodoxin but a search called it Navodoxin. I then did a search as to its ingrediants. It is meclizine and B12. Meclizine (classed as an antihistimine), is an OTC product (you can ask pharmicist for it) used for motion sickness. It supposedly helps with neck spasms. Non drowsy Dramamine supposedly contains meclizine. I have not checked the ingrediants on the box yet to confirm. I am reading this information now. The amount to administer a chicken I would need to confer with my vet prior to trying, if I go this route. The person who was using this antibiotic treatment didn't state the amount given, only that it was a 21 day course. When I mentioned the neck scratching, the vet mentioned it may be due to equilibrium. I too came across the post you quoted and have begun massaging her neck. I'm incorporating every little tidbit of information that seems reasonable to try.
I would like to hear more stories from others who have dealt with this situation.

 

[Jennifer Cappi Williams]

Junebug kept her head to the ground and since she is a extremely active chick, she would freak because she could not move right and throw herself around and could only run backwards until flipping over. She is TOTALLY normal now.