Wry neck...Treat or euthanize?? UPDATED with GREAT results!!

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
I'm glad to hear that your silkie's wry neck was gone within a week by using baby vitamins and vit E but I think that Prednisone is an option for others like myself whose bird has been having wry neck for 5 months. I can say that I have used every single thing (except Prednisone) that I have read on BYC and other sites but nothing has worked.

I have taken my bird to an Avian Specialist and my bird was given blood tests, had his poop examined, mouth was swabbed, and everything else you can think of. All tests were NEGATIVE at the time of the visit. My bird initially had a respiratory problem and the respiratory problem caused the wry neck, which is what prompted the visit to the Avian Specialist. I have been dealing with this for 2 years now. This last bout of wry neck was a stubborn case because it did not go away. I had read about Prednisone on BYC and mentioned it to the Avian Specialist. He told me that if I gave the Prednisone to my bird, that it would weaken his immune system and cause other problems. However, it could possibly work due to the fact that the wry neck is more of an inflammation problem. He didn't say that he wouldn't prescribed the Prednisone but after he told me the side effects, I didn't ask him to write the prescription. So, now I am torn between trying the Prednisone to see if it will help or to just let my bird walk around with wry neck. My bird is doing just fine. He is not in any pain or is not suffering but the wry neck just continues to bother me every time I see him. The Avian Specialist said that my bird can still have a good life with no pain with the wry neck. I have read several stories on BYC where owners have used the Prednisone and it has worked. No one has posted that their birds died or had side effects from using the Prednisone, so those statistics is what I take into consideration as I continue to thinkg about what to do. I think now I am convinced that I will ask the Avian Specialist to write a prescription for Prednisone. It seems to be working on other's birds.

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Three Cedars Silkies wrote: If a vitamin deficiency is the cause of the wry neck, then it makes sense that the supplements would work to correct the problem. Unfortunately, that is not the only thing that causes wry neck and I have used the vitamins for 10 days with no results..until I added the prednisone.

I totally agree with you Three Cedars Silkies. A vitamin deficiency is not the only cause of wry neck.​

 

[hellympowell]

my 8 week old chick has wry neck really bad should i treat with prednisolone and if so can someone tell me how much?
thanks helen

 

[Pamlovesdisney]

I know this is an old thread but I received my chicks last week one with wry neck. After three doses of infant infamil poly visol my chick was up and eating and drinking with the rest. It was an amazing transformation after two days of not eating or drinking. Hope this helps someone out there in the future!

 

[realsis]

I too brought my bird back from wry neck. I used Alan Stanford's treatment for wry neck and my bird is 6 months old
She had a very severe case with her head between her legs doing flips. She is now 100% back to normal thank God and thank Alan Stanford's treatment for wry neck! His treatment basically includes vitaminE selenium vitaminB polyvisol liquid children's vitamin without iron and predinsone for brain swelling. In severe cases like mine I highly recommended the predinsone. These things together brought my bird out of a severe case of wry neck! So I urge people to please treat there birds and do not cull them even older birds with severe wry neck can be brought back! Have patience and do the treatments and they should return to normal in around 3 to4 weeks. I'm glad you reopened this old thread because I'm hoping my story can also help those with severe wry neck! Believe it or not with treatment they do recover! I would highly recommended the predinsone in severe cases. I hope this helps someone out! The Alan Stanford treatment worked like a miracle on my severe case of wry neck.I urge people who have a severe case to try it!

 

[wondertwinpower]

Thanks, Pamlovesdisney and Realsis, for giving us this update. It is great to know what has worked for others.

 

[realsis]

Yes this treatment worked perfectly and I got another case of wry neck after my first healed. She's going on her second week of treatment and is now able to walk forward and eat and drink on her own so she's making wonderful progress too! It had taken about three weeks for my first bird and I'm hoping my second will also be healed by week three
I'm very greatful for this treatment. My bird is 100% now and I'm praying soon my second bird will also be 100%. This treatment really works and there is hope. Both my cases were very severe and were older chickens. The younger ones seem to heal faster. What people don't realize is older chickens can also get wry neck. Both my birds are silkies that got wry neck one is 6 months old one is a year old. Wry neck itself is not a disease but a symptom. Causes can be nutritional injury or genetics. In my case I suspect nutritional. I've since added a supplement of vitamins A D E And B. Hoping this will prevent future cases. Hope this helps
And for those struggling with wry neck I'd like to say don't give up it can be successfully treated. Have patients and Alan Stanford's treatment plan is a great plan to follow.

 

[fishermans wife]

Yes this treatment worked perfectly and I got another case of wry neck after my first healed. She's going on her second week of treatment and is now able to walk forward and eat and drink on her own so she's making wonderful progress too! It had taken about three weeks for my first bird and I'm hoping my second will also be healed by week three
I'm very greatful for this treatment. My bird is 100% now and I'm praying soon my second bird will also be 100%. This treatment really works and there is hope. Both my cases were very severe and were older chickens. The younger ones seem to heal faster. What people don't realize is older chickens can also get wry neck. Both my birds are silkies that got wry neck one is 6 months old one is a year old. Wry neck itself is not a disease but a symptom. Causes can be nutritional injury or genetics. In my case I suspect nutritional. I've since added a supplement of vitamins A D E And B. Hoping this will prevent future cases. Hope this helps
And for those struggling with wry neck I'd like to say don't give up it can be successfully treated. Have patients and Alan Stanford's treatment plan is a great plan to follow.

I too am treating wry neck with a silkie hen. It is her second round of it - first was several months ago as a chick. This time she is taking longer, but I follow this treatment and will go as long as it takes! I did see her eat and drink today! So, thanks realsis for sharing your story - it is always encouraging to read others going through it with positive results! I am in California too!

 

[bonniepm]

Don't give up!


Our RIR chick, “Baby” (pictured above), rapidly (within hours) developed severe symptoms of Wry Neck at about 6 - 8 weeks old. We had been out of town for several days, but our chicken sitter said that overnight, she went from being perfectly normal in appearance to being unable hold her head and neck up out of a 180 degree inverted position. She also walked backwards dragging her head on the ground. By the time we got home several days later, her condition had advanced to the point that she could no longer eat or drink anything on her own.

With the help of information from this link we are pleased to report that she is now completely recovered, happy, healthy and a real joy to behold (but very spoiled.)

We used the formula and treatment schedule posted at http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/Crookneck/Crookneck.html by Alan Stanford (our thanks to him) with the addition of Amoxicillin as recommended by Dr. Janny Hermans and our local vet. The "second week" portion of our treatment schedule extended about a week longer than Alan's schedule due to Baby's slow response. She did not show significant improvement until about the third week when her response was very rapid, showing dramatic improvement to full recovery over the course of about two to three days.

Throughout her treatment we used a syringe or an (without needle) eye dropper to give her water (about 5 cc's) three to five times per day as she was not able to drink from a bowl.

After trying various methods to administer the drugs and feed her, we arrived at what we found was a very workable solution to get all this stuff into a squirming chick with an up-side-down head. First, we crushed the solid drugs into powder and added them to her food which we then moistened with the liquid Vitamin B and Amoxicillin. Finally, we punctured the Vitamin E gel caps and squeezed their sticky contents into this food/drug mixture and mashed it into a fine texture with a fork and then hand fed her. About half of the time she would swallow this, often eating more than 1/4 cup per feeding and filling her crop to a remarkable extent. Other times she would only take water.

We started feeding her using only scramble egg but later added cooked rice to the egg and finally adding chick starter to the rice/egg/drug mixture. We usually fed her each time she was watered (3 times per day) and monitored her weight daily. We found that she consistently gained weight throughout the treatment and when returned to the flock she was comparable in size to the rest of the girls her age.

We must advise that her recovery was slow (about 3-weeks) and during the treatment she did not appear to show any improvement until she seemingly "snapped out of it" completely. Now she free ranges in our yard with the rest of the girls and you would never know that anything had ever been wrong.

John & Bonnie Boone
Chattanooga, TN

 

[fishermans wife]

Great story Bonnie! Thanks so much! I hope others read this thread and don't lose hope that this is treatable! My first round with this hen was much like yours - she could only flop around backwards with her head between her legs. After about 8 days of it I was ready to throw in the towel, only to wake up with her almost totally normal the next day! It is such a wierd thing! this treatment is taking longer, and she is not as bad as I caught it almost immediately, but she is older as well, so they obviously all have their own timing!

Again, thanks for sharing your story and the picture! Having a visual is great!

 

[NewChicKMom2014]

Being an animal care technician and having had my own dogs at times put on prednisone, I can not stress enough how much you really need be careful with that stuff. It is extremely rough on small animal stomachs and systems. I do not give my animals any 'people' medicine unless absolutely necessary and very little. I would highly recommend not giving to baby ducks or chickens especially. I suggest finding a vet in your area that practices holistic medicine. That's what my animals all get.