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

[Helen_Jayne]

That’s so very amazing to hear! You have no idea. I went to a A local vet last Friday – who was awful and it was the worst experience I’ve ever had with the vet – but regardless, I got the prednisone and I’m following the regimen that you suggest and I’m praying for a miracle and today I took my little one out in the sunshine and in the grass to eat breakfast and she actually laid down and did a wry neck version of a dust bath and I just broke down and cried because it’s been such a long hard road already and my heart is so involved! Clearly you know exactly what I mean! I really hope I have the same outcome that you dead because having to euthanize this bird would crush me! So in your opinion, since I started the prednisone on Saturday am I starting all over with an estimated recovery time? We’ve been at it for three weeks last Sunday but we just started the prednisone last Saturday so I wonder if I have another three or four weeks ahead of me?

Hi Noelle I'm so sorry to hear about this. I get it, I've got to that emotional point before where you're putting so much in it's exhausting. Lot's of people would think, 'it's a chicken, who cares?' but when that life matters to you it can be exhausting. I think you're getting confused with another poster though, I have never used prednisone. I just fed her the egg and vitamins which I described in my post above and kept her in a quiet place where she couldn't get stressed (that part is important). They need a lot of protein from the egg and vitamin e / selenium/ b vits. If she's an adult bird it's probably a deficiency which has caused this in the first place so that part would be important. I have no idea about the prednisone, personally I'd be afraid to use it but now that you are you must stick with the program (whatever that is). That stuff has to be tapered off slowly and follow the vets advice.
It took 6 weeks for my bird and that was partly because I messed up half way through and let my ten year old stepson have her in his bedroom (he's very gentle but too noisy and the damage was done, back to square one). 3 weeks is not that long but watch you are keeping her quiet enough. It sounds positive about the dustbath and getting sunshine on her will help but if be really careful you don't stress her. You have to put yourself in the hen's position, she is in no state to run away from predators. Make sure she's getting enough light in the day but feels completely tucked away. I have a white plastic crate which allows plenty of light through and I put a blanket over the top with a little bit open for ventilation.
Wry neck looks worse than it is, the chances are if you follow the program she'll get better but you could have some time ahead of you yet. It might be you come in one day and she's turned a corner, that's what happened with ours. However if you get to the point you decide to give up I would take her into the vet and ask them to put her down. I did that with my cockerel when he wasn't going to recover from a head injury and I was really glad I did. Maybe see a different vet? They charge a lot of money so you should expect a good service from them. Let me know how it goes and I'd be happy to help any way I can.

 

[candybeers2011]

Hi, I just wanted to add to this and thank everyone for posting the information as I read almost all of the thread and it helped so much. I have a silkie who came down with wry neck 3 weeks ago at about 5 weeks old. I treated her with the information here, feeding scrambled egg with vitamin E and B complex. To start I had to blend the egg as she wasn't able to eat well at all and wrap her in a towel to feed her. She got a lot better after a week but I made the stupid mistake of letting my little stepson have her in his bedroom (where she'd been kept) while he was with us for half term. I forgot a little boy's version of 'quiet' is different to my own! Within 24 she was right back to where I started, maybe even worse with her head tucked right under her legs.
I started again and today she looks (almost) normal although I will continue to keep her separate and treat her for some time yet as I think else she could go backwards again. My biggest tip is avoid all stress, keep them in a quiet room (I played classical music on radio!). Be careful with water, I put it in the egg for a long time as when she tried to drink I found she was getting it in her lungs and I had to hang her upside-down to drain her lungs (not very nice). Just make sure you wet everything really well and start offering water as soon as they're able to control their head enough.
I also put bach rescue remedy in the water and used belladonna homeopathic medicine for the jerky spasms. The treatment has taken 3 weeks to get this far and quite honestly it takes dedication - no one else could feed her because she would get upset about anyone else being around after being used to my voice. I'm home most of the time otherwise it would have been impossible.
I'd be glad to help anyone else in this situation as I'm pretty proud of where I've got with this! It certainly took a lot of work and research but this site and others helped a lot.
I think this will be my little house chicken as although she's improved I get the feeling she will be a special needs chicken all her life.

This was the video which helped with how to feed her, thank God for the internet.

I know this is an old post but wondering how your chicken is doing now? One of the silkie chicks we hatched ourselves just began to have wry neck today and it's about 2 months old and the other chicks are doing fine. I've researched so much to help this chick survive as we love our chicks very much and so attached since we got to watch all 4 coming out of their eggs and they've been inside with us their entire life. I'm giving it the vitamin E, B and giving it smashed up egg with water in it. My chick is eating very well out of my hand with her wrapped in a towel. It's harder to get her to drink though so I'm putting a lot of water in the food she's getting. She'll take a few small sips of water herself but that's all and I'm terrified to use a medicine dropper and make her drink because of the fear of giving her pneumonia. I'm a new chicken owner so I'm learning and trying to save this baby no matter what I have to do but I could use as much advice as possible and really detailed advice. One thing I really need to know is how do you even make them open their beaks so that you can put a drop of water in? My chick keeps her beak tight when I've tried to open it and I don't want to risk hurting her. Also, if I did get her to open up how can I best avoid accidently putting water into her lungs? My chick is also keeping her head underneath her body for the most part and not looking upwards like I've heard so many describe with wry neck. My baby literally looks headless because she tucks her head so far under her body and then she pecks at herself it seems. I can make her stop doing that if I pick her up and sooth her and she'll let me gently pull her head and neck back to a normal position and she'll eat very well during those times from my hand and seems pretty content until suddenly she'll like feel the urge to move her head underneath herself again. I can reposition her head again after these episodes and she'll start happily eating and making cute little trills and chirps at me. She'll even look around the room by turning her own neck and head and appear normal for short durations while I'm still holding her main body in a towel. Sorry for the long post but I just want to really describe this issue and I can provide pics and videos too if you can help. I'm glad you seemed to have saved your chicken from this and I hope she's still living a good, healthy life.

 

[MalinoisandGuineygal]

How do you keep her comfortable enough to lay down. I have a Guinney Fowl keet that hatched out with wry neck. She can only lay on her back to sleep and after only a few hours, I find her in awkward positions in her sleeping area. I tried putting her in a bowl with a little blanket and after only a little while, found her upside down on her head and bent neck . I'm attending to her every two hours around the clock. She is such a sweet little thing. I really want to do my very best for her. I'm giving her steel cut oatmeal for her Selenium intake, high protein turkey feed (moistened), B12, and other poultry vitamins.

 

[Scotchy19]

I wanted to revive this thread and report a positive result! The silkie pullet has completely recovered from the wry neck and is now enjoying being back out with her buddies.

This was the regimen we use:

Vit. E (400mg) snip the tip off a capsule and squeeze into mouth twice a day for 10 days, then every other day for another 5 days
Selenium (25mcg) dissolve one 250mcg tablet in 2 ml water and give 0.2cc once a day for 10 days, then every other day for another 5 days
Prednisone 1mg. dissolve one 10 mg tablet in 2 ml water and give 0.2cc twice a day for 5 days, then once a day for 5 days, then every other day for 5 days
B-Complex purchased in liquid form from Walgreens; 0.5 cc twice a day for 5 days, then once a day for 5 days, then every other day for 5 days

How did you get these things into the chicken? Force it into their beak?

 

[Scotchy19]

I had a black silkie with wry neck last month. All I did was give her some liquid baby vitamin and vit E mixed together once a day. Within a week she was fine. I really don't think prednisone is neccessary in treating wry neck, the extra vitamins work just fine and don't carry the risk of side effects.

How did you get this stuff into the chicken?