Wryneck in hatchery silkie

[shrimpsilkies]

Hello, new here, my friend and I have got a small flock of six white hatchery silkies (8 months old), they’re definitely “pet quality” but most of them are very healthy and active. However, the top pullet suffers what I believe is wryneck from a vitamin deficiency. She is also the only silkie we have with a full beard and crest. During the fall she ate a lot of weeds and greens, and I know that leafy greens contain Vitamin E, but it’s winter now and there isn’t much to forage on. We use a layer feed with plenty of vitamin E and a good seed/veggie content, and none of the other chickens have had any issue.
This particular pullet had always had a bit of a twisted neck, but I thought it was due to her bigger head fluff. The first cold night of the season, we found her collapsed on the ground with her neck twisted and crop empty. Fed her an egg yolk and some normal feed and she was fine and back outside with the rest of the flock, with no symptoms until today. Important to note, the pullets started laying last week and the roos have been avidly mating them so they probably are under a bit more of strain than before. (Note: we’re currently raising more/higher quality pullets to introduce to the roos in spring so they don’t overbreed our silkie hens!)

Just today she was collapsed in the lay box, seizing and twitching like the last time. Brought her inside and she very clearly was only interested in greens, she ate a good handful of spinach, yolk, soaked crumbles of brown bread for water (she doesn’t seem able to drink) and some mealworms. After she seemed a little better, but a couple hours later she was seizing again, trying to preen herself every second and keeping her head between her legs. Her wings are also kind of limp. Right now she’s indoors in a dog crate with a good layer of aspen chips to rest on. She’s calmed down a little so I hope she’ll be better in the morning.

I don’t know if trying human vitamin supplements is a good idea, but I’m not sure if only greens and sunflower seeds will cure the wryneck. Any recommendations?

 

[sourland]

How many roosters do you have ? If she has a vaulted skull, they may be injuring her.

 

[shrimpsilkies]

How many roosters do you have ? If she has a vaulted skull, they may be injuring her.

There are three but only two have begun mounting hens. I’m not sure if it’s an injury, because the first time this happened she recovered quickly with a little food supplementing and rest. My guess is that beginning to lay + cold weather has been taxing on her body. The roosters definitely don’t have a technique down yet though, so they’ve been pretty rough and nippy. If nothing else, I’m sure they’ve been stressing her out if not hurting her.

 

[Folly's place]

Some time separated from the cockerels might be a good idea, if that's not helping her.
What are you feeding, and do you always check the mill date on each bag? If she has permanent brain damage, that's not so good, or if she actually has Marek's disease, but you can try fixing any dietary deficiencies and see how she responds.
If you are feeding a whole seed type diet, she may also be picking out the yummy bits and unbalancing her diet that way.
Mary

 

[Saaniya]

Hello, new here, my friend and I have got a small flock of six white hatchery silkies (8 months old), they’re definitely “pet quality” but most of them are very healthy and active. However, the top pullet suffers what I believe is wryneck from a vitamin deficiency. She is also the only silkie we have with a full beard and crest. During the fall she ate a lot of weeds and greens, and I know that leafy greens contain Vitamin E, but it’s winter now and there isn’t much to forage on. We use a layer feed with plenty of vitamin E and a good seed/veggie content, and none of the other chickens have had any issue.
This particular pullet had always had a bit of a twisted neck, but I thought it was due to her bigger head fluff. The first cold night of the season, we found her collapsed on the ground with her neck twisted and crop empty. Fed her an egg yolk and some normal feed and she was fine and back outside with the rest of the flock, with no symptoms until today. Important to note, the pullets started laying last week and the roos have been avidly mating them so they probably are under a bit more of strain than before. (Note: we’re currently raising more/higher quality pullets to introduce to the roos in spring so they don’t overbreed our silkie hens!)

Just today she was collapsed in the lay box, seizing and twitching like the last time. Brought her inside and she very clearly was only interested in greens, she ate a good handful of spinach, yolk, soaked crumbles of brown bread for water (she doesn’t seem able to drink) and some mealworms. After she seemed a little better, but a couple hours later she was seizing again, trying to preen herself every second and keeping her head between her legs. Her wings are also kind of limp. Right now she’s indoors in a dog crate with a good layer of aspen chips to rest on. She’s calmed down a little so I hope she’ll be better in the morning.

I don’t know if trying human vitamin supplements is a good idea, but I’m not sure if only greens and sunflower seeds will cure the wryneck. Any recommendations?

The best thing you can treat wryneck in just few days is giving high doses of vitamin E selenium & other multi-vitamins . The toxin stay for month but it start improving once high doses of vitamin E reach the stream .

I see many people who use this thing with Successful results

 

[artsyrobin]

separate, nutradrench 0.25 cc 4 times a day, get seleneum and E goat gel, peasize drop 4 times a day. You may need to hand feed, pm me if you need help, it takes time to recover

 

[shrimpsilkies]

Well, sorry for the wait, but she recovered from the last attack just fine, but we bought a bunch of the recommended supplements.
Yesterday she had another episode, probably because of a very fast temperature drop plus she laid in that morning. Gave her nutradrench, vitamin e and selenium gel for goats, egg yolk and spinach, and she perked up a lot. We didn’t want to put her out with the others because today was even colder, but since there aren’t other birds in the house anymore we brought the runt silkie hen which she gets along well with inside to keep her company.

 

[shrimpsilkies]

Update: she’s back outside, and the only birds she’s with are the silkie hens and the dominant rooster (he hasn’t mounted or tried to feed any hens yet) and she was happy all day, seemed normal. Still a couple seizures here and there and we had to place her in the roost, but her crop was full. Will update in the morning!

 

[shrimpsilkies]

Some time separated from the cockerels might be a good idea, if that's not helping her.
What are you feeding, and do you always check the mill date on each bag? If she has permanent brain damage, that's not so good, or if she actually has Marek's disease, but you can try fixing any dietary deficiencies and see how she responds.
If you are feeding a whole seed type diet, she may also be picking out the yummy bits and unbalancing her diet that way.
Mary

Separating helped a lot, and we will be getting rid of the extra roos as soon as possible. I’m not sure how to tell if there’s permanent damage, but she seems to recover very quickly when she gets fed/supplemented. It’s definitely not Mareks. The feed is Small Pet Select Garden Goodness — it’s got pellets, sunflower seeds, and whole seeds, but they don’t seem to pick anything in particular out, and some of the attacks happened while we tried another feed, so I think this one is good for them. She’s very enthusiastic about eating fresh greens, meal worms, and the feed, but if you’ve got any recommendations for other treats they would be very welcome!

 

[Folly's place]

What's the mill date on each bag of this feed, and does there seem to be powder in the bag too?
Mary