Had an interesting experience with a chick this week, so I thought I'd share. I had a little guy that hatched last Sunday, he started doing the wryneck thing around his third day. Stumbling a lot, head tipping back like he couldn't control it. I looked it up online and saw it also referred to as stargazing, a very romantic term for a sad condition in a fluffy little chick. I also read that it can be caused by many things, but I couldn't fathom it being something infectious in a three day old chick. I was feeding them medicated chick starter, and I read that amprolium (a common medication found in chick starter) works by blocking thiamine uptake in microorganisms, but has been known to also interfere with thiamine metabolism in the chick. And thiamine deficiency can cause the neurological symptoms of wryneck. So I figured I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by switching the little guy to unmedicated feed and giving him a vitamin supplement (liquid multivitamins made for chickens, to put in their water). It seems to have done the trick, he's now six days old and I haven't seen him stargazing for at least 48 hours. Fingers crossed that I solved it!
Just thought it might be useful information in case someone else runs into this problem!
Amy
Just thought it might be useful information in case someone else runs into this problem!
Amy
) Stargazing or wryneck can indeed be caused by a thiamine (Vitamin B1) deficiency. We had a chick born that way, it was most likely caused by vitamin deficiency in the parents' diet (breeder confirmed the parents were off their vitamins at the time). We supplemented her for a week and she's been great ever since (now 7 months old). We don't use "medicated" feed...it's such a misnomer. I can understand people who raise hundreds of chicks using that kind of feed, but for the backyard owner, depriving a growing chick of something it sorely needs is not the way to prevent cocci infections.
