young roo with neuro symproms?

[bvhorses]

I need some help, fairly new to chickens, had good luck with healthy birds for the 2 years we have had them. Last summer we ordered a group of polish chicks from a hatchery, my son is raising them for 4-H project. Now the birds are reaching maturity, and looking quite beautiful. This week one of the silver laced was walking in circles when I went in to feed. I picked him up to look at his eyes and he ducked his head between his legs! I put him back down on his feet and still with his head between his legs walked backwards until he bumped into a wall and fell over. He promptly got up and did it again. I have been watching him for 3 days now with no change in behavior, he eats and drinks, but will stand with head between his legs, looking behind him and seems disoriented. They are penned, so no predators, but he could have gotten beat on by the others, I guess. We are a little full of roos right now! His feathers look fine, no obvious missing patches and he is still in decent weight. I was reading about Marek's disease, and hope that is not it since the reat of the flock is exposed, but his eyes look normal and both legs are working, just his balance and posture is weird. Any suggestions? Should I isolate him?

 

[Fluffy-Butt-Farms]

i can't give you a cure,but i have an ee roo that 2 weeks ago suddenly had his head croocked and when startled will but it between his legs and walks backwards and shakes like a seizure. i haven't found a cure for it. he still does it. eats and drinks fine. i put him in a different cage outside with a broodermate and he seems to do it less often, but if you startle him, he'll still do it. good luck on yours. i dont have any answers, but will try to give mine a good home until the seizures take over... or stop... whichever comes first.

 

[akpeeps]

Sounds like wry neck. He could very well have gotten a head injury from one of the others. The same thing happened to one of my Silkie pulllets. She started doing the same thing when she was about five weeks old. I separated her and used Polyvisol (without iron) infant vitamin drops and it helped her. Just a couple of drops twice a day. I noticed an improvement after a couple of weeks. She's six months old now and still has a head bob thing but the head tucking, walking backwards has stopped. She's in with the other silkies and doing very well, but she's very head shy and will run and hide if the others start picking on her.
She's a very spoiled little silkie and gets to spend a lot of time in the house with me.

 

[Farmer Benjii]

sounds bad, this is the only treatment i can give as of now

 

[FrizzlesRule]

I'm not sure what it is, but my Polish hen who lived to be almost 14 years old did the same thing on and off for about five years. It looked weird when she would walk backwards and fall over, but she got back up and sometimes did it again, sometimes normal. She would eat and be fine in every other way.

Someone said a long time ago, it had something to do with the wad of feathers on it's head and the knob on which they grow out of.