chick standing with head hanging down

[Stephine]

Hi!
Could this be wry neck, even though the head is just hanging down? Just came back to the brooder to see one of my chicks standing around with her head all the way down in the bedding, walking slowly, while all the others are busy running around her… Her hatch mate seemed just droopy and sleepy to me two days ago, so I gave her a dose of straight nutri drench to the beak and then put the whole little brooder flock on save a chick electrolytes and vitamins and probiotics, for a day, then gave nutri drench in their water all day yesterday. Switched them back to plain water this morning as the droopy chick seemed fine again, and now this.
I just got poultry cell from rooster booster since I read chickens like the taste better. Should I just keep them on vitamins in the water for a few days? A week? Don’t want to overdo it, either…
They are 5 weeks old today.

 

[nuthatched]

Wry neck usually has the neck hanging, give 400.iu vitamin E and a sliver of a B complex tablet every day for a few weeks.
You can get these at the grocery store.

 

[Stephine]

Boy I hope it’s the vitamins and not that she got pecked on the head. She is one of my two crested birds in the brooder… I gave her the vitamin e oil and nutri drench. Also tried to get a little watered down feed in her - she took very little. Poor baby.

 

[Stephine]

If it was a vitamin issue, I would expect her to get better or stay the same at least, with vitamin supplementation. But she first started letting her head hang down after 2 days of vitamins in the waterer for all of them. I have since given her vitamin e from gel caps and the Bs, and selenium in nutri drench and gotten some food and water into her and she is just going downhill. This morning she wasn’t even able to get up anymore, just lying down. I gave her more nutridrench but she barely swallowed any. Same with a few drops of water. I don’t really expect her to recover at this point. I have nursed chicks that seemed way worse than she did yesterday, when I got some infected with AE two years ago, but they still took drops from my finger or syringe.
oufff

 

[Stephine]

Update: Chick has perked up a tiny bit, after being completely flat and limp this morning. I gave up on the nutri drench that she just wouldn’t take and decided to mix poultry cell, vit E oil and sugar water. Figured I needed something that tastes good. She finally took some tiny drips from the side of her beak. Yay!!! Kept it up until she was thoroughly done and wanting to sleep. Checked on her a couple hours later and she actually managed to lift her head a bit. Picked her up and she chirped and struggled a bit - fantastic after being limp and silent earlier. Repeated the procedure, put her back in her box and she actually stood for a bit, of course with her head in the bedding… I finally found the tag from my bag of chick starter I had been looking for. I called the company to ask if they had a manufacturing date somewhere since I couldn’t find it. They told me it was on the back of the tag. Like they don’t want you to see it? Anyway, feed store had assured me feed was fresh, since I couldn’t find a date. Checked the tag today and: Jan 2023. 6 months old. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I am furious and they will get their bag back tomorrow. So it does look like stale starter feed is to blame after all. The feed store where I got the bag is a place I have never been to before. Everyone was out of the MM starter I had been feeding and I had called around. I have been feeding from this old bag for about 10 days…
Anyway, I have some hope for my sick chickie again. Will mix some (fresh) starter in vitamin water soon and see how that goes over.

 

[Stephine]

Chickie is so much better. Perked up a bit more with each feeding. Just past midnight now and I just put her back into the brooder with the others. She is eating, drinking, walking around… still slow of course, but so much better. So glad she can be back with her flock again!

 

[LaFleche]

Glad you found out in time the food was old.

Hopefully, she will make a full recovery

 

[Stephine]

Glad you found out in time the food was old.

Hopefully, she will make a full recovery

No kidding! I searched for that tag for two days, because that was my first suspicion. I hate it when callous people lie to you about that kind of thing… Thanks for the good wishes, she is so much better!

 

[Stephine]

One more update: all chicks are fine now. The one that was droopy first went completely limp just like the other one as soon as that one was recovered. By now I knew what to do and expect. She took an extra day to come around, but come around she did. Continues giving them as much of a 400 unit vitamin e capsule as I could get into them daily plus poultry cell in the drinking water (three days straight than every other day) for 2 weeks. The last symptom to go was the head shaking. My two fastest growing chicks in the brooder (not the two sick ones) kept a few crooked toes from this feed disaster, but otherwise everyone is fine. The feed store apologized and blamed the distributor for sending old feed. I blame the manufacturer for not putting their stamp where it’s easy to see - they know it’s important information.

 

[LaFleche]

Thank you for the update, hopefully allwill stay well from now on.