Wry neck not getting better. :(

[Mama Poule]

I’m thinking maybe my black silkie chick may have more than just wry neck wrong with her. I’ve been giving her vitamin water, vitamin E with selenium, and I’ve been hand feeding and giving water by hand four times a day. She is a slow eater and takes in very little. If I help her lift her head, she can hold it up, but cannot walk around then. Also, every few minutes her beak opens and closes very quickly (convulsions?). The wry neck hasn’t seemed to improve at all, and she isn’t growing like the other chicks either. You can see her head is almost bare of silkie feathers. She just doesn’t look right to me. I feel so bad for her- it’s heartbreaking- is there something I’m not doing? The white chick is the other from the same group of four. I included the pic for comparison. The other silkies are all developing fine but are separated from her. She is right next to them and has a stuffed chick.

 

[Smileybans]

How long have you been giving the vitamins? When I have a wry neck case I use the vitamin E with selenium, liquid vitamin D complex, and another liquid vitamin E. This combination has gotten my worst wry neck cases better in a month. I know it should get better in a week but I always give the meds for longer. Just in case any stress brings it back or the vitamins weren’t long enough at a week.

 

[Mama Poule]

How long have you been giving the vitamins? When I have a wry neck case I use the vitamin E with selenium, liquid vitamin D complex, and another liquid vitamin E. This combination has gotten my worst wry neck cases better in a month. I know it should get better in a week but I always give the meds for longer. Just in case any stress brings it back or the vitamins weren’t long enough at a week.

It’s been over a week. I’m going to add the D complex. Thank you! And I’ll just keep going. She is eating and drinking, though not a lot at all, so hopefully the vitamins will start to work.

 

[Smileybans]

My last wry neck chick had her head bent back so far it touched her back. Almost always. I was lucky with her though. She could at least bend her head down to eat and drink. But it took almost three weeks of giving her meds before it went away fully. Even now if I stand above her she can still crane her neck so it touches her back.

 

[Mama Poule]

Thanks for the replies—she is finally getting a LOT better!! I’m so happy. She even has some feathers coming up on her head now. I think the oiliness of the vitamin E (which got all over everything including her head whenever I gave it to her) may have been slicking down her head feathers lol.

 

[Smileybans]

Yay! So happy she’s getting better. It’s funny once I replied to you about your chick with wry neck one of mine got it and I was given another that had it. The one I was given is two days old. The previous owner tried to give it nutridrench but didn’t really know what to do for wry neck. So I took him on. Then my Snuggle got such a bad case over the course of two days. Hopefully everyone pulls through like your girl is.

Snuggle

 

[Mama Poule]

Yay! So happy she’s getting better. It’s funny once I replied to you about your chick with wry neck one of mine got it and I was given another that had it. The one I was given is two days old. The previous owner tried to give it nutridrench but didn’t really know what to do for wry neck. So I took him on. Then my Snuggle got such a bad case over the course of two days. Hopefully everyone pulls through like your girl is.

Snuggle
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Aww, I hope your chicks are doing much better soon! It definitely took some time with mine—and sometimes her head still droops, but she can quickly lift it and keep doing what she’s doing. She’s developed a taste for the vitamin E and the scrambled egg. One other plus is that she is super friendly from all the hand feeding I had to do—probably the friendliest of all my chickens now.

 

[Swbertrand1]

Aww, I hope your chicks are doing much better soon! It definitely took some time with mine—and sometimes her head still droops, but she can quickly lift it and keep doing what she’s doing. She’s developed a taste for the vitamin E and the scrambled egg. One other plus is that she is super friendly from all the hand feeding I had to do—probably the friendliest of all my chickens now.

+1 on that! Our already super-sweet little Silkie that came down with wry neck on June 22 was super friendly to begin with. Now, with getting handled multiple times per day and living inside, I think she thinks she's a person.
She talks and talks all the time, doesn't take her eyes off of us, listens to everything we say, and LOVES to be rubbed on her back - she just purrs and purrs, getting a little irritated if we stop before she falls asleep. It's very endearing and so sweet!

 

[KatiewithZena]

Hi guys, so nice to read your posts, I have a 4 week old black silkie chick, and last night I found her with what I'm guessing is wry neck, so horrible to see her that way. I took her out of the brooder and put her in a lined shoe box beside the others so she can share the heat lamp and hear them.
She did a normal looking poo this morning and then a couple hours later another one but it was really runny. I ground up some sunflower seeds and added some bird nutrient liquid with water to it. She seems to be taking some of it in, shes just sleeping so much it must be exhausting trying to keep her head up. She has had a couple little bursts of energy where she has stood up and half held her head up. Her left eye (the one that rests on the ground) has stayed closed.
I really hope zena my little black feathered princess warrior will pull through!