strange chicken behavior

Alright, I'm hoping someone has experienced something like this! I am very new to chicken raising (my flock is about 12 weeks old) and so I have no idea what to make of this. None of my chicken friends have seen anything like this before either, so hopefully someone out there in this community has some ideas.

All of my chickens have been doing fine and seem happy and healthy. I haven't noticed anything strange about any of them, except one odd incident that happened a few weeks ago.

I was outside and all the chickens were fine. I walked away for a bit and my son started throwing clumps of dirt at the chickens. Of course, I told him to stop and he did. I don't know if this has ANYTHING to do with what happened, but a minute or two later I was walking back by them and one chicken was sprawled out on the ground with its eyes closed, one leg limp behind him, not moving. I thought it was dead! I wasn't sure if a clump of dirt hit it and knocked it out or what, but then it opened its eyes, looked around, and sprang back up like nothing happened.

My friend who I got the chickens from said that it could be some sort of paralysis, which she has seen linked with moldy food in her chickens. I kept an eye on it for the next week, but didn't see any other odd behavior. I thought maybe it just got stunned if it got hit by dirt, but I'm not sure that really happened at all.

Then yesterday happened. I went outside to put some more feed in the feeder in the coop. The chickens of course all go running inside as I open the door to pour it in. Then I see the chicken (which I am pretty sure is the same chicken that had fallen on the ground, but I didn't link it right away) standing up against the wall with its head completely tucked under its breast and sort of at a funny angle. When the chickens run in it started going crazy! It is walking backwards and flailing and falling all over the place like it can't control itself at all. It finally huddles up against the water and stays there like that. I go to change the water and it starts to move all crazy again. I don't see any sores or anything. It somehow manages to make its way out of the coop and goes away from all the chickens. I left it for a bit and it just sort of stood like that by itself. THe other chickens mostly left it alone. Once in a while they would come over and kind of curiously look at it or peck it (not aggressively), but otherwise, it just kind of hung out by itself. I thought maybe it was "wry neck", but I don't really know exactly what to look for or how it would come on so suddenly like that.

At one point, it did come out and hold its head up correctly for maybe 5 seconds, but then it reverted and kind of got away from the rest of the flock again.

I decided to remove it from the flock, since I didn't know what was wrong with it. I put it in another fenced in area and made a makeshift coop out of an old dog house. After 5 minutes of being by itself, it started to stand upright and walk and peck and drink and act TOTALLY normal, like nothing was wrong. We kept it separate until evening and then I let it out and started leading it back to the coop. It was taking a while, so I picked it up. It pretty much calmed down and closed its eyes while I was holding it. When I opened the side door to the coop, all the chickens were already in there up on the roost. As soon as I set down the chicken it INSTANTLY reverted to its crazy behavior - head tucked under walking backwards and out of control!

I carried it back over to the isolated area and set it inside the mini "coop". It stayed with its head tucked under. After a couple of minutes of leaving it alone, it was back out pecking around like nothing was the matter. We put a board in front of the dog house (with some light still able to get in) and let it sleep in that area last night. When I went out this morning, it was all crouched up wiht its head tucked under and tail vertical, but after a minute it came out and is as normal as can be right now.

ANY IDEAS??? I also am not totally sure if it is a rooster or a hen. I think it is a rooster, but I dont' really know all the tell-tale signs yet. I could take a picture of it if that would help anyone. I just don't know if I should try to re-introduce it, if it is a psychological/behavior or symptom of something else, maybe neurological? We aren't planning on keeping any roosters either, so if it is a rooster, I'm not going to be very concerned about trying to help it get along with the flock again.

Thanks for taking the time to read. I am totally at a loss.

http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article.html

Here is a link for you. I'm thinking your pullet might have hit her head somehow. Chickens do run around crazily sometimes and bump into things. So maybe she has a brain injury or some swelling. This article should help you.

Sharon

If you post a photo most likely it's gender can be answered. The easiest answer is cull it. Something is wrong with the bird. Though it's flock mates are not aggressively pecking at it eventually they will.

with it feeling neurological, having neck problems and walking backwards, I agree it sounds like wry neck. That can be permanently neurological (cull), or it can also be a vitamin deficiency.

I cured wry neck in a 4 week old chick (cockerel) by giving concentrated chicken vitamins (NutriDrench or Poly Vi Sol) by beak 3-5x per day, I also kept him inside for a week during treatment. his neck went back to normal and he was a regular part of the flock until he died mysteriously 2 months later, cause unknown. his head was in the sand flooring of the coop and sand was in his mouth, I wondered if he had a siezure before death (neurological I wonder?)

please read this link:
http://oureggbasket.blogspot.com/2013/04/wry-neck-or-crook-neck-understanding-it.html

Thanks for the help, everyone! I don't know if its the deficiency or an injury, but there is definitely something going on. I am still wondering if my son hit it with a clump of dirt or maybe a rock by accident when he was throwing stuff in there last month and iI found it on the ground, knocked out for a good 30-60 seconds. I attached is a picture of the chicken (just named "cocoa" by my son). In the second picture it is kind of doing something with its neck because it was looking at the camera, but it looks just like all of the other chickens while out there.

Here is my update: It has been acting totally normal all day. Pecking around, eating, drinking tons of water. I went outside and opened the fence where I have been keeping it. It started following me over to the coop. It was up against the fence, looked like it was communicating with the other chickens and then kept trying to get in through the fence. I didn't want to pick it up and cause any stress, so after a while, I led it over by the opening into the fence with some food and closed it back up in there. That was a couple of hours ago, and it has been totally normal and fine. Nothing weird with the other birds, they all seem to be getting along and accepting it back into the flock like nothing happened. I'm watching it closely to see if it goes back to the old behavior or if any of the other birds start to bother it.

I am planning on giving some vitamin e to it and just watch closely. It seems to be getting plenty of food and water and hasn't done the weird neck thing yet. I am curious to see what happens when it/if it goes back into the coop this evening, since it all seemed to be triggered by being the coop.

On a side note, can anyone can help with gender identification? What do I look for/how do I tell for sure?



-becca

I am not sure if you meant vitamin E for humans... if so, chickens need an additional supplement called selenium to help absorb the vitamin. products like NutriDrench and Poly Vi Sol contain selenium to help with this for chickens specifically.

I'm sorry to tell you... both the chickens in the photos look like boys to me! They are very red in the face, comb, and wattle area. Typically, hens do not get red in the face until the week they start laying eggs (5-6mos old). that is a sure sign of a rooster. you can also look for long, pretty feathers near the neck and butt (saddle and hackle feathers). they will be pointed on the tips, not round like a hen's, and shiny. I was able to notice this by 12 weeks old on my cockerels, by parting the feathers near the back/wing and you can see the shiny feathers growing in.

can you post pictures of all the chickens for comparisons of combs?

Farmer Viola said:

I'm sorry to tell you... both the chickens in the photos look like boys to me! They are very red in the face, comb, and wattle area. Typically, hens do not get red in the face until the week they start laying eggs (5-6mos old). that is a sure sign of a rooster. you can also look for long, pretty feathers near the neck and butt (saddle and hackle feathers). they will be pointed on the tips, not round like a hen's, and shiny. I was able to notice this by 12 weeks old on my cockerels, by parting the feathers near the back/wing and you can see the shiny feathers growing in.

can you post pictures of all the chickens for comparisons of combs?

Click to expand...

This isn't a breed that I raise, but the two chickens look like roosters to me as well. A photo of them with the other birds that age would help. They booth look like they have too much tail and saddle feathers for pullets. Their faces do look rather red.

Looks like a hen

My barred rock hens looked just like that

looks exactly liked my barred rock hen did