Is this wry neck?

[NLmedic709]

Hello everyone, meet Crookie- one of my chocolate Orpington hens. She is nearly a year old now, and last December she began stargazing, walking backwards and separating herself from the flock. So, she moved into the “hospital” in our garage and has been there all winter. Initially she was in horrible shape, unable to eat or drink without her head upside down. Somehow she managed to keep eating and drinking. We were giving her nutridrench initially, then began the usual regimen of Vit B1, B2 and Vit E twice daily and feeding her scrambled eggs and black oil sunflower seeds for selenium. She has improved a lot and is laying eggs regularly for us again, but anytime she gets remotely stressed, she begins tossing her head and walking backwards again. Added the Vit E/Selenium paste - a pea sized drop once a day while continuing the other meds, without any further improvement. Will she ever get ‘normal’ enough to rejoin her flock or is she always going to be our little special Crookie girl? No known trauma that we could figure out, and no ear infection (she used to scratch her head a lot). She did have a VERY mild lice infestation but that has been dealt with months ago. Any further advice?

 

[LaurenRitz]

The walking backward might be chicken epilepsy, although that is usually more of a violent backward scramble and convulsions when they hit something.

 

[NLmedic709]

The walking backward might be chicken epilepsy, although that is usually more of a violent backward scramble and convulsions when they hit something.

She can get quite upset at times, swing her head around in circles and walk backwards. She does kind of look like the videos I’ve seen of seizures, but maybe not quite as violent.