Wry Neck in a Chick

Symptoms​

My barred rock pullet was 9 days old when I noticed that something was wrong. Her little neck had begun to twist back and upwards, leaving her fighting to stand upright, and forcing her head slowly and mercilessly around until her throat faced the sky. It didn’t happen all at once, but within 24 hours I knew that she was not well and was getting rapidly worse.

Diagnosis​

So I pulled out all my chicken books and started the online search, ending up on BYC. By the time the pullet started a crazy backward shuffle, her head between her legs as she tried to move blindly from the feeder to the waterer, I knew from my research that it was wry neck.

Causes​

There are many causes of wry neck, ranging from injuries to malnutrition, but in the case of such a young chick, the reason behind the illness is a little further removed. It can be a genetic problem, in which case it is probably incurable and culling is the kindest option. Or it can be that the parent(s) were malnutritioned, giving the chick a vitamin-deficient yolk to start life with.

According to the many sources available online, the main cause of wry neck is a Vitamin E deficiency, which can be caused by (surprise, surprise) a lack of Vitamin E in the diet - or by a lack of selenium, the mineral necessary for Vitamin E absorption.

Treatment​

While many people will isolate the patient for treatment, I decided to keep her with her thirty-odd brooder mates, as she was not being bullied. I purchased 400 IU (180mg) soft gel Vitamin E capsules from the pharmacy in my local Walmart and started the marathon.

The contents of one Vitamin E capsule combined with a teaspoon of warm egg yolk (an excellent source of selenium) became her lifeline, fed drop by drop from a syringe. I fed her this five times a day for three days.

It was an act of faith at first, as she did not improve but rapidly deteriorated to a point where she could no longer eat and drink on her own. Yet she wanted to live. She drank from a water dropper whenever it was offered to her (a dozen times a day or more) and tried unsuccessfully but with determination to eat whenever she figured out there was food in front of her.

Then, by the fourth day, as I massaged her neck for the millionth time, I felt a difference. Her neck was not coiled quite as tightly. I cut back to three vitamin E treatments a day, and she continued improving steadily. Two days later, she was eating and drinking on her own, and it was time to stop force-feeding her egg yolk. I switched to hulled sunflower seeds offered many times a day (another excellent source of selenium and vitamin E) and began to administer the Vitamin E capsules straight down her throat - just pop a hole in the capsule with a pin and squeeze!

Recovery​

From there, she healed unbelievably quickly. I kept up the Vitamin E treatments until she had received two weeks of care, though I backed off to twice a day, morning and evening. And two weeks to the day after her diagnosis, she was almost 100% healthy. You can see from this picture that her neck is still a little slanted, but within a few days, I could only recognize her because she was the first to come running for the sunflower seed treats.




I wish now that I had gotten pictures of her wry neck, but it seemed morbid at the time. She’s now a full-grown chicken, already laying, and I can’t even figure out which one she is of the five barred rock hens. Maybe the one who comes and talks to me at the fence?

I’m deeply grateful for those who have shared their experiences with wry neck here on BYC. I tried to find the original threads in order to link them here but was unsuccessful. But it sure helped!