Help! Wild baby chick rescued now has wry neck

[AmyGarciavettech]

Hello everyone, just wanted to give you a quick bit of context here before i talk about our baby chicky with wry neck. Me and my partner are from Puerto Rico, we found a baby chicken (about 3 to 4 days old) at the university and there were no signs of the mother or any other chickens around. My boyfriend took pity on the baby and took her to an avian vet, the doctor prescribed her with the medicine "laptobacillus" orally for 7 days due to her having parasites. Again, we are first time chicken owners and we asked what we needed to get to raise chippi (their name <3 ) and we bought medicated feed, bedding (though we opted to use paper towels since the bedding was pretty expensive), and their water and feed dispensers. It was not recommended that we use a heat lamp/heat source since we do not use the ac system (and the weather in PR is pretty warm). Since her space looked empty we decided to bunch up some small towels and she used it as a resting place during the night. Things were going pretty swell the first 3 days she was with us. We looked up more information on raising a chick and we bought Higgins brand mineral grit (added a teaspoon of it to the feed) and a packet of Ideal Vi-tal (but we didnt use it until today).

So about the wry neck. Today when my partner went to put the chick down near the towels, the chick got one of its nails stuck on the towel fibers and started to freak out for a couple of seconds until it was able to get out. I wasn't there to see what had happened while the chick was struggling, but afterwards we saw that the chick was walking a bit more clumsily and that their head seemed to "nod" to one side. We gave chippi 0.1cc of the Vi-tal water mix (1 teaspoon mixed into half a galon of water) and they freaked out with their hear going in all sorts of directions before calming down but having the stargazing position. We took her out of her usual space and tried taking chippi to the vet (only for them to be closed due to holy week) so when we brought her back we ordered some vitamin e, selenium and vitamin b complex to mix tiny amounts of the vitamins (except the vitamin e, that was the full capsule) into 0.3cc's of the vit-tal water and a bit of raw egg yolk to also try to give it some food. We are going to give them this mixture every 2 hours but please, if there is anything we are doing wrong please tell us. We love this little chick and it has bonded with us in these last 4 days, she has showed us all the signs of a happy and comfortable chick so having this happen so soon has just left us utterly heartbroken. Please have patience if we seemed to have made a big mistake, i just want to learn how to raise this chicken purely as a beloved pet of ours.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Since it's such a tiny chick one vitamin dose once a day should be enough, every 2 hours seems like a lot. It may take weeks to show improvement so don't be discouraged if you don't see results right away. Is the chick still eating and drinking on its own?

Just so you're aware the vit B complex will counteract the thiamine inhibiting qualities of the medicated feed (assuming that the feed is medicated with an anti cocciodstat). You can still use it of course, but it won't be effective as "medicated" feed.

 

[AmyGarciavettech]

Since it's such a tiny chick one vitamin dose once a day should be enough, every 2 hours seems like a lot. It may take weeks to show improvement so don't be discouraged if you don't see results right away. Is the chick still eating and drinking on its own?

Just so you're aware the vit B complex will counteract the thiamine inhibiting qualities of the medicated feed (assuming that the feed is medicated with an anti cocciodstat). You can still use it of course, but it won't be effective as "medicated" feed.

Hi, thank you for the advice! The chick seems to be feeling weak this morning and it we have been feeding them with a syringe since yesterday. They still show signs of stargazing and drooping their head down until they get startled, cry out and flip over. We were able to swaddle the chick in a small towel so they wouldn't hurt themselves. We are going to take her to the vet again today so im waiting to see what they tell us.

I will follow your advice on lowering the vitamin dosage to just once a day. We are still giving them the other medication so i did worry that it could be too much.

Can i ask why is medicated feed recommended for chicks even if it has that inhibiting factor? Im considering getting non-medicated after this but i obviously i want to make sure that all the nutrients and vitamins are still present so i would like to know more about the feed. If you have any links to resources i can read i would greatly appreciate it! Thanks again for taking your time to reply. <3