Silkie with wry neck best vitamin solution?

[Zachderky]

This is a good article on syringe feeding. Good clear pictures and decent text.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...dications-to-all-poultry-and-waterfowl.73335/

Great link, and very good idea to watch some videos about force feeding a chicken before you do it yourself, I actually gave her some vitamins through syringe yesterday(was with water), as I wanted to make sure she would consume them, it went very good, made sure to administer it in small intervals giving her a couple seconds to process it before administering again, it definitely helps a lot if you have someone there with you just to help hold the chicken or/and open the beak for you, I wrapped her in a towel(as seen in many videos) and it helps a lot, with the syringe I did the beak and administering myself, only had someone else hold the chicken, while with the capsule just now I actually had the other person hold the chicken and open the beak, as I found it difficult to open the beak and then get the capsule inside, I'm still sure that I could do it alone, it would just take me longer and maybe be a little less smooth.

As for dosage, I think I will go with 2 capsules daily.. I was thinking about giving one in the morning and one close to evening, since there is that insane downtime from evening to morning I talked about earlier. I would continue this for about a week unless I see big improvements sooner than that, if not, I would down the dosage to 1(after 1 week) as per the link you sent me, I also see they give 25 mcg selenium daily on the first week, I guess this makes sense because it helps with absorbing the Vit E's(which are being given twice daily) so I will give her 2 scrambled eggs, daily, or as long as I keep giving her the x2 Vit E's.


Also what exactly are you going to dose with a syringe? Did you get some kind of Vitamin E oil? Also, can your chicken eat/drink by itself?

 

[Shadrach]

This is a link to the thread I started describing the problem.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/hen-with-suspected-neurological-damage.1282195/
The vitamin B complex I have is a liquid. I puncture the Wheat Germ capsules and put the oil with the vitamins into a syringe. It's quick and I'm sure she gets the correct dose.
She can and does eat by herself and apart from the backwards waliking and head weaving appears quite normal.

 

[Zachderky]

Small update for today: Getting the capsule in was not easy, she'd constantly fall asleep and wake up as I was trying to open her beak, on top of that she was also moving her head around every time I tried to open it, essentially fighting it off, although she did not attack me. Eventually I found a good way to open the beak up, (I was being very gentle as I did not want to hurt her) then I had another problem which was that she would have her tongue all the way up on the same height as the top part of her beak, basically making it Impossible for me to put the capsule in there, luckily eventually I was able to open her beak with her tongue in normal position and put the capsule in there, actually just checked a force feeding video again and it looks exactly the same as what I did, except I probably took like 10 times longer, hoping it goes easier tonight.

I also scrambled up 2 eggs and tried to get her to eat it by putting it close with her (didn't try to force feed it as just the capsule alone was a lengthy process) she didn't touch it and even one hour later it s looks like it's untouched, still giving her more time and hoping she'll eventually start eating it, if not I guess I'm going to try and force feed that to her too, yesterday evening she seemed like she had more energy and was much more compliant, so force feeding the scrambled eggs in a scenario as such does not sound that difficult, it's possible she would even get the message if I just hold them very close to the beak, I suppose only time will tell.

This is a link to the thread I started describing the problem.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/hen-with-suspected-neurological-damage.1282195/
The vitamin B complex I have is a liquid. I puncture the Wheat Germ capsules and put the oil with the vitamins into a syringe. It's quick and I'm sure she gets the correct dose.
She can and does eat by herself and apart from the backwards waliking and head weaving appears quite normal.

Sucks to hear, at least you've noticed it becoming more frequent and you're trying to find treatment, I hope it works out for you, you are definitely asking the right people.

 

[Shadrach]

Small update for today: Getting the capsule in was not easy, she'd constantly fall asleep and wake up as I was trying to open her beak, on top of that she was also moving her head around every time I tried to open it, essentially fighting it off, although she did not attack me. Eventually I found a good way to open the beak up, (I was being very gentle as I did not want to hurt her) then I had another problem which was that she would have her tongue all the way up on the same height as the top part of her beak, basically making it Impossible for me to put the capsule in there, luckily eventually I was able to open her beak with her tongue in normal position and put the capsule in there, actually just checked a force feeding video again and it looks exactly the same as what I did, except I probably took like 10 times longer, hoping it goes easier tonight.

I also scrambled up 2 eggs and tried to get her to eat it by putting it close with her (didn't try to force feed it as just the capsule alone was a lengthy process) she didn't touch it and even one hour later it s looks like it's untouched, still giving her more time and hoping she'll eventually start eating it, if not I guess I'm going to try and force feed that to her too, yesterday evening she seemed like she had more energy and was much more compliant, so force feeding the scrambled eggs in a scenario as such does not sound that difficult, it's possible she would even get the message if I just hold them very close to the beak, I suppose only time will tell.




Sucks to hear, at least you've noticed it becoming more frequent and you're trying to find treatment, I hope it works out for you, you are definitely asking the right people.

Your problems getting the hen to swallow the capsule Is why I use a syringe. You can suck out the vitamin E liquid from the capsule and that might make administering by syringe easier.
I've squeezed scarmbled egg through a syringe before.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

You need to get her well hydrated before you try to get any food into her.
Hopefully she will start to recover.

 

[Zachderky]

Your problems getting the hen to swallow the capsule Is why I use a syringe. You can suck out the vitamin E liquid from the capsule and that might make administering by syringe easier.
I've squeezed scarmbled egg through a syringe before.

Most of the trouble was with opening the beak and keeping it open, so even if I would do it with a syringe I feel like it would be nearly the same, I guess you could say that with a syringe you can open the beak and put the syringe slightly into the beak so closing it is not an option for her, but it was actually really difficult since she would completely move her head from left to right, there was also the issue with the tongue being all the way at the top, all in all I would probably agree with you that syringe would be better (I think it could vary by how tame your chicken is, too) but not by much. I feel like directly giving the capsules would still be the better choice in my case, assuming it gets easier over time (I do believe I learned a bit more from today's experience and the next few feeds will go much more fluently)

Regarding the scrambled eggs through syringe, that sounds kinda weird to me, would be nice if you could elaborate on how you pulled this off.

Currently it's been about 3 hours since I put the scrambled eggs with her and she has yet to touch them, even when put near her she won't touch it, shitty weather (rain,winds) along with short days also really don't help, I feel like I barely have time to try anything every day, today I actually had to wait because when I opened the coop she was sitting properly as if she were laying an egg, turned out she wasn't and it was probably because outside was too cold, I have about 2 hours left today before it's dark again.

She most likely wont be consuming those scrambled eggs today, which makes me wonder if I should even be giving another capsule, the selenium is supposed to help absorb the Vitamin E, without it, I fear it could be too strong.

You need to get her well hydrated before you try to get any food into her.
Hopefully she will start to recover.

She has actually managed to eat/drink by herself every day for the past few days, I only aid in putting her food/water close to her each time. Although today seems like she's pretty weak, not moving a lot, but I've also not seen her neck spaz out like it sometimes would before, it only happened when I picked her up which I believe is stress related.

 

[Shadrach]

I put the scrambled egg in a blender.
I do empathise with your problems. Trying to care for a sick chickens is time consuming and stressful. I've done quite a lot of it over the years, usually for injuries rather than sickness. There comes a point when you have to decide whether you and the chickens are making any real progress and act accordingly. It's a terrible decsion to have to make.
My rough guide now with injured chickens is if they won't eat solids after three days of care they are probably not going to make it. I've had a couple die on my bed having spent a couple of weeks trying to pull them through. It's just plain heartbreaking and I end up wondering if I have just prolonged their suffering.

 

[Zachderky]

I put the scrambled egg in a blender.
I do empathise with your problems. Trying to care for a sick chickens is time consuming and stressful. I've done quite a lot of it over the years, usually for injuries rather than sickness. There comes a point when you have to decide whether you and the chickens are making any real progress and act accordingly. It's a terrible decsion to have to make.
My rough guide now with injured chickens is if they won't eat solids after three days of care they are probably not going to make it. I've had a couple die on my bed having spent a couple of weeks trying to pull them through. It's just plain heartbreaking and I end up wondering if I have just prolonged their suffering.

In her current state, I believe force feeding anything would be really difficult, today she seems to not be doing a whole lot and she's mostly just sitting quietly in one place, moving every once in a while to a new place to sit at.

I think I definitely won't do another capsule today and hope she'll have a little more energy tomorrow, if not I'll try other methods such as syringing scrambled eggs (this would be very hard to impossible to feed in her current state)
Mostly coming to this conclusion also because yesterday evening she actually seemed to have energy, was moving around slowly and even got back into her coop (up the stairs) all by herself, while other days I would have to pick her up and put her in. Hoping I'll see that again later today (probably wont) or tomorrow.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Here's a good way to give medications/syringe fluids into a chicken. I normally do not hold mine under the arm like a football though, I sit or stand them on a table, pull them to my body. Then you can have the arm somewhat draped over and your hand can control the head/open the beak. There is a video at the end of the link showing how to give oral medication too
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...er-construction-check-back-for-updates.73335/


This video shows how to help a chicken with Wry Neck eat. If she is able to eat a little, then you can always add the vitamins to food so you are not struggling to get her mouth open

 

[Zachderky]

Today went pretty bad, tried for like 30 minutes to force the capsule but it just wasn't possible, most of the time is spent getting the beak open without her instantly moving her head (which is unstoppable) the few times I did actually get her beak open it was barely big enough to squeeze the capsule through, and as soon as the capsule touched the beginning of the beak she'd move her head again, so after 30 minutes of trying to get her to swallow the pill I gave up and wanted to try something else, squash the gel and suck the liquid into a syringe, the liquid was very thick and it was very hard to suck up, I let it spread out after opening too which in hindsight was probably a bad idea, I think I'll try to make a hole in the gel and then suck it out directly from the gel next time, couldn't really get all of it in one go so I had to do it twice, she still moved her head all the time and my window to pour it inside the beak was very small each time, but I managed to do it both times, didn't take super long, but it's definitely not as easy as pretty much every video I saw about people force feeding their chickens, but obviously nobody would make a how to video using a chicken that resists so much.


In case the force feeding continues to be this difficult is there any other way to go about this? What are the chances that any of the products listed in my original post would help? Could the multi vit for bird work out?