Blochers Djur & Natur

WRY NECK

Symptoms, treatment and causes

DISCLAMIER: Im not an expert. This text is based on my own experience, advice from people with knowledge and my own research.

Wry neck also known as crookneck, stargazing and its medical term torticollis. This is a condition that is not a disease it self but most often a cause of something else, like: a brain or neck injury, toxins or the most common one a deficincy in Vitamin E. 

Every poultry can be affected by wry neck but it seem to be the most common in chickens. I have heard of ducks getting in young ages and it seems to be rare in geese.

Symptoms

Every case of wry neck can look diffrent depending on the severity and cause of the wry neck. If you are lucky you can discover it early enough.
The most classic signs of wry neck are:

  • A head tilt down, up or to the side. If its a early wry neck it will be only a slight bend but a more severe wry neck will be a bend that will be very obvious. 
  • They will not walk forward. An early wry neck can start with this symptom before the bent neck. 

Like said every case is diffrent, but usally it takes about 1-2 days for the wry neck to develop to more severe symtoms. 

For my girl it started first with her just puffing her feathers and mostly around her neck

  • and she had a slight bent neck.
  • her second time it started with very suttle stare up in nowhere
  • and then it was followed by loss of balance. The days before I found her in the morning of the perch (I tought it was just because she was broody).
My dear Panic who got a acute form of wry neck
My dear Panic who got a acute form of wry neck

Since I wrote this article the first time I got to experience a diffrent type of wry neck with another of my silkies. This was caused by a brain injury due to a severe vaulted skull but I learned that if you are lucky the treatment is the same. 

This got to be a more acute form of wry neck. The symtoms came very suddenly but also with high doses of Vitamin E togheter with calming down the chicken and holdning it in a upright position the wry neck went away without 1-2 hours. 

He had episodes like this 3-4 a week until I got a decent enough treament in.

Treatment 

How do you treat wry neck? Starting with an Vitamin E treatment will never hurt, despite what the cause is.

When you see improvment it is important to not stop the treatment right cold turkey. If you do this wry neck will come back with a veagence. Slowly lower the dosages of your treatment day by day until you have completley phased out all treatment. 

Products for Wry Neck

FAVORITE TREAT

you want to encourge your hen or rooster to eat. Their favorite treat will motivate them to try. Boiled egg and corn is always a good motivation. Personally my gal loves parakeet seeds.

SEPERATION 

Your chicken will not be able to defend it self and be sensetive to its envoriment and attacks from it flock mates.

First time I had with her moving mate in the coop with a see thrue fence so she still got company. Second time I put her in a cat carrier during the day so she still could hear and see the others.

STRESSFREE ENVORIMENT 

Stress is known to make the illness worse. So keep the enovriment calm and dont make any sudden changes.

Like above if you dont know how to crop feed be careful how you give your chicken this feed. You can use a syringe and gentle drip the feed on the tounge, or on the side of the side on the beak, the response will be to drink it.

I always felt for my first wry neck chicken that the disease reach a high point before it starts to get better. For some this is a few days and for some it can be several months. Unfortanly some will not get better at all depending on the cause of the wry neck. 

My girl had a turning point around day 3-4, while my boy like said got better after 1-2 hours in the right position. 


She felt alot of relif me helping hold her head up
She felt alot of relif me helping hold her head up

Relif for your Chicken 

To explain in simpler terms wry neck is a type of cramping in the muscles. You can understand this your self, it does not feel nice! To get some relif for your chicken hold it in the right position. This also relive some stress since they will not be panicing. 

You can also gently massage the neck to help against those nasty cramps. Keep in min it is the neck you are handling on a small animal, so be careful. 

Last time my girl had wry neck and the episodes of my wry neck boy I carried them every free time I had to be able to hold the neck up to give them relif.

Broody hens

For hens that have had wry neck, broodiness is the enemy. Their body will not be able to handle a broody period and a risk for relapse is huge. I learned this the hard way.

You can handle this two ways, let her lay and give her vitamins during the broody period. Also make sure she gets her food!My opinion that this still involves a risk of relapse.
Or you break her right away.

Speculation on what causes wry neck

One theory is that people breed on hens that have had wry neck before. If your mama hen have had wry neck, gets treated, recovers. She is going to have that genetic disposition of carrying the gene for vitamin deficincy to her baby. 

Many have observed that weather changes specially to cold weather makes them more senetive to get wry neck and a relapse.

From observing my hen that comes from healthy parents. I do believe that silkie genetics have a big part in it and like that if they get it once they are more likley to get it once more.

I have seen many speculations of the causes of wry neck. It is proven that some breeds to get wry neck more easily and one of these breeds are the silkie chicken.

One theory is that people breed on hens that have had wry neck before. If your mama hen have had wry neck, gets treated, recovers. She is going to have that genetic disposition of carrying the gene for vitamin deficincy to her baby. 

Many have observed that weather changes specially to cold weather makes them more senetive to get wry neck and a relapse.

From observing my hen that comes from healthy parents. I do believe that silkie genetics have a big part in it and like that if they get it once they are more likley to get it once more.


"Patsy's wry neck was exacerbated by the stroke. She was hatched with rickets, which was caused by inccorrect hatching temperatues. She was prone to calcium and vitamin A deficiency." -
Kelly at IloveChookens

Recovery and time after

When you chicken have gotten wry neck, even tho recovering this "illness" will lay dormant.

Prevention are going be the key to keep the illness at bay. The chickens who have gotten wry neck ones seem to have a sensetivity to getting deficincies yet again.

at the time of this Picture Bartok has not had a relapse in 2 years
at the time of this Picture Bartok has not had a relapse in 2 years

Recovery and time after

When you chicken have gotten wry neck, even tho recovering this "illness" will lay dormant.

Prevention are going be the key to keep the illness at bay. The chickens who have gotten wry neck ones seem to have a sensetivity to getting deficincies yet again.

What can you do?

  • Adding sunflowerseeds to their diet or as treat on a regual schedule.
  • Giving multivitamins on a regular schedule to that specfic chicken. I give twice a month.
  • Giving veggies on a regular schedule.
in honor of Panic who is sadly not with us today
in honor of Panic who is sadly not with us today

Also read about:

Vitamin E
A gal with a twisted neck

Sources:
Grubby Farms What is wry neck
 
Murano Chicken Farm Speculation on genetics in Wry neck


Feather Baby Farm Why Silkies are more prone to vitamin deficincy


Facebook group A silkie chicken group that have been a huge help sharing their experience