# 2 Year Old Hen With Wry Neck? Mold Intoxication? At a loss!!



## FullBasket (May 24, 2014)

Hi all--This might be a little long, but I want to give as much info as I possibly can.

I have a 2 year old Dominique hen named Ada who is doing very poorly and I need all the advice I can get.

Here's some background:

I have five hens, all the same age. They have free-range during the day of my 1/2 acre backyard and a big pen with a henhouse that they are locked into at night. They eat regular layer mash, some kitchen scraps like leftover rice, fruit and veggie remnants, oatmeal, plain yogurt, etc.--nothing unhealthy. They also, of course, eat whatever they find in the yard--bugs, weeds, and, of course, the plants in the veggie garden, when I forget to throw the bird nets over them!!

Up until yesterday morning, Ada was completely healthy and happy. She was totally fine when I put her away for the evening on Wednesday night. When I let them out Thursday morning, I noticed her neck seemed "off-center" and that she was holding her head tilted to one side. She seemed a little "drunk" when she walked, and had trouble keeping her balance.

I googled her symptoms and came up with Wry Neck. I started researching treatment, and immediately went and procured the necessary vitamins (E, Selenium, and a liquid B-complex). I also had a bottle of prednisone leftover from my cat. I immediately started her on the weight-appropriate regimen recommended for Wry Neck and began to do more research. In the meantime, she was still able to walk around with the other chickens, find worms, peck at the ground, and act fairly normal, though with some difficulty.

This morning when I woke up, she was worse--her neck was very, very bowed and her head very, very tilted. She was "stargazing" far more prominently and didn't want to stand or walk very much, preferring instead to sit on the ground. She did eat some rice and egg yolk for me, but her aim was very poor, and she had trouble with it. I gave her her vitamins and prednisone in an eye dropper to make sure she got it all.

Because she was completely fine day before yesterday, I've been wracking my brains to figure out how this could have happened or what could have caused it. I have a hard time believing it's a vitamin deficiency--she's two years old and has never had one before!!

It's also odd to me that she's of an age (not a baby) and breed (not a Silkie) that doesn't typically present with wry neck, but her symptoms are so classic, I can't imagine that it's anything else.

I'm seriously wondering if the wry neck is being caused by some sort of toxin or mold that she ingested. I can think of a few possibilities:

1). On Wednesday, I fed my chickens a handful of strawberries that had gone mushy in the fridge. They weren't moldy...just not something I wanted to eat. However, it seems possible that they could have been growing some sort of toxin on them, I guess.

2). Also on Wednesday, I bought a fresh bale of straw and added some to their pen. They spent most of Wednesday afternoon/evening digging through the straw and eating whatever it is chickens eat from straw. What if the straw had something poisonous in it?? It was fresh, clean straw--it had been stored indoors, and didn't smell moldy or musty at all when I opened it up (I always check), but I guess there could have been something in there like a toxic weed or pesticide or something.

3). It has been really, really rainy where I live, and I found some spilled feed in their pen that had gone moldy. I tried to remove it the best I could, but I might not have gotten it all.

I'm just at a loss. I don't know if I'm treating her with the right things, or if there's something else I should be doing. She was very alert this morning, at least, and I brought her into the house so that she could be handfed and watered. She has grown lethargic, but is taking food and water from my hands and a syringe. Her stools are loose--not totally watery, but loose--and smell kind of bad (though most fresh chicken poop doesn't smell very good to me). I've been giving her yogurt, egg yolk, lettuce, cantaloupe, and layer mash mixed with water. It's very, very hard for her to drink, so she has to get water syringed down her throat.

Is there ANYTHING else I can do?? I feel like if she makes it through the night, she might have a chance. It seems like she's just so much worse today than she was yesterday, and I guess I wrongly assumed she would at least not get WORSE if I started the treatment right away (if I'm even treating the right problem!).

Here is a link to a video I took of her behavior yesterday, in case that helps: 




I posted a less-detailed version of this question on a different chicken forum, but the only help I got was a "shame on you" for feeding my chickens kitchen scraps.

I read on someone else's wry neck thread that wry neck in adult hens is caused by a vitamin B-Complex deficiency?? I'm interested in that assertion...I haven't read it anywhere but on this forum, but if it's true, I have an injectable B-Complex I could give her in addition to the liquid complex she is getting orally.

Any advice anyone could offer would be so very much appreciated.

thank you!


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Thiamine (B1) defiency is a known cause for stargazing. That would be the one I would try putting her on.

I would stop the pred. Right now hitting her with everything but the kitchen sink will not answer your question on what is going on. If its a B1 problem, then that's all she needs. Pred is reserved for swelling in the brain from an injury and she is not presenting that way.

I would now worry about the straw. One of the reasons its so safe to use with chickens is the resistance to mold.


----------

