Wry Neck
Wry neck refers to a chicken’s inability to hold her head up, so it just flops over and rests on the ground. Left untreated, she will die of starvation.
In my experience, wry neck presents at two points in a bird’s life: either as a freshly-hatched chick or when they hit puberty around 3-4 months old. It is usually brought on by either a lack of Selenium in the diet or in a bird’s individual inability to take up the Selenium provided.
The immediate response is to provide concentrated Selenium which I find in a Goat and Sheep Selenium supplement and to then add Black-Oil Sunflowers and Spinach to that hen’s diet. Of course, she has to go to the table egg flock now, as I don’t want to her Selenium-impaired genes in my breeding pen.
You can see the before and after Chick version here: Stella Stargazer and today ‘s pullet below.
Fun fact, the Instagram post on the pullet with wry neck went viral with 350K views and rising. You can see it here.
