Chickens get sick, in fact, there are a variety of ailments that can affect your bird, make it sick and cause it to develop bizarre symptoms like the bird hanging her head.
This article explores why your chicken may be hanging her head.
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Why is my chicken hanging her head?
Chickens can suffer a variety of illnesses, and many of these illnesses cause similar symptoms with only slight differences, so, figuring out what your bird has can be confusing, but this article may help.
Here is why your chicken may be hanging her head:
Botulism:
One of the reasons why your bird may be hanging its head may be that the bird has a condition called botulism, botulism is also called limber neck.
The condition can affect a variety of different birds but it is most common in ducks and chickens. Your birds get botulism when they eat the toxin that is produced by the bacterium clostridium botulism.
Clostridium botulism and the toxin that it produces are usually found on spoiled vegetables and dead animal carcasses. The bacteria is generally harmless but the toxin is what will cause the botulism.
The condition causes paralysis of the bird’s neck and limbs. Signs of this condition can show up 12 to 48 hours after the toxin has been ingested.
Symptoms of this condition in your bird, other than the bird hanging its head, include drooping eyes
What to do:
Unfortunately, there is no specific treatment for botulism so a bird who has this condition will likely die once the muscles used for breathing become paralyzed.
You can do your best to prevent this from happening by ensuring that the birds only have access to clean food and water and making sure that good hygiene is maintained.
The bird’s crop may still be holding the toxins produced by the bacteria so a lot of the toxins may not make it down into the bird’s digestive system and into the rest of the bird’s body.
If this is the case then the toxin can be flushed out of the bird’s crop using water, doing this several times will help clear the crop.
Adding bicarbonate of soda to the water is also recommended.
Wry neck:
Another condition that can cause your bird’s head to hang is wry neck, this connection will cause your bird to hang its neck backward, or twist to one side, instead of forward as a bird with botulism would.
This condition is not uncommon in chicks but is less common in adult chickens but adult chickens can still get it.
Wry neck is caused by a variety of things including a genetic condition, a vitamin deficiency (a vitamin E or selenium deficiency) and it can develop more commonly in silkies because they have a higher tendency to develop head injuries.
What to do:
If one of your birds does have wry neck then isolate the affected bird, isolating the sick bird will keep the healthy birds from picking on the sick bird.
Once isolated you can supplement vitamin E and selenium into the bird’s diet. Good quality chicken supplements should do the trick, but human supplements can also be given to your bird.
Supplements can be given to your bird two or three times a day and improvements are usually seen within the first 24 hours of treating the bird.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Why Is My Chicken Hiding During The Day?, Chicken Hiding In A Corner, Why Is My Chicken Hiding Her Head?, Why Do Chickens Jump On Your Back?, Why Do Chickens Jump On Each Other?, Chicken Standing Still With Eyes Closed
