Wry Neck/Torticollis What is it & Initial Treatment - The Upside down rooster

This is a departure from my usual format, in that this was an open-ended treatment with no definite conclusion because I just had two weeks with this very courageous bird.  His ability to thrive with such a difficult condition bore witness to the amazing resilience and determination of 'chickens' in particular and made me ever more aware of why I find them fascinating. I just hope that I did him some good and I leave it for you to judge, as at the end of this two part article I enclose the film I made of the whole process.

I have actually had success with wry neck treatment before but in a duckling and obviously thus of a much younger age than Mr Upside Down. I was also able to spend more time with the former and thus continue the treatment to its cure. A very obvious trigger for this condition, as I'd observed with the duckling who was the 'runt of the litter', was stress. Stress was particularly conspicuous in the case of the cockerel, who was initially picked upon by the other male birds....

...but as you can see evidenced below, very much accepted by the hens. This is not surprising as he is a very gentle bird and very much the antithesis of his swaggering and posturing confreres, who are just of an age to be very annoying to the females who shun them.

Wry Neck aka Torticollis - Symptoms & Causes

Wry neck or to give it is scientific name Torticollis is a condition where, as the appellation suggests, the bird is unable to control its neck, which goes into spasm and twists, usually bending the head in an upside down position, often descending to floor level. The spasms are caused by severe pain and the neck bends away from that painful sensation causing it to twist. Obviously this condition can be fatal, purely because the bird can find itself unable to eat or drink. However, such was Mr Upside Down's strength of mind and resolution that he had even developed a strategy for feeding himself upside down! On several occasions I saw him consuming grain and sifting through the earth with his head curled backwards below his breast.

The exact causes of wry neck are not really known but there are several indications as to why it occurs and it is this perceived wisdom which can be used to inform us how to improve and even cure the condition. Among the triggers for torticollis, both as unique sources or as combined factors, are:

• trauma to the head and/or neck
• extreme stress, such as instigated by predator attack or bullying
• difficulty at hatch caused by poor positioning in the egg
• toxins which disrupt nervous system function and/or cause malabsorption of essential nutrients
• lack or deprivation of essential nutrients

This last trigger is of great interest to me as it is the one I have used to cure the condition before. There are, for example, 13 Vitamins which are crucial in a poultry diet, a deficiency in even one can induce neurological illness and thus problems with locomotion, paralysis and eventually cell die-off. In the next part of this article I will detail them and other trace elements and list the foods and sources I used to obtain them for Mr Upside Down.

Initial Observations - Stress & Wry Neck - Emotional Support

I'm a great believer in the havoc and incidentally and conversely, the benefit stress can engender within the immune system and in particular when the body is in a state of deficiency. In humans, stress at times of illness can make or break them and birds in my experience are no different. I always remember being told of the creator of a particularly large and successful fabric company, who suffered a stroke and was completely paralysed. Several months after his stroke, a friend visited him in hospital and inadvertently let slip that the company was heading into bankruptcy, that same afternoon the patient began to move his big toe and went on to make a full recovery and to save his company.

BUILDING CONFIDENCE

With Mr Upside Down once I removed him from the flock and began to feed him strategically placed on the corn bin, his status improved and his stress declined.  After a few initial tremors, particularly at first when he was unused to me, I could almost get him in an upright position to feed. However, in the first few days, once I put him back down on the ground and in with the other  young males, he reverted to complete Mr Upside Down mode (see above). However, after a few minutes perceiving he was secure, he would then get himself into a 'Richard III' position (below). As time went on he gradually became relaxed enough to eat his special food on the ground without the added security and status of height to control his stress and neck!

Continuing to Boost Confidence & Improve Flock Status

Stress is known to cause a depletion of and/or create a barrier to, the uptake of many essential vitamins and minerals which are involved with normal growth, motor function and nervous system optimisation. Therefore, it is really important to rectify this situation at the outset otherwise you are wasting your time and good nutrition. In a normal situation I would of course remove the bird to a different location away from any potential stressors and have him in a group just with the females. However, as this was not possible I made sure I spent a good amount of time with him every day and this did actually seem to give him status and thus confidence. I think this was reflected both in the way he began to hold himself physically as you will see from the end of the film and the fact that he stopped competing for food. This because obviously being hand-fed it was no longer necessary for him to fight for essential nutrition.

In Part Two I'll detail the nutritional support and the age-related problems hampering the usually speedy recovery time.

Thanks for dropping by and do feel free to share experiences or ask for further information in the comment section. If you have enjoyed this piece and found it useful think about sharing it with your family and friends, on social media and also maybe about joining this blog and/or subscribing to my Youtube channel or even supporting us on Patreon or

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Until next time, all the very best from Normandie! Sue

© 2020 Sue Cross

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