I have heard several stories of Silkies dieing from seemingly insignificant blows to the head. In 2001 Pedro (one of our cockerels) jumped and hit his head in a travel carrier. He died within an hour. After the 2002 Ohio National we found Attila the Hun (another of our cockerels) almost dead in a travel coop but I revived him with mouth to beak resuscitation. We guess he hit his head. I almost killed Attila a month later as I broke up a cockerel fight but once again I resuscitated him.
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I theorize that what we call crookneck and others call limber neck is caused by trauma to a Silkie's exposed brain. Birds with crookneck tuck their heads between their legs and their neck muscles are taught. In severe cases the birds back up, twitch their tucked heads side to side, and flip upside down.
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