Can a chicken get a large squishy crop from overeating????

forthebirdz said:

Yea, I guess I'm gonna have to give in and get her a bra for that enormous crop of hers! My husband is gonna give me a hard time about it bc he thinks it's so ridiculous for people to dress their pets up in clothes. But this is for medical reasons, haha!! I hope it helps, I read somewhere that once it is stretched to a certain point , it will forever be too loose. I hope not... Thanks

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Yes, sometimes crops will stretch out and forever be to loose, that is called a "pendulous crop". Once that happens the stretched out crop will hang so low that the food is not able to pass out of it, and they basically starve to death. I hope your husband doesn't give you to much of a hard time.

I have a girl with pendulous/chronic slow crop who has to wear a crop bra 24/7





My hen Jill wearing her crop bra.

Chickenchick11 said:

Yes, sometimes crops will stretch out and forever be to loose, that is called a "pendulous crop". Once that happens the stretched out crop will hang so low that the food is not able to pass out of it, and they basically starve to death. I hope your husband doesn't give you to much of a hard time.

I have a girl with pendulous/chronic slow crop who has to wear a crop bra 24/7





My hen Jill wearing her crop bra.

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Awwwwww!!!! Lol, she is cute and I LOVE her name. I am currently naming all my hens after friends of mine. It gives me a laugh. But back to business -what you said about starving to death makes me wonder if she's already slowly doing that! She doesn't seem to be gaining weight and pounds the food every chance she gets. I am going to see if I can try and sew one up for her tomorrow. They don't look like there is much to them, however, I am awful at sewing... we'll see how it comes out and maybe I'll post a cute pic of Lara wearing hers!

Lara's new crop bra... she hates it. We will see if it helps. I probably should have made it a little bigger since her crop is a full C cup! Also, I don't know if it has to do with her crop issues or not but she has a sore spot on her beak that won't seem to heal. Not sure what caused it but I'm guessing it will grow out???

forthebirdz said:

Awwwwww!!!! Lol, she is cute and I LOVE her name. I am currently naming all my hens after friends of mine. It gives me a laugh. But back to business -what you said about starving to death makes me wonder if she's already slowly doing that! She doesn't seem to be gaining weight and pounds the food every chance she gets. I am going to see if I can try and sew one up for her tomorrow. They don't look like there is much to them, however, I am awful at sewing... we'll see how it comes out and maybe I'll post a cute pic of Lara wearing hers!

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Thank you! That's a cool idea. Yeah, Jill was skin and bones before I put a crop bra on her. Now she gains weight, but if I let her gouge on hard treats she'll come down with slow/sour crop, and lose the weight again. So it's just been a battle to figure out what she can and can't eat. Before I bought Jill her bra from Crazy K Farms I made her a tan one. It's not to tough to do. I tie the straps criss cross on her back so it doesn't put as much pressure on her wings.

forthebirdz said:

Lara's new crop bra... she hates it. We will see if it helps. I probably should have made it a little bigger since her crop is a full C cup! Also, I don't know if it has to do with her crop issues or not but she has a sore spot on her beak that won't seem to heal. Not sure what caused it but I'm guessing it will grow out???

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Awww, Lara and her bra are adorable! Don't worry, Jill hated her's at first to. They get used to it though. Hmmmm....I'm not sure about the beak sore.

I ended up taking her bra back off because that night, she didn't get on the roost and instead, she discovered the nesting boxes were quite comfortable to sleep in. Not sure what I'm gonna do about her. I might ask my husband to put up a roost lower to the ground that she can reach easier. None of my hens are laying yet but they should be in within a few weeks and I don't want the boxes to be full of poop!!! Chickenchick11, did your hen that has slow crop ever do anything like this and does she lay eggs?

forthebirdz said:

I ended up taking her bra back off because that night, she didn't get on the roost and instead, she discovered the nesting boxes were quite comfortable to sleep in.  Not sure what I'm gonna do about her.  I might ask my husband to put up a roost lower to the ground that she can reach easier.  None of my hens are laying yet but they should be in within a few weeks and I don't want the boxes to be full of poop!!!  Chickenchick11, did your hen that has slow crop ever do anything like this and does she lay eggs?

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Hmmm........Jill would always jump on the roost at night, (She's in the house right now though because she can't handle our cold northern MN winters) but she's only laid one egg since this pendulous crop ordeal started. Chickens will naturally try to roost on the tallest thing they can get too, so just make sure your roost isn't lower than the nest boxes, or all of your birds may decide to roost in the boxes.

Good news!! Her crop is back down to normal size. I put the crop bra I made for he back on for 2 days but then we had to leave town so I took it off. I didn't want it to somehow snag on something and hurt her. Well, when we got back after 3 days, her crop was no longer squishy and now was the normal size! -and she seemed to be more energetic too. She looks way smaller than she should, but I'm hoping she'll catch up and eventually, one day, lay me an egg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, basically, I have no idea what made her better, lol. But SHE IS!!! Yaaaayyyy!!!

Just an update, after caring and worrying and stressing and fussing after this chicken "she" turned out to be a ROOSTER! lol