Freaking out... Are they all gonna die?

BlackRose89

In the Brooder
5 Years
Feb 4, 2014
61
0
31
I was about to take all my girls out for a day trip bc it's pretty outside, and I noticed my white leghorn has a serious growth/swelling/something on her right side of her breast! (Left side in the pic) after looking closer, a lot of the girls have them, just not to her extent, so I'm hoping maybe it's something more normal I just don't know about... My first thought was a tumor. I'm super worried...
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Have they been outside already? Their crops might just be full! Especially if all of them have it. My chickens always have a baseball sized bulge there after a good day of free ranging. If it doesn't go down within 24 hours then it might be something, perhaps impacted crop.
 
Hard the leghorn is the worst and it felt like she swallowed a golf ball. I panicked and thought "tumor" and got all worried... First time chicken momma lol
 
With normal crops, you would want it to be more squishy. I wouldn't worry about it just yet, but if it doesn't go down in 24 hours, then I would think that the crop may be impacted/sour. What do you feed them and how often?
 
Chickens have an organ called a crop on the right side of their chest. If your chickens have access to food they would have a budge in their crop.

Chickens do not have teeth so they swallow their food whole. It then goes down their throat and into their crop--sort of like a storage tank. It can take 4+ hours for the crop to empty so really in a chicken with all day access to food it should only be completely empty when they wake up in the morning. After the crop, the food travels to the gizzard, which is a very strong muscle which uses little rocks that the chickens eat (grit) to grind the food up like chewing. The food is then digested as it goes through the intestines. (no stomach!)

It's good to read up crops and digestion a little because its a great way to assess their health if you think something is wrong down the road. When you press on the bulge it should feel like chicken food -- like sand bag or bean bag sort of. If it is very liquidy or very very hard there could be an issue. Those all look very normal at a glance though.

Some birds are better gluttons than others so it may be just be normal. Check her first thing in the morning before she has had food and see if it is gone.
 
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