Large lump on neck

[JeanineLea]

Hi. We have a chicken that has an extremely large lump on her neck - it nearly touches the ground. The rest of her body is extremely skinny. She has not lost any feathers and seems to be acting normal. We have removed her from our other chickens and put her in a seperate coop. A friend said that we might be over-feeding her. We haven't feed her in about 2 days and she does seem hungry. Her lump has not gotten any smaller. What concerns us most it that she is literally feathers, skin and bones besides where the lump is.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[CalebtheChicken]

It might be her crop...

 

[JeanineLea]

Is there anything we can do to help her with her crop?

 

[Kittymomma]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=21291

 

[SB Austex]

I've been worried about one of my chick's crops. I feel I'm too new myself to advise, but just do a search inside the site for 'sour crop' or 'distended crop' and a bunch of stuff will show up.

 

[JeanineLea]

Is it necessary to perform an opertion or is there anything else that we can try first?

 

[ipana]

Operating on your chicken for sour crop needs to be your last resort. First, it sounds as though you hen is starving because the crop is not emptying. This may be caused by something in the crop that is preventing material from passiing through. She is desperate for food. Remove her from the rest of the chickens and confine her so that you can monitor her food intake and poop output! Because she is so thin, you may need to get a feeding tube with a syringe to get some baby food down her. When my hen had this problem, she received 60cc of baby food 3X per day through the feeding tube. But, before putting anything more into the crop, you need to get out what is in there. That involves causing the bird to vomit. You can research how to do that but basically it is holding the bird upside down making sure that the head is down. If the head begins to come up, liquid can get into the mouth and the bird will aspirate the material and possibly die so it is not a haphazard task. If she has a lot of stuff in the crop, vomit her for 15-20 seconds and then let her rest. If you can get the stuff out, she may be able to begin getting some food through. Once again, she needs food. The next thing may be to get some Nystatin which is a drug that gets rid of yeast. When food sits in the crop, it can spoil...therefore, it is caused sour crop. If her breath smells an ugly sweet smell, it is sour crop. The best resource of all is Peter Brown of First State Veterinary Supply. He is an expert on chickens and has the materials to sell that you may need. He can be reached at 410-546-6137. He helped save my hen MANY times. She has had sour crop 6 times! I thought she was a goner, so I can't praise him enough. This is not a quick fix problem but if you don't do something soon, she is going to starve to death. Don't be afraid to ask more questions or ask for help.