New problem w/ RIR chick - "air bubble" on neck, near wing?

[2pyrs]

So, one of the two chicks that just went through four days of being close to dying, has what feels like an air bubble on its neck, close to the wing. It was noticeable before, but I was more concerned about their more serious condition, and it wasn't as big earlier. I noticed tonight, though, as I was marveling at how they're walking around (since I didn't think they'd walk ever again), that one of them keeps scratching at an area near its neck. When I picked it up to take a look, I noticed that the "air bubble" was a little more prominent. It's not red, bleeding, oozing, or anything else, but it is getting a bit bigger. It's very soft, like you'd expect an air bubble to be, or a very soft, fleshy bump/tumor.

Sound familiar? Any advice?

 

[Campine Lover]

Hmmmm..... never had anything like that happen to my flock before. But, you know, it might just be it's chest. Sometimes it get's sideways when the crop is filled with food, or maybe it's a defect. All my chickies had that when they were little. I'm pretty sure that is what it is. Does it seem irritated when you touch it? Is it painful for it? Good luck w/ them!

 

[2pyrs]

It doesn't seem irritated or painful...hoping it goes away on its own!

 

[TheReidHomestead]

Is it the crop? I noticed something similar on one of my chicks that hatched this past weekend. It did seem to go down on it's own after it hatched and I haven't seen it again.

 

[2pyrs]

I don't think it's the crop - it's on the side, right "above" the wing, but it's also very soft - like there's just air in it. Baby chick (3.5 weeks now) doesn't seem bothered by it. I did a bit of searching and saw that it often goes away, so I'm hoping it does the same for this little one...though I must admit, it's more obvious than it was. Hmm.

 

[redhead83402]

My guess is that it is the crop all swollen with food or something. What are you using on the floor that they are on? I gutted a few chickens that somehow managed to get enough food before the cutoff that they were still swollen with food ~ that crop can get mighty long & mighty full. I also had a chick once that had a big old swollen ~tumor~ looking thing on it's neck, turned out it was a swollen crop, because I had them on paper toweling under the pine shavings. Well, that little bugger decided to ingest some of the paper toweling, and as a result, its crop got all swollen up, because it couldn't process the paper toweling. Now, here is the fun part, if you have it in you, get someone to hold the chick, and you massage that crop till it goes down a bit. Also, try to get it to drink a bunch of water. If that doesn't work, it will probably die, because it's like a bottleneck, holding everything up. Good luck!
~Red

 

[zowieyellowflame]

I had a chick last season with this sort of thing.... right where its neck meets the body, just before the wing. It was soft, featherless and was kind of transparent. I thought it was full of fluid or maybe air, we discussed doing things to it but never got around to it and it adventually just went away. Hope this helps!

 

[2pyrs]

They're on "clean shavings" - that's what the folks at the feed store called them.

So, it's possible that it's crop-related, but I don't feel anything "hard" that I could sort of massage down, you know? However, I noticed tonight, when I gave them water, that they just drank and drank and drank...and the bubble on one of them got bigger, and I realized that the other has one, too, but much smaller. Their poops are soft - runny, almost diarrheal - and brown.

These little ones went through four days of some weird thing where they couldn't walk (were laying on their side with legs pulled up and feet curled in), could barely eat, and I had to keep 'em hydrated with a dropper. I thought we were out of the woods, but here's another whole forest for us to deal with.

I can continue to try to see if there's food in their crop, but I just don't know if that's the problem.

 

[gibranstout]

so? what happened? did you figure out what it was? did they recover? two of mine seem to have the same thing. they are 4 week old leghorn mixes.

 

[Cosmonnor]

My chick has the same thing. It is barely two weeks old, and there was a time where it had almost died. It now has this bubble thing on its neck. What should i do?