-Apologies in advance for the long post. I'm really just wondering what to do... if anything, at this point. Ok here goes.
-On Wednesday March 16, I noticed one of my chickens, Montana, a 1 year old prairie bluebell egger, was doing this odd twitching, sideways jerking behavior (video linked below). I chalked it up to her adjusting her crop. I didn't think to check her crop that next morning. I watched her again the next night, same weird behavior. I did check her crop that following morning and it was puffy but no sour smell. I continued to see the odd crop adjustments throughout the next couple of days and her crop had continued to stay inflated, but i checked for a sour smell every day, and there was none.
-Fast forward to very early monday morning. We were heading out of town for 10 days later that morning. I checked her at 430am and finally noticed a sour smell from her beak, however, no leaking or discharge from her beak. My dad, who was going to be caring for our flock of 6 backyard chickens while we were out of town, started treatment for sour crop. He gave monistat (4%) 2x a day starting on Monday March 21 and continuing through Tuesday March 29. I checked in on Montana on our coop cam while on vacation. Mostly at night. There were some nights where she seemed very normal and other nights where I noticed the sideways jerking behavior. Of course I'm not scrolling through and watching the entire night so I could have missed some episodes of the twitching behavior. But for the most part, the monistat seemed to help. My dad reported that her crop had gone down from a large water balloon size to a much smaller, more air feeling ping pong ball size. It was never flat in the morning. There also was no smell from her beak.
-Now that I'm home from our vacation, I removed all food from the coop last night (3/30) and checked Montana's crop first thing this morning (3/31). It is not flat nor empty. It is small and inflated with what feels like air. There is some soft material in her crop, but it is not rock hard (not predicting impacted crop here, as I've seen her poop and her poops are normal.) It doesn't feel like bread dough. It doesn't feel watery or gurgle-y.
-So. Here is my question. As far as I understand, for backyard chicken owners who have small flocks that keep their chickens more like pets, one of the best and easy daily health checks we can do is to check their crop. It is often the first thing to show that something isn't quite right. Also, if something is noticed with the crop, it's easier to treat most issues if they're caught early. So therefore, I have been checking my chickens crops daily for most of their lives. I've noticed that Montana's crop isn't flat and empty in the morning like the other 5 hens crops are. I've noticed it gets bigger some days and is smaller other days. I've also noticed Montana doing the weird, sideways, twitching jerking behaviors that definitely looks like crop adjustment attempts, but none of the other birds do this, and I haven't noticed her doing these until I saw them for the first time on 3/16. She doesn't have a sour smell, no discharge from her beak, she continues to eat, and drink, and poop, and lay eggs. She walks around and acts like a normal chicken and has this entire time.
-Would you do anything further at this point? Let her be and just monitor her? Coconut oil and massage? Crop bra? Continue to check her crop daily? Bring her to a vet to get a real diagnosis? Isolate her and withhold food? Other ideas?
-Details: Here is a video clip of her twitching. This is from early on, and is pretty tame to what I see her do now. https://pin.it/6OBfEVi
-here is a more current video: https://pin.it/26fFITo
-I have 6 chickens in a backyard coop/run/extended run. They are all different "breeds" so I know exactly who is who (aka I know my dad caught and treated Montana and no one else.) I know Montana lays a light blue egg and no one else, so I know she has continued to lay eggs.
-I have a wyze cam in their coop and in their run so I know I have seen her poop and it's normal, not diarrhea.
-They eat 16% organic layer crumble/non-gmo pellet mix as well as producer's pride whole oats as part of the mix. (It's probably 80% layer feed and 20% oats.). They have free access to an oyster shell and grit mix.
-They get fresh water every morning.
-They are in a predator proof (so far) 4x8 coop/run with an additional predator proof 4x10 extended run.
-We live in MN and with spring like temperatures and melting snow, we started letting them out to forage near the coop starting about 3 days before I noticed the odd twitching start. So, the previous weekend was their first time to eat grass all winter, and that was the date of March 13th.
-We've had these 6 chickens with no health issues since April 2021. We got them as chicks.
Any advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!!!
-Lauren
-On Wednesday March 16, I noticed one of my chickens, Montana, a 1 year old prairie bluebell egger, was doing this odd twitching, sideways jerking behavior (video linked below). I chalked it up to her adjusting her crop. I didn't think to check her crop that next morning. I watched her again the next night, same weird behavior. I did check her crop that following morning and it was puffy but no sour smell. I continued to see the odd crop adjustments throughout the next couple of days and her crop had continued to stay inflated, but i checked for a sour smell every day, and there was none.
-Fast forward to very early monday morning. We were heading out of town for 10 days later that morning. I checked her at 430am and finally noticed a sour smell from her beak, however, no leaking or discharge from her beak. My dad, who was going to be caring for our flock of 6 backyard chickens while we were out of town, started treatment for sour crop. He gave monistat (4%) 2x a day starting on Monday March 21 and continuing through Tuesday March 29. I checked in on Montana on our coop cam while on vacation. Mostly at night. There were some nights where she seemed very normal and other nights where I noticed the sideways jerking behavior. Of course I'm not scrolling through and watching the entire night so I could have missed some episodes of the twitching behavior. But for the most part, the monistat seemed to help. My dad reported that her crop had gone down from a large water balloon size to a much smaller, more air feeling ping pong ball size. It was never flat in the morning. There also was no smell from her beak.
-Now that I'm home from our vacation, I removed all food from the coop last night (3/30) and checked Montana's crop first thing this morning (3/31). It is not flat nor empty. It is small and inflated with what feels like air. There is some soft material in her crop, but it is not rock hard (not predicting impacted crop here, as I've seen her poop and her poops are normal.) It doesn't feel like bread dough. It doesn't feel watery or gurgle-y.
-So. Here is my question. As far as I understand, for backyard chicken owners who have small flocks that keep their chickens more like pets, one of the best and easy daily health checks we can do is to check their crop. It is often the first thing to show that something isn't quite right. Also, if something is noticed with the crop, it's easier to treat most issues if they're caught early. So therefore, I have been checking my chickens crops daily for most of their lives. I've noticed that Montana's crop isn't flat and empty in the morning like the other 5 hens crops are. I've noticed it gets bigger some days and is smaller other days. I've also noticed Montana doing the weird, sideways, twitching jerking behaviors that definitely looks like crop adjustment attempts, but none of the other birds do this, and I haven't noticed her doing these until I saw them for the first time on 3/16. She doesn't have a sour smell, no discharge from her beak, she continues to eat, and drink, and poop, and lay eggs. She walks around and acts like a normal chicken and has this entire time.
-Would you do anything further at this point? Let her be and just monitor her? Coconut oil and massage? Crop bra? Continue to check her crop daily? Bring her to a vet to get a real diagnosis? Isolate her and withhold food? Other ideas?
-Details: Here is a video clip of her twitching. This is from early on, and is pretty tame to what I see her do now. https://pin.it/6OBfEVi
-here is a more current video: https://pin.it/26fFITo
-I have 6 chickens in a backyard coop/run/extended run. They are all different "breeds" so I know exactly who is who (aka I know my dad caught and treated Montana and no one else.) I know Montana lays a light blue egg and no one else, so I know she has continued to lay eggs.
-I have a wyze cam in their coop and in their run so I know I have seen her poop and it's normal, not diarrhea.
-They eat 16% organic layer crumble/non-gmo pellet mix as well as producer's pride whole oats as part of the mix. (It's probably 80% layer feed and 20% oats.). They have free access to an oyster shell and grit mix.
-They get fresh water every morning.
-They are in a predator proof (so far) 4x8 coop/run with an additional predator proof 4x10 extended run.
-We live in MN and with spring like temperatures and melting snow, we started letting them out to forage near the coop starting about 3 days before I noticed the odd twitching start. So, the previous weekend was their first time to eat grass all winter, and that was the date of March 13th.
-We've had these 6 chickens with no health issues since April 2021. We got them as chicks.
Any advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!!!
-Lauren
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