I need help with a digestive problem (Happy Update-post#20)

I have a pullet hatched in March that seems to have problems digesting her food. I have only had her for a month. She seems just fine. Eating and drinking. But has a baseball size lump at her throat. It is soft and squishy and you can hear the fluid in it. She doesn't seem in any pain. It's not hot like an infection would be. But since I've gotten her, it has been getting bigger like the desolved food doesn't go down much like it should. I offer grit, and she gets everything the others get. Normal chicken food. (Such as normal chicken layer food, watermelon, whatever; normal stuff for chickens). They are not free ranged. So she's not eating something weird. Her poop is normal. I'm at a loss as to what else I can do for her. I don't want her to explode-hee hee.

Any advice as to something I can feed her to help it go down would be GREATLY appreciated.

Ohhh! And I don't see her OVER eating. Like hogging the food. She actually is the picker. (Eats like a bird!)

And no one else sick.

Withhold feed overnight and in the morning check if the crop is still large. If the crop is still large, it may be impacted.

I thought one of our silkies had an impacted crop because it is always large, even first thing in the morning. Though in the morning it feels like a large empty squishy sack, vs in the evening you can tell that there is food in there, feels more firm.

I talked to my favorite vet about it (he used to be a staff vet at a zoo) and I mentioned a sour or impacted crop. He seemed to think that since she's been this way since a chick (now 4 months old) that it may more likely be diverticulitis, where a part of the digestive tract has formed an out-pouch where stuff collects. Since she seems otherwise in good health I think I will just do the "wait and see" approach.

My daughter was hoping to show this silkie at a 4H show but I don't think the judge would miss a big squishy blob on the chest of a hen. She actually looks like an old lady who has a huge chest and needs a much larger bra!

Sounds like a partial impaction, possibly something that has not get gone down.

Some thoughts here- Incidents 02 and 03.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-sick-hen

Try giving her a little Olive oil and massage her crop, that usually works well if its not too impacted.

If it's not "impacted" at this point, it still could be SOUR and need to be cleaned out. If it's not going down to basically flat overnight, you need to do something with her fast, or she could decline rapidly.

There are several threads on here about how to treat impacted crops, mostly with olive oil/massage to break up a lump of vegetable matter (usually something like grass or hay) and in extreme cases you could do surgery.

If it's just SOUR now, even if it was impacted before, you can do a baking soda water flush to get out any rotting feed and then see if it keeps happening. If it's soft and squishy/liquidy feeling, it's probably NOT impacted, but it could be sour.

I had one little chickie that kept having crop problems - I'm not sure she was every impacted, but kept being sour. Turns out she had what was called a "pendulous" crop. If the ligament that holds the crop in place is not formed properly (birth defect), the crop itself hangs down lower than the exit tube to the stomach. That means for food to go "down" it first must go "up"!

If your chickie has this, you will have to decide whether to baby her all of her life with a "crop bra" and possibly special feed, and constant attention (possibly daily crop massage/manipulation). The alternative with a chickie with a severe pendulous crop is culling, as otherwise they will continue to go sour and get toxic from all the stuff rotting in their crop. I understand it's not a very pleasant way to live.

I hope this is not the case with your chickie - let us know if the crop goes down overnight!

Thanks everyone for your advice. Last night I did alot of research on sour crop and that really sounds like it. Being new to this, I hadn't heard of such a thing. I have had chickens when I was younger, and nothing like this happened. But now, I'm the primary caregiver, and I just want everything to go right. I don't want my "favorite" chicken dead after a month because I'm such a novise.

Last night I actually went out and did the hang her upside down and massaged every thing I could get out. 95% came out. I didn't have a hose to put in her throat. I don't even know where to get one.

I was just on my way out the door to check on her to see how she is now, but I had to see what else advise you could give me...be right back.

Well-she seems fine again. But she must have been eating and drinking a liitle. Crop is swollen again. Not quite as big. I flipped her over and did it again. Got a few more pieces yellow grass out. I gave yogart. But I don't have olive oil. Will canola do?

I think that's the promblem because she NEVER had access to anything except starter and grower food. Nothing else. I think her body doesn't know how to handle it yet.

Is there anything else I should be doing for her???

If she has access to grasses and greens, make sure she also has access to grit to gride it up in the gizzard.

Follow up: First, for the next couple of weeks she'll need only easily dissolved feeds as you're giving her: crumbles and water.

Something is causing her system to be slow. You've ruled out a blockage in her crop last night through the flush. So now you know it's systemic (unless there's blockage somewhere lower along her system, including tumors, inflammation, worms, etc - we can't see that yet so let's just go systemic).

First, she'll need a digestive tract tune-up which will hopefully get her system going. For the sludge of feed sitting too long in her crop and digestive tract, you'll use organic apple cider vinegar in her water at a rate of 1 teaspoon OACV per gallon of water. Use this as her sole source of water for at least a week. Then every other day for 2 weeks.
Using organic, not regular, means that the vinegar still has the lactobacilli in it that created the vinegar. It's the "mother" of the vinegar - the gunk in the bottom and in the vinegar itself. More on why that's important below. Additionally, the pH of that solution of vinegar to water will help to correct the pH of the digestive tract of your bird so it's friendly for good bacteria, and unfriendly for pathogens like bad bacteria, and most importantly fungi (commonly called 'yeast').

Yeast (fungal) issues and a lack of healthy gut bacteria are a major cause of crop stasis (slow crop). The reason is that the bacteria in the digestive tract play a part in producing enzymes that help make food absorbable so that it can be digested and not just sit in the digestive tract, creating toxins and backing food up. The same bacteria also compete for the digestive tract with the bad stuff. Through competition, they keep blooms of pathogens away in a healthy bird. There are already pathogens in all our birds - but the bacteria are what keep them in small non-harmful numbers.

Anything can cause these bacteria to die back. Stress, medication, change in diet, illness, etc. So through the use of probiotics we replace them.

Probiotics are a non-medicinal carrier of live bacteria in a media in which they can stay alive til they're able to get into the gut and colonize it. Surprisingly, yogurt is a probiotic. The dairy product is the carrier, and it's filled with live lactobacilli, specifically Lactobacillus acidophilis which is the one that colonizes the digestive tract best.

If you're not using an antibiotic that ends in -mycin or -cycline, you can use plain unflavored yogurt as a probiotic for your bird. Other alternatives (which you CAN use while medicating) are acidophillis capsules/tablets from the vitamin section of the grocer/druggist, or a prepared live-bacteria probiotic like Probios dispersible powder from the feed store, or another brand. When buying a livestock probiotic, be sure and read the label for something saying "CFU" followed by numbers. This shows how many live 'colony forming units" are in the probiotic. That means there's actually live bacteria, not just "products of fermentation" . There can be fermentation products, but the product must contain CFU's of bacteria.

If you use yogurt, 1 tablespoon is good for an adult, 1 teaspoon for a small pullet. Most eat it straight, but if they don't then you can mix it with a little water and use that mixed in a few crumbles and let them absorb for 10 minutes - then feed to her. mixing a little yolk of a boiled egg (no whites please) might also tempt her, and it dissolves easily in water so her system doesn't have to do any work.

So, in short, let's see if we can get the digestive tract running at full speed, kill off some possible yeast in the crop, and get this crop to start emptying:

yogurt or another probiotic: daily for at least one week - every other day 2 weeks thereafter.
OACV: daily for at least one week - every other day 2 weeks afterwards
Easily dissolved feeds: her crumbles, water.

If your crop issue is a stronger yeast (fungal candida) infection, then this will at least help and not harm.

Then after the week - if she's not better, reevaluate. You might have to reflush her crop using the baking-soda method that Glenda Heywood posts here on the board. The baking-soda helps to make the digestive tract cleaner, too. Let us know if you need that post.

Please let us know how she's doing. Keep feed in front of her at all times to keep her from binging. If you have time, try to get her interested in food several times a day. Offering a wet mash (with the oacv water as the water mixed in with the crumbles) throughout the day might also help if you're willing and have the time to do it.

Thanks Threehorses. That was the reassurence that I needed, I'm doing something right.

I already give them yogart. But, last night I could feel some grit in her crop. I don't think it was enough. So today I put grit in a dish and the yogart on the top. They all loved it. And I saw her eat several more pieces of grit.

The only thing that I haven't done is the ACV water. Our local health food store is closed on Sundays. I am going in the morning to get it.

I have noticed that she is bawking more. Her bawk has been quiet. Now it's louder and more often. And she's holding her tail up more too. I didn't notice how sluggish she was getting.

Oh! And her food is already crumbles but I notice she IS seeming to binge. I hope that won't last long. I keep checking her crop to see the size.

I hated to do that to her last night, but I know it was for the best. I promised her, I'd make it up to her.

Thanks again and I'll keep you all posted.