chicken with crazy snake neck

Hi all,

This morning as I was about to head to work, I noticed one of my RIR pullets making these crazy neck movements, almost like a snake slithering back and forth. Her crop did seem a bit large (I gave them some grass and BOSS to snack on in the run) I also noticed one of the other girls chasing her around the run (I did the bad human thing and intervined when she jumped on my lap for safety )

She was vaccinated for Mareks as a chick, and wry neck seems a bit off. Any suggestions? Perhaps she was just trying to re-adjust her crop?

Thanks

Maybe she found something yummy and she was trying to swallow it?
Maybe the other chicken was trying to steal it from her.

maybe... I've never seen this behavior before. I'll check her out in the morning and see if she's worked it out. Hopefully your right and its nothing!

My BO Butter did that once when I first introduced a new treat that she loved....she ate so much that it wouldn't all fit into her crop. She was acting funny, so I picked her up and checked her out, and could feel the food in her crop, and all the way back up her throat. I massaged it really well to help it go down (and to help some of it come back up BLEH), and she was fine after that.

If her crop seems full and squishy and she is doing the snake dance thing with her neck, then I think she may have a sour crop or a slow moving crop. The squishyness of the crop is air and gas from a possible yeast infection. I would watch her closely and see if it progresses into a fully blown sour crop. If you pick her up and fluids come out of her beak, then you will need to vomit her by leaning her forward (for no more than 10 seconds at a time,) while massaging the crop and get most of the gunk out of the crop. If it comes to this, keep her off hard foods for a while and offer her soft foods only, like hard boiled eggs and yogurt. Put raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar, 3 tablespoons of it, it one gallon of water and serve it up to everybody. It will do them all good and help combat the yeast infection in the crop. Do this for a week and see how it goes. Good luck!

ok, so an update:
Her crop was still pretty large this morning, i did feel it and it was squishy so I gave it a lttle massage. I grabbed some olive oyl and grit and made a mash of the two and she went nuts for it. I also added ACV to the waterer at a greater quantity than usual and refrained from giving the girls any morning snacks (they are very spolied ). Hopefully she will work it out and all will be well when i see the girls tommorow morning. If not, are there any other remedies I should try prior to turning her up-side-down?

I think I would stop giving them grass for a treat. Too much of it will stop up a crop. Seen too many posts on here where people opened their chickens' crops when impacted and finding grass in there!

Quote:
Thanks birdlover, I think I definetly over did the grass thing. I'll make sure not to add more, hopefully this will all work its way out of her crop.

X2 on the grass. Ace the grass. And I would refrain from the oil also in the feed. Oil works well on impacted crops and she doesn't seem to be impacted. (squishy means slow or sour crop, hardened ball means impacted). Oil breaks down hardened contents of the crop with impactions, but after leaving the crop, the oil is very hard to digest in the stomach. And you don't want to slow the emptying of the crop with oil in the stomach.

So, keep up with the ACV in the water, offer her lots of soft foods like hard boiled eggs drenched in yogurt, the yogurt and the ACV will boost up the good bacterias in the crop which feed on fungus and yeast cells which could be causing the soured crop. And the eggs are great protein, amino acids and minerals.

Keep her vomited when the crop gets really big and she is uncomfortable. (usually the snake dance with the neck is an indication of an over filled crop). And if you live in a cold area, it wouldn't hurt to keep her under a heat lamp at night. Cold birds don't move their crops.

You may need to keep this up for a week or two before the thing clears up. If she is still sick after 2 weeks, she could have an infection which is causing the soured crop. But judging from the sounds of her, in that she has a good appetite, I doubt she has an infection.

Keep us posted!!

Thanks for all the tips everyone,

ok, no grass and no oil.... off to the store to pick up some plain yogurt and give my girl a dose of probiotics!

One more thing: How will I know if its gone sour? will she stink?