both of my hens have inflated crops. They have been like that for about a week and it hasn't gone down. Is this a problem or is it natural? If its a problem how do I solve it? Could not giving them oyster shell (calcium) cause that?
Crop Problem :(
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TwoCrows
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Feel their crops....are they squishy and soft or do they have a hard lump at the bottom? Soft and squishy can be a sign of sour crop, hard ball can mean impacted crop. A sour crop can come from a simple imbalance of the healthy bacteria, something they ate or a secondary issue. Impacted crop is generally from something they ate that is not breaking down.
If you suspect a sour crop, you can put raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar in all the chickens water. 3 tablespoon per one gallon. The unfiltered stuff has health benifits that the filtered stuff does not have. However if you don't have the raw stuff, the grocery store stuff will work til you get the good stuff. The ACV will not allow yeasts and fungus to live in the crop, which is what generally causes a soured crop.
If you see them squiggling their necks around with a soured crop, they are uncomfortable and want the nasty gunk out of their crops. So hold the chicken like a football in one arm, lean them forward, (never backwards) and massage the crop till the gunk comes up and out the beak of the chicken. Do not hold them in this position for more than 10 seconds so they can breathe. You can do it again so see if more will come up. You will never get it all out, but it will help them feel better.
Offer only soft foods for a few weeks, along with the ACV. No seeds or hard foods that require the gizzard. So things like hard boiled eggs, plain yogurt, cereals, anything that disolves in water. Sour crop does not heal really quickly, and can take a few weeks to heal.
If you suspect an impaction, do not offer any food for 24 hours. Squirt about 1 teaspoon of olive oil down the throat with a syringe. Massage the hard lump for about 15 mins. Do this several times aday in attempt to break up what is in there. Some folks have actually operated on an impacted crop, I have not. But some have had good success with it. You can look thru the archives to see how it is done if you can not heal it up yourself the easy way.
If the birds seem cold, which if the probably are since they are not eating much, keep them under heat at night. A cold bird will not move the crop or digest an impacted one either.
Good luck!
If you suspect a sour crop, you can put raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar in all the chickens water. 3 tablespoon per one gallon. The unfiltered stuff has health benifits that the filtered stuff does not have. However if you don't have the raw stuff, the grocery store stuff will work til you get the good stuff. The ACV will not allow yeasts and fungus to live in the crop, which is what generally causes a soured crop.
If you see them squiggling their necks around with a soured crop, they are uncomfortable and want the nasty gunk out of their crops. So hold the chicken like a football in one arm, lean them forward, (never backwards) and massage the crop till the gunk comes up and out the beak of the chicken. Do not hold them in this position for more than 10 seconds so they can breathe. You can do it again so see if more will come up. You will never get it all out, but it will help them feel better.
Offer only soft foods for a few weeks, along with the ACV. No seeds or hard foods that require the gizzard. So things like hard boiled eggs, plain yogurt, cereals, anything that disolves in water. Sour crop does not heal really quickly, and can take a few weeks to heal.
If you suspect an impaction, do not offer any food for 24 hours. Squirt about 1 teaspoon of olive oil down the throat with a syringe. Massage the hard lump for about 15 mins. Do this several times aday in attempt to break up what is in there. Some folks have actually operated on an impacted crop, I have not. But some have had good success with it. You can look thru the archives to see how it is done if you can not heal it up yourself the easy way.
If the birds seem cold, which if the probably are since they are not eating much, keep them under heat at night. A cold bird will not move the crop or digest an impacted one either.
Good luck!
Quote:
Before you do any type of treatment, please make sure they really do have a problem. A chicken's crop is meant to be a temporary storage area for food. When a chicken eats a great deal during the day, its crop can look quite large. This is perfectly normal. A chicken's crop should empty during the night, so by morning it should be empty. Check your chicken's crop first thing in the morning before it eats or drinks. If there is a hard lump of material still in the crop, it may be impacted and need to be treated. If it is small and empty, your chicken is perfectly normal and no treatment is needed. Please check your chickens' crops in the morning and let us know what you find.
Before you do any type of treatment, please make sure they really do have a problem. A chicken's crop is meant to be a temporary storage area for food. When a chicken eats a great deal during the day, its crop can look quite large. This is perfectly normal. A chicken's crop should empty during the night, so by morning it should be empty. Check your chicken's crop first thing in the morning before it eats or drinks. If there is a hard lump of material still in the crop, it may be impacted and need to be treated. If it is small and empty, your chicken is perfectly normal and no treatment is needed. Please check your chickens' crops in the morning and let us know what you find.
- Thread starter
- #4
Thank you guys so much. This is exactly what I was asking for!
I'll let you guys know what I find out.
- Thread starter
- #5
ok I felt their Crops today and in one of the girls it had completely gone away! The other one it has gotten smaller but its still there. I felt it and it is soft. I'm going to wait before I do anything to see if its going to shrink anymore.
I'm glad to hear your good news. I don't blame you for waiting with the second hen. I'm sure you don't want to go through any of that treatment if you don't have to
- Thread starter
- #7
So if there crops just get bigger and smaller on a daily basis its no problem? Would the Apple Cider vinegar solve this?
A crop's function is to temporarily store food until it moves along the digestive system to be ground in the gizzard. As a chicken eats during the day, the crop expands and as food is stored can get quite large. If you check the crop the first thing in the morning and it is empty, it is working properly (and a nice pile of poop under the roost is another good sign that the digestive system is working properly). A crop that is still full in first thing in the morning before the chicken has eaten usually means it is not emptying properly and can be impacted. So yes, crops getting bigger and smaller on a daily basis is a good thing 
- Thread starter
- #9
So that means I Should NOT do the thing with the distilled apple cider vinegar?
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