1 week old chick with sour crop?

[Nickpicsss]

Chicks were born 2/23 and mailed same day. USPS has a delay and they weren’t delivered until 2/26 am. I’ve lost 3 out of my 6 chicks. The last 3 seemed promising until last night. When soaking/cleaning their bums, I noticed my olive egger wasn’t chirping. She’s acting fine other wise. Still popping out to eat & drink but plopping down a lot and sleeping pretty quickly. I’ve been handling her a lot today and just now felt a squishy chest and the size of like a ping pong ball. Could this be sour crop? How do I treat in such a young chick? She’s “chirping” away but nothing is coming out.

 

[nuthatched]

Sounds more like impaction, she likely ate a shavings.

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

I would massage her crop, just in case something is stuck. If she's eating and drinking, she doesn't have sour crop. Chicks sleep a lot, so that's normal behavior. Also if you haven't already, put some electrolytes in their water.

 

[Nickpicsss]

I would massage her crop, just in case something is stuck. If she's eating and drinking, she doesn't have sour crop. Chicks sleep a lot, so that's normal behavior. Also if you haven't already, put some electrolytes in their water.

Could a full crop be the reason why she isn’t chirping anymore?I haven’t figured out how to post a video, but she is trying to chirp but it’s like a quiet scratching noise coming out since last night (almost 24 hours). I have save-a-chik electrolytes & probiotics in their changing every 24 hours and their chick grit also has probiotics. I will try to massage it, how long and often would you suggest I do so?

 

[Nickpicsss]

Sounds more like impaction, she likely ate a shavings.

How do you suggest I help break up an impacted crop?

 

[CheepersPeepers]

Hey, what ended up happening with your chick? I have a similar issue with a 2 week old cream legbar chick. She is eating and drinking but not much, and sleeping much more than the other chicks (all five I got at the same time but are different breeds)…and isn’t very active. Her crop is super swollen but squishy. Everything I’ve read has said that an impacted crop would be hard, but I also wonder if she ate wood shavings. And I’m not smelling sour breath which is an indication of sour crop, right? I’ve massaged my girls crop with no change. It isn’t emptying overnight and I’m not sure what to do.

 

[CheepersPeepers]

Hey, what ended up happening with your chick? I have a similar issue with a 2 week old cream legbar chick. She is eating and drinking but not much, and sleeping much more than the other chicks (all five I got at the same time but are different breeds)…and isn’t very active. Her crop is super swollen but squishy. Everything I’ve read has said that an impacted crop would be hard, but I also wonder if she ate wood shavings. And I’m not smelling sour breath which is an indication of sour crop, right? I’ve massaged my girls crop with no change. It isn’t emptying overnight and I’m not sure what to do.

 

[Jenbirdee]

What are you feeding your chicks and are you supplying a dish of chick grit on the side ?if they have anything to eat besides their regular chick crumble feed, they cannot digest it without some grit

 

[CheepersPeepers]

What are you feeding your chicks and are you supplying a dish of chick grit on the side ?if they have anything to eat besides their regular chick crumble feed, they cannot digest it without some grit

Hi, I am only feeding them medicated chick crumbles. I did isolate her for a day/night and pull her food at night, then give her a mash of lukewarm plain kefir with the crumbles in the morning, and it finally went down mid-day. I’ve been massaging her crop. She was super hungry, preferring the dry crumbles… so she’s back with her friends and I’m monitoring her. She’s eating well and drinking… hard to tell on the pooping when she’s with others. Could she have an overstretched crop at two weeks old? It seems to get much larger than the others and she’s smaller overall, so it’s odd.

 

[CheepersPeepers]

I also did put in some chick grit, just in case they’ve eaten some pine shavings… I see them peck at it and I wonder!