Ok, so I posted on my impacted crop in my sf the other day. She was fine the next day. Well I have had 4 other chickens do the same thing (on different days). They make a honking sound like they are choked, breath a little funny (more mouth open, but not faster) and dont eat much. The next day they are normal again. I massaged the first two after Phoebe, but the last ones I didnt and they were fine the next day. Can chickens get a 24 hour cold like we can? It seems to be going through the whole flock, but then they are completely normal the next day. If it were food or something I would think the same ones would have the same issues again. (I have been feeding crumble instead of pellets, thought maybe that was the issue.) All the ones that do it do seem to have a little firmer crops. I hate to just ignore it because they have all been fine, but I am starting to be like, oh its so in so's turn, she will be fine tomorrow. If it is a bug of some sort, will they all catch it? It seems to be the 3-4 month old chicks getting it, so far none of the adults have. Edited to add: They have all had completely normal poop. And they fluff just slightly and sleep a little more, but they next day they are their same wild hyper teenager selves.
Now the one from yesterday is completely fine and I have one gasping. The crop feels fine mostly. I massaged it a little. This is just too weird. How can they look like they're gonna die one day and then be fine the next?
I am not sure what is going on here. But what you can do is feel their crops tonight before bed. They may seem full. Do not leave any food in the coop tonight. When you get up in the morning to let them out, check everybodys crop. The crops should be completely empty, you should not be able to feel anything there. If you can feel any crop on any bird, than there is a problem. If they have full crops during the day, which some birds tend to stuff themselves and have large crops all day, and they go down at night this is normal. As far as the honking sound, sometimes if they inhale food, they will "honk" to get it out. If you free range them, make sure to leave food outside of the coop as they will tend not to go in during the day to eat. Keep the food where they can see it. As far as a "24 hour bug", they can get some "indigestion" occasionally, but they do not get colds like humans do and don't really show signs of illness unless they are truly ill. Good luck!
