6 week old with bloated crop

[AmyLM]

I have 32 6 week old mixed gender chicks in my hen house and run (no older birds). One golden campine
pullet has a bloated crop. Everyone else is doing fine. Her crop was swollen two days ago so I put apple cider vinegar in their water and put her in isolation. Her poo is basically normal (a little bit less than solid but not diarrhea). Shes eating and drinking normally and is a good weight. When I checked her this afternoon her crop was even bigger than yesterday. I felt it and it feels like its full of air. I massaged her a little and she burped up air. It didn't smell bad. She shook her head then went back to protesting being held. She doesn't seem to be in any discomfort. I'm not sure what to do. Is it sour crop? blockage? shes eating/drinking/pooing OK.
Ideas?

 

[CMV]

Sour crop would stink and impacted crop would mean she also wouldn't be passing any stool because if things can't get in they don't go out. Check her crop in the early morning before she has eaten anything. How does it feel then? A large crop later in the day is not indicative of anything but the fact she is eating well. Some birds have bigger crops than others.

 

[AmyLM]

last night she was clearly very uncomfortable. She kept stretching her neck up and shaking her head. I did get a large amount of foam out of her and some pieces of dried corn that might have been stuck. Shes defiantly not as bloated this morning as yesterday morning, but she is still bloated and is still stretching her neck up and shaking her head. Should i keep trying to get things up out of her? I did give her some olive oil last night and kept her separate. She didn't poo much, but that's not surprising since I emptied her crop last night. My husband pointed out that shes a little over half the size of the other golden we have (both pullets, same age). He thinks there is something wrong with her to begin with. Shes NOT a bantam. Could this be a sign of a bigger issue?

 

[klmclain1]

What are you feeding her? Separate her, get some bread heavily soaked with olive oil and after she eats that, massage her crop to loosen things up. I'd do it repeatedly throughout the day. I'd try giving her only that and water with ACV in it for a couple of days and see if that doesn't get things moving. Then start giving her some soft stuff like scrambled eggs, then add in some oats for a couple of days. If all goes well, I would quit feeding her ANYTHING but a grower feed - You said she spit up some dried corn? Maybe corn isn't a good idea yet. These are just thoughts - someone else might have some better ideas.

 

[AmyLM]

they are all still on the chick starter and it has pieces of cracked dried corn in it already so I'm not giving them any dried corn extra or anything. Its just part of the bagged chick starter. They are also out in the run eating grass, bugs, ext. Once a week they get scrambled eggs. They also get left over lettuce trimmings from our nightly salads (spinach/mixed greens... we don't get ice burg). They are too old to try to keep penned up in the house anymore. They are fully feathered and like to try to fly. All of the others are doing fine. Just this one pullet. Today shes eating normaly, looks to be pooing about the same as her usual and shes acting very annoyed at being kept in a wire dog kennel in the hen house. Shes not acting sick at all. But she DOES still look bloated.

I will try the oil soaked bread... is there a specific type of bred or oil to use?

 

[klmclain1]

Olive oil and any soft bread. I gave my girls some spinach once and that evening I saw on here that spinach isn't good for them?? I don't know why, but you might do a search on this forum for spinach and see. I stopped. If I can find the info, I'll post it for you.

OK.. this is what one site said (I'm still looking though).. Spinach, especially raw, has oxalic acid in it. Apparently it inhibits the absorption of calcium. REALLY not good for laying hens. Not sure if it would affect your babies though.

 

[AmyLM]

Well today shes starting to look sickly. I gave her the bread soaked with oil, she ate some but not a lot. Shes bloated up again. I tried again to get her crop to empty out whatever causing the problem. She STILL doesn't have a bad odor to whats coming out of her. Shes pooing less now. I think she has a blockage but wherever it is... I think its really stuck in there bad.

We are considering just putting her down because we don't want her to suffer. If it does come down to that I will have my vet do a necropsy so that we will know for sure what it was. We suspect that she has something wrong with her other than just the blockage.. but we want to know for sure.

I guess this is part of the sad fact of having animals... some just aren't going to be the healthiest animals.

 

[klmclain1]

Did you try to massage the lump? You'll be trying to utilize the oil in the bread to lubricate whatever is in there so you can "break it apart". You don't want to damage the crop, but you want to try to loosen up the lump.

 

[AmyLM]

yes Ive been trying to do that. Im being very careful. She ate some dinner tonight at least. So I'm pretty happy that at least she ate something.