Oh my, chicken bras???
She is much better this morning, standing and active as she was before. Yours sounds similar to Ladybug's, always felt very squishy like a water balloon, but when I'd massage, she would have sour burps and would vomit often. I was very surprised that when we irrigated that we got so much crud (mostly large wads of grass/feed mix), so I do now think she was plugged up. She is drinking and did eat some yogurt (it was all over her beak!). I can still feel a firm golfball-size something in the crop area, I'm too ignorant about chicks to know if I'm feeling stuff in her crop or her gizzard; I felt it last night but I couldn't work it out and irrigation was coming out clear water, so I was doubtful that what I was feeling was further impaction. Anyway, I plan to feed her water and yogurt (I mixed olive oil in with it), and may give her some apple sauce as some others had posted.
Oh, BTW, I simply used a bulb syringe (we have young children and had some extras) to irrigate; would irrigate her upright, massage her crop to break things up, then hold her by her feet w/ one hand and back supported w/ other (DH did the holding while I did the "dirty work") and massage her crop downward up her neck, many times I'd have to help her work the stuff up as it would kind of get stuck in her throat, sometimes would have to pull it out of her mouth...it was pretty disgusting. She was surprisingly compliant throughout the whole ordeal; I really felt sad for her and all the vomiting, but knew that it was best for her; she was really starting to look bad, I don't think she was getting much nutrition.
Once she starts to eat regular feed, we will be sure to feed her more grit (we just started adding oyster shell to all of their feed) and perhaps keep her from ranging so she doesn't eat so much grass...??? I hope this is not a recurring problem!!
Thanks so much for your input, very interesting about the pendulous crop...I'll be interested to read more about this.
