Baby Chick, Impacted Crop!!

[VivereIam]

Okay, so my 9 day old chick's crop is visibly swollen, and hard. I found it like that last night, and assumed her crop was just full, so I let her be thinking it might pass through or something, but it hasn't changed at all. I gave my chicks some tomato as a treat a few days ago, but all they have eaten has been Chick Starter. She hasn't been acting weird, but her poop is very dry. I think she has an impacted crop.

Any suggestions on what I should do?? Please Help!! Thank you

 

[Bethel3330]

I have not had this problem but I've seen olive oil suggested on here several times, maybe on little bits of bread? Good luck. I hope your baby gets better.

 

[Chicksahoyfarm]

Give her a bit of olive oil and massage her crop to try and break it up.

 

[Chickenchick11]

Do your chicks have access to chick grit? If they are eating anything besides chick starter than they need chick grit. Earlier this month I had a 1 year old hen with an sour/impacted crop, she has free choice access to grit but she still got a sour/impacted crop. So I massaged her crop and gave her some yogurt, BIG improvent in her condition, within 2 days she was absolutely fine. I hope this helps.



~Chickenchick11

 

[VivereIam]

Okay thanks guys~ Should I isolate the affected chick and withdraw chick starter for the time being??

 

[Janet Pesaturo]

I have a 4 day old chick with the same problem. Did your chick live? If so, how did you help her? I've been trying to massage the food downward, but it only comes up thru her mouth, which risks aspiration pneumonia. I am afraid to put oil or anything into her mouth because it seems that there is nowhere for it to go but back up.

 

[Xanla]

I have a little baby with the same problem! I am afraid to use the syringe because I don't want her to aspirate, but she is not drinking, so I am beginning to think I have no choice! Poor girly!

 

[TwoCrows]

I have a little baby with the same problem! I am afraid to use the syringe because I don't want her to aspirate, but she is not drinking, so I am beginning to think I have no choice! Poor girly!

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

I had this happen with a 10 day old chick too. And I used this recipe on her to clear out the impaction. I have used this on yeast and grass impactions on adult birds with great success. If this is a piece of bedding, it may or may not respond, but it is worth a shot!! This comes from my article on Impacted and Sour Crops....



Doughy Crop:
What is a doughy Crop? If you find your bird has a crop full of what feels like bread dough...you can almost knead it from the outside...the contents are pliable and hold it's shape. And sometimes it is literally attached to the walls of the Crop. This is caused by a few things:

1. The Crop has become dehydrated due to a blockage and only the liquid is passing through the bird leaving all the food stuffs. The bird may also be very dehydrated from the lack of water.
2. This is a yeast infection and you are feeling the growing yeast. If you find these things early enough, one morning you might feel what seems like a marble sized ball in the bottom of the crop. The next morning the marble is the size of a peach pit. The day after that it is the size of a plum. In both cases you will be able to actually "knead" this wad of gummy dough material in the Crop.

So how do you get rid of it? I have seen this in two birds over my years. One was a week old chick that had something else going on with her at the time and when she finally did start to heal, she became dehydrated and had a gummy Crop. Another time I had a bird with a horrible yeast infection that started in her lungs and spread all through out her body. I believe she also had a bad case of worms at the time, which only compounded the situation. I tried hydrating with water and massaging it, (which only made this gummy mass worse), I tried hydration followed by vomiting and never did the thing budge. Especially with the second case where it was physically attached to the Crop walls.

I had heard of the following method to break this gummy ball down many many years ago when I raised Cockatiels. If you don't feed baby Cocketielsl properly, they can develop this gummy doughy Crop as well. I used the following recipe on both of these birds and within 24 to 36 hours, the entire mass had moved. You can find most if not all of these things in your spice pantry:

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda (do NOT use baking powder)
1/2 teaspoon Ginger Powder (you can even use the contents of a human Ginger capsule)
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon Powder
1/2 teaspoon Chili Powder
a squirt of Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons of water

Mix this all together and use a syringe without a needle and suck up 1/4 to 1/2 ml at a time and squirt down the throat, in front under the tongue. Never give more than 1/2 ml at a time or you can aspirate the bird, having it go down the wrong pipe. Get this ENTIRE mixture down the throat. This will only take a few minutes to get it all down. Do this 3 times a day for one or two days and the mass will dissolve within 24 to 36 hours. If you know how to tube feed, you can give this one one fell swoop through a tube 3 times a day. Of course if you are dosing a very young chick, being that their Crops are so much smaller than adult birds, you will want to use half of this dosage or less depending on the size of the bird.

Of course this condition usually arises because some other medical issue is going on at the time. So make sure to address what is going on after you clear out the crop.

 

[ladynewtochicks]

I know this is an old post but I'm going to hijack...

I have a 2 day old chick who appears to be impacted, she's a little runty I think

her crop was huge last night and still big this morning, not rock hard but not loose. I gave her a few crop massages. When I started examining her I found a pasty butt hidden under the fluffiness (apparently I wasn't checking good enough) and she took a big poop after I cleared it so hopefully that helps as well?? They do have chick grit available and I've seen them all go to it. Going to try a little olive oil next since that's what I have on hand... I'm tentative since she is so small, any suggestions?

 

[ladynewtochicks]

She is still alive but it still doesn't look like her crop is emptying. She hasn't grown any or fluffed up like the others... Gave her some sugar water last night...

Suggestions??? I don't want to lose my little nugget