Ballooned breast and body twisting into a C shape! Help

[cxgirl]

I have a 4 month old Ameraucana poult who has a swollen breast that is loose like a water balloon.
Her body appears to be twisting into a slight C shape.
Her face is a little mucky as if it had been wet at one point and then dried, no puss or crusties.
She is smaller than her coopmates.
Still active and evading me when I try to examine her.
But having difficulty getting on and off the roosts.

I am going to separate her from the other today to observe her more closely, but actions need to be taken. I dont know what to do.

 

[Daisy668]

Pictures would help if you can get some..
Hope she is ok!

Daisy. xx

 

[cxgirl]

I will try to get some pictures tomorrow. My camera is broken.

After examining her again, I think the main problem is this ballooned breast. Her body feels very small but not crooked. And both side of her breast are enveloped in this balloon. Any thoughts

 

[RhodeIslandRedFan]

sounds like your chick might have pendulous or sour crop. Here is a link to another thread about this. See post #2, which contains another link with descriptions of crop issues and treatments, including sour crop. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=422640 Agree that pictures would help. Does she have bad breath? This is a sign of sour crop.

Good luck to you.

 

[Mtn Margie]

I agree. Sounds like pendulous crop or sour crop.

 

[cxgirl]

Thank you all for your input!

After doing some more research, I am fairly certain that is is pendulous crop. With a couple of friends for extra hands and moral support, I intubated her today and and pulled out some light green mucus (about 30cc) This relieved some of the pressure on her crop, but it was not even close to empty. It's the size of a small grapefruit. I then gave her 10 ml of applecider vinegar water (50/50). I tried to flush it back out, but my tube kept getting clogged.

Tomorrow I am going to repeat the process, but I want to empty the crop as much as possible. Does any one know how I can empty the crop more effectively?

Intubation Process Used Today:

I inserted a 2 foot tube( NOT all the way!) down the back of her thoat just until I could feel it at about the bottom of her crop. I then used a 5ml syring to create suction, removed the syring and allowed the tube to hang down and the fluid to run out as I massaged her. Occationally I would reattach the syring to get things flowing again. This worked fairly well the first time.