Blue Ameraucana 5-week-old Chick Pendulous Crop?

[Harmony Rancho]

Hello, I have a teenage chick with a challenging crop situation. I removed her from the brooder she is sharing with 18 others after noticing that she maintained a large crop even in the morning. (I might have noticed this sooner if we hadn't evacuated due to a wildfire and moved all of our human family, 2 Great Pyrenees, 2 cats and all 19 chicks to a hotel for four nights. We're back home now with electricity and water again.) The crop was squishy at first and I did massage to see if that would help move things along. She has no sour crop odor. No food, only water with ACV. She was not interested in the water but I gently pushed her beak in several times. She did a lot of "weaving" her neck around during part of the evening, apparently trying to clear everything. Poop was normal and plentiful! Overall, she was acting normally, cheeping, climbing to the highest parts of my shoulder, preening, etc.

By the next morning the crop had reduced by 1/2, so that was a good sign. The "texture" of her crop was now as though there were hard pieces of grit in there. More massaging reduced things a little, but it never cleared completely. The girls have some chick grit in their brooder now, but not a lot. Their bedding is pine shavings. Due to some important family health issues occurring, I was not able to keep her isolated another night. She was also expressing her displeasure at not having food or friends around. I fed her part of a scrambled egg. She wasn't interested in the egg as much as she was interested in pecking at small bits of dust and other things on the table. I ended up breaking up the scrambled egg and adding small pieces on the table to get her to eat it. I then took her back to the brooder. She went back in happily. I did notice that she does a lot of pecking and scratching as soon as she got back to her pals.

This morning when I fed them, I noted that she looked about the same as she did before I isolated her. Darn it! She exhibited some odd behavior, though. When I put down the chick feeder (one with a plastic bottle inserted into a round metal base with holes for the food to come through), she first pecked nearly all of the way around the metal base, pushing her friends out of the way. She wasn't eating the feed, just pecking the metal. Then she finally started pecking the food.

What should I do next? Is this pendulous crop? Below is a photo of Wendy while perched on my shoulder.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Does she have grit available?

I'd get some coconut oil into her, massage the crop. Do let her eat and drink.

What's her poop like?

Read this article, this will get you started on treating the crop. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[Harmony Rancho]

Thank you for the reply!

Yes, they do have grit available. She is pooping normally. Nothing odd there at all.

I will try coconut oil mentioned in the article and see what happens. Crossing fingers.

I have moved her back into isolation because this evening I noticed that not only had her crop enlarged a LOT, there was a a section of her neck that had been pecked, either by Wendy herself or another chick. It's not massive, but a bit disconcerting to find some dried blood within an inch under her beak.

 

[Harmony Rancho]

I'm writing again to see if anyone has any ideas for how to help my dear Wendy. We didn't see any difference after giving her the coconut oil. But I had to leave two days after for a required business trip and then members of my family got COVID, taking time and focus away from the chicks.

Now Wendy's crop is larger than ever. This weekend each time I picked her up she would immediately regurgitate food and liquid. The regurgitated material did not have any smell to it. I gave her a gentle massage each time that happened and made sure that she was not suffering any ill effects. For the last two days she has not regurgitated, but I've sat and massaged her for a while each evening. She seems to love having her massages and is very happy to be held. She closes her eyes and "trills". I can't seem to get the crop to decrease in size very much, however. Sometimes it gurgles a little when I massage and she seems to open her mouth when that happens. I do watch to make sure that the contents of her crop are not flooding her mouth.

She is still pooping normally. I do think that she is losing ground to the other chickens in terms of her size and overall muscle tone (if you can call it that in a chicken). She is clearly hampered by the large size and weight of her crop. But she moves around, eats, drinks, etc. with the rest of her sisters.

If anyone has any ideas for how to reduce her crop size and make her feel better overall, please send me your thoughts!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

You only gave coconut oil for 2 days? No other treatment since?

I'd re-read the article and begin intense treatment. If it's not emptied since your initial post, then it's likely Sour now.
Sometimes you may need to treat for impaction and sour at the same time.

Possibly treat for worms and/or Coccidosis too.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[Harmony Rancho]

An update: Wendy was not demonstrating obvious signs of either sour crop of impacted crop, so we started her again on coconut oil. It took five days, but she finally her crop decreased and she has barely any obvious crop in the morning! It's been a few weeks and I check her each day to make sure she continues to have a normal crop. She acts completely normal, running around with her pals, eating, drinking and pooping.

Should I be concerned about her small size, however? Will she ever catch up to her sisters?