Bulging necklines - ideas?

[manfromorange]

Hi all,
My 3 girls have grown large bulging necks that feel quite hard. See photo.

Any ideas? Should I be concerned?
Thanks in advance,
Manfromorange

 

[2manyhats]

Could they have food caught in their crops.? I've heard that on here a few times (no personal experience)

 

[palabeco]

Looks like a full crop to me. Was the pic taken last night? If so, do they look smaller this morning?
Chickens crops will look fuller at night after a full day of ranging, then they will go down during the night while they are not eating.
If the crop is not smaller, then they may have eaten something they shouldn't have, like that net looking string thing she is standing by in that pic.
I would remove anything that they can get in their mouths that is not digestible from their area.

 

[manfromorange]

Thanks folks,
Yes, the photo was taken last night (1 day ago as I'm downunder in Oz) but the crop doesn't seem to change much.
Will definately clean out all the foreign objects.
Would removing all pellets and food for a day help them to move the objects through... though I'd hate to starve them!

 

[arlee453]

do a search on 'impacted and crop' You'll find a lot of tips on here for dealing with an impacted crop.

There is also something called 'sour crop' - that's when the crop gets a yeast infection build up and you will notice a foul (no pun indended) odor coming from the chicken's mouth.

If the crop continues to be impacted and distended, eventually the chicken will starve to death as very little good food can get through the system with the crop impacted.

The easiest thing to try is to confine the hen, feed only break soaked (and I mean SOAKED) in olive oil. Then massage the crop to break up whatever is in there and hope it moves on down.

Worst case is crop surgery - and there is a great thread on here of someone who did this themselves and saved their chicken's life.

Then, of course make sure there are no non-food 'attractive' things they are getting into. Although, hens can impact on something as 'harmless' as hay used for bedding.

Good luck!

 

[palabeco]

Do you provide grit for them? Use the search button and keywords "impacted crop", you will find lots of info there.

 

[karen+3chickens]

One of my chickens had a very large crop a few weeks ago. It did not go down at night and stayed large for about 1 1/2 weeks before I took her to the vet. The vet felt a "mass" that was pretty large and partially blocking the passage to the rest of her digestive tract. So, she kept eating but the food was not really passing because of the blockage. The vet recommended separating her and feeding her liquidy food 4-5 times a day, about a tbsp each time. After each feeding I had to massage her crop to 1)move the mass around so food could pass and 2)try to break down whatever was stuck in there if it was organic. I also put apple cider vinegar in her water and the vet game me Avizyme (an enzyme, but I'm not sure for what). Every few feedings I also slipped in a little olive oil. After a week of this, her crop was still big and the mass was still there, but she was passing food much better. I was an avid poo detective I brought her back to the vet and was going to have crop surgery done. Of course, that day she completely emptied her crop - yippee! I kept her on mash for another week so that her crop would shrink back down to size. Then put her on pellets for a few days. She is now back with the other chickens and doing great! The first few days she was back in she enjoyed a very large breakfast buffet and her crop was huge. I had read though, that after food is withheld chickens will binge because they don't know when their next meal will be. She is fine now. It was pretty time consuming, but I think without the massaging and small meals she would have been very bad off. So, turns out whatever the "mass" was was probably a combination of things she ate in the run that somehow "glued" together. I think if it was a foreign matter, this would not have worked. Sorry this is so long, but I hope it gives you a few ideas.

 

[luckychic]

The massaging and olive oil are great ideas, also try to make sure they are not eating long stringy food items such as cut grass or clover vines. If you are giving them scratch you may want to hold of on that for a bit and try some other foods. If you have a food processer or a mini chopper you can easiy make up some minced zucchini or sqush with a little minced garlic. They love this and it is small and easy to digest.

Hope it is something that can be worked out easily! Good Luck!
Cynthia