Can little chicks get an impacted crop? *UPDATE*

[Tigerjane]

I have a 10 day old chick that has been on eyedrops from the vet for an eye infection for a week. I've had to keep him seperate from the others during this time, and I do that by putting a wall of plastic poultry netting at one end, so they can all still see and hear each other. I had him in a seperate box the first two days, but he was inconsolable, loudly peeping for hours at a time. The bedding is pine shavings, and I feed organic chick starter. During the past week, his eye has not gotten better (still a week to go on the drops), he doesnt appear to be drinking or eating much if at all, and then a new development around 1pm today: He has a mass on his chest. Slightly smaller than a golf ball, but very noticeable on a bantam chick. There's practically no feathers on this lump, and the skin is very pink. It appears soft, like a fatty mass, but I didnt touch it much for fear it would hurt him. I've taken his feed away and replaced it with olive oil, but he's shown no interest in it. Any recommemdations? Could this be impacted crop? I dont know what he could have impacted it with, unless he's eatung shavings, and he would be my first of 15 to do so.

 

[seminolewind]

Maybe you could try giving the olive oil in something tasty, then massage it's crop, and make sure the chick is drinking.

 

[Tigerjane]

What would you recommend I put the olive oil in? I'm not so sure it's impacted crop. I put a white paper towel over the shavings and replaced his food with the oil at 3pm, and he's had one little "fudge-like", grainy poo, around 3:30. And no potty action since, and it's now midnight. There are now NO feathers over the lump on his chest, so I think maybe he's grooming them off of himself? He geys pretty wet when we use the saline on his eye, and always gets right to grooming afterward. At what point should I take him back to the vet?

 

[Tigerjane]

Took the little guy to the vet today. Her verdict was that the eye infection wasn't improving just on drops alone, so added an oral antibiotic, and also that his gizzard was enlarged, and that coupled with the swollen crop I observed and his lack of poo indicated he had probably eaten the pine shavings and that his system was passing things very slowly. His tarry poo yesterday was an indication of internal bleeding, and so he's also on something to coat and soothe his GI system. He's been cleared to be with the other chicks, and to go outside, and she wants to see him back in 7-10days (unless the tarry poo returns).