Chick with puffed up skin! Help!

[AriadneCastro]

One of my month-old chicks has a patch of skin, around the crop area, which is looking like a balloon. I don't know what to think of it...

It is behaving normally, so far... but I'm afraid it doesn't look like the others...

 

[Eggcessive]

Can you post a picture? Is it the crop itself perhaps? The crop will fill up after they eat and drink. In little chicks the full crop can look huge, but some can get impacted or stopped up from eating things other than chick feed. But sometimes there can be a leaking air sac from an injury that may create air under the skin.

 

[AriadneCastro]

I'll post a picture as soon as I can (maybe tomorrow). And it's definitely the skin, not the crop. I thought of air sack, but what shall I do? Maybe pierce it and apply Povidone-iodine?

 

[Eggcessive]

Sometimes it is not necessary to do anything if the chicken is not in distress. If you suspect it is a leaking air sac here are a couple of articles that say to pierce the skin with an 18 gauge needle (I have used a 22 gauge in a chick, but 20 or 18 would be better) and squeeze the air out:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/171121/deflating-subcutaneous-emphysema
http://www.ijasvm.com/ijasvmadmin/upload/IJASVM_5113cbc51d31b.pdf
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/6/diseases-of-poultry/223/subcutaneous-emphysema/

 

[AriadneCastro]

Hello Eggcessive, and thank you very much for the links! I went down yesterday, with the camera, but found the chick pretty normal again. Suppose this isn't always a serious condition... Thankfully! Last year I lost a few to CRD and one showed this symptom. I was afraid that it could be that kind of problem... But nobody is sneezing or anything, guess the chick just got hurt during playtime...

 

[Eggcessive]

That is good news, I'm glad it wasn't anything serious.