chick with soft swollen crop

[MotherHens]

Could anyone give me some advise please? We have a little silkie gold chick, 9 days old now, it has a really swollen chest thats soft (feels like air), it was born with it and its not changing at all. The chick kinda looks like a duck!! It is eating and drinking normal, cheeping and acting like the other chicks but its feathers are coming through much slower than the other chicks and its half the size of them. Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

 

[MotherHens]

any suggestions of what i should do?

 

[Eggcessive]

That's the chicken's crop where the food goes before digesting in the gizzard. Nothing to worry about.

 

[MotherHens]

thank you, the other chicks dont have the crop like that at all, thats what worried me

 

[MotherHens]

 

[MotherHens]

the swelling feels like air, sorry to go on but im worried about the little chick

 

[LaGallinaRoja]

I have a chick like that too. Mine is a 4-week-old bantam Barred Rock named Bebe, and I've done research and found that that is the "crop" where the food is stored before entering the stomach. Bebe has been gobbling up her feed and then it just seems to sit in her crop. I've been giving her olive oil and massaging her crop to soften up the food stuck in there, and then I withhold the feed from her all night. In the morning, I usually find that the crop has gone down. I'm also worried about mine because she is smaller than the others and has barely gotten any feathers yet compared to the others...

 

[MotherHens]

thanks for replying

did your chick have that swelling when it hatched?

 

[MotherHens]

Our chicks crop feels like it is full of air, its really soft , doesnt feel like food in it

 

[SimplySplendidSilkies]

Could it be sour crop? (It will fill like a water balloon). If you seach my previous post you should find the vet treatment for that.