chicken is not a 100%

[Grant davis]

Hi there, my rir girl is not her normal self at the front of her chest the lump has got really big and she is move a lot slower...the lump seems to be double the size it normally is hope you can help , yesterday she seemed fine.

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

Sorry about your hen. Sounds like some sort of crop issue. Either it is impacted or slow or even soured. Crops are best checked first thing in the morning as this is when they should be completely empty. They can feel really funky during the day as the bird eats.

All this being said, if the crop is very hard, it is impacted. If it is soft and squishy, it is slow and perhaps soured. An impaction can come from eating long grasses or very stiff vegetation that the bird can not pass down through the intestines. Many times the gizzard is also impacted as well.

If the crop is soft and squishy, it is slow or soured. Either of these can be as simple as food not moving fast enough, possibly being egg bound or some other life threatening issue.

If she is impacted you will want to separate her or cage her with no food for 24 full hours. Water only. If you know how to get water into her without aspirating her, the crop will move faster. You also use dulcolax gel's squeezed into some water and put down the throat. These will help to break up impactions. Massage the crop often too to help break up the impaction. Inn 24 hours, the crop should have moved most or all of this hard ball and she can go back to eating if this is the case.

For a soft crop, you will want to vomit up the gunk in the crop. This stuff is rotting food and can poison her. Hold her like a foot ball in one arm, beak forward, and support her at the crop with the other hand. Lean forward with her til her beak is straight down, tail up. The MOMENT the liquid starts to come up, count to 2 or 3 and then stand up so she can breathe. Any longer and she can aspirate, or breath it in. Give her a moment to catch her breath, and do it again. Get as much out as you can. You won't get it all out, but she will feel tons better afterwards. Chickens are unable to throw up. So you have to do it for them. Then you will want to separate her so she can only eat her chicken feed. Dampen it so it is more easy to digest. No other foods, at least nothing hard. She can have hard boiled eggs with yogurt on them. Put some probiotics in her water. One human capsule dumped into a quart waterer, dispose of the cap. Change this water daily and make new. Check her crop each morning and vomit if needed. (feel the outside of her breast to see how much is in there. You can use a healthy bird for comparison.) Keep this program up for several days until she can awaken in the morning with nothing in her crop.

You can also post this issue in our emergency section for more help...https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/10/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures

Good luck and I hope you can get her back to good health soon.

 

[hennible]

Could be an impacted crop. Post a pic if you can.

 

[BantamLover21]

Glad you joined us!

I'm sorry to hear about your "off" hen.

Hopefully, it is nothing serious. I would post her symptoms, in detail, in the Emergencies/Diseases/Injuries and Cures section of the forum. Knowledgeable people there should be able to help.

 

[Grant davis]

I will try to get a photo today... and what is a impacted crop ?

 

[Wyandottes7]

Welcome to BYC!

We're glad to have you.

I'm sorry to hear about your hen! Here are some links about impacted crops:

http://keep-hens-raise-chickens.com/health/impacted-crop-or-crop-binding
http://www.tillysnest.com/2012/01/crop-issues.html

 

[Mountain Peeps]

Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

So sorry about your bird!

X2 is sounds like a crop issue.

You should check your birds' crop each night and morning. At night they should be hard and bulging. In the morning you shouldn't even be able to feel a the crop. If at either one of these time of days, the crop feels different than what is should, then your bird has a crop problem. Massage her crop area to break it up. Holding her upside down while massaging my cause her to vomit which is a great thing to have happen.

With impacted crop don't allow her to eat any foods for 24 hours. No oil either. She needs water and water only. No ACV either.

Sour crop is caused when the crop doesn’t empty fully overnight and as a result the food ferments within the crop causing a fungal infection. You can identify sour crop by checking the crop before the bird eats in the morning and if it is sour crop the crop will be watery or squishy like a balloon and if you open the bird’s beak a foul smell will emanate from it. You can give your bird some ACV if you are sure they have sour crop. Yogurt with some vaginal cream will help too.

Best of luck!

 

[drumstick diva]

You have received some excellent advice. So I will just say Welcome to Backyard chickens.