Crop Issue?

[CoriM]

My Welsh Harlequin Poppy emerged from the coop this morning with an enlarged crop. Her head is kind of tucked down on the crop, as in the photo. I have zero experience with this. She seemed normal yesterday, although I didn't observe her much from late afternoon until bedtime. She's eating and drinking and swimming and is able to preen her belly, but she seems to be walking with less energy, and she also seemed to have difficulty bending down to pick a pea up off the ground. After reading a few threads here I gave her some olive oil and massaged her crop, and added ACV to her drinking water. Is there something else I should be doing, aside from an emergency vet visit? Will this type of thing ever resolve on its own? She ate nothing out of the ordinary yesterday - just Mazuri, some meal worms, and bites of kale.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Aww Bless she is so pretty. I have only had a hen [chicken] with crop issues and I used this method and it worked.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ntion-and-treatments-of-crop-disorders.67194/
I used plain ducolax with my hen.

 

[CoriM]

Thank you Miss Lydia, I am going to try the ducolax and crop massages. I hope it does the trick. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I hope so too. I was pretty amazed it took 2 days but she got through it.

 

[CoriM]

By the time I got back from the store she looked much better and had her neck stretched up normally. I gave her one of the stool softeners and massaged the crop. I will probably keep her off food today just to be safe, but I'm encouraged.

 

[Miss Lydia]

That’s great! Sounds like it’s moving.

 

[CoriM]

Two questions: yesterday my ducks were browsing my garden boxes and helping themselves to kale. Do you think too large of pieces could have caused Poppy's issue? And I also recently bought new oyster shells and they were white chunks instead of the gray flakes they are used to. I think they're eating less of them - would lack of that cause the impaction of the crop?

 

[Miss Lydia]

The oyster shell I buy has always been white chucks, not big chunks though. I actually didn't know it came any other way. My ducks were eating OS like candy up until just this week they have pretty much ignored it. Also laying has been down this week and I am beginning to see some feathers laying around so have a feeling molting is slowly starting up.

As for the Kale I know long strands of grass can cause the crop to get impacted so possibility there. I toss out whole Romaine lettuce though and mine just rip off pieces to eat. So actually no telling what may have caused this. Although Kale leaves are thicker than Romaine? I usually buy kale already chopped up when on sale at the grocery.

I hope today she is doing much better.

 

[CoriM]

Thank you, she is back to normal! Thank you so much for your advice!

My ducks are laying less too - so is that typical for this time of year due to a coming molt?

 

[Miss Lydia]

You know I hadn't really put together the OS laying and molt but it does seem to be a correlation between the 3. I was filling their OS once a week and I would see them gorging on it. This last I put out has hardly been touch. But they made a liar out of me with the laying today I got 5 eggs from 7 of the girls. Muscovy aren't laying.

That is great your Poppy is back to normal wonderful news!!