Crop problems- impacted? sour?**UPDATE**

[AZmama]

Our 14 wk old black australorp has an enlarged crop that sometimes feels like a bean bag, sometimes like a balloon. We have confined her overnight w/o food & water and it shrinks some, but not completely. It goes from about tennis ball size to about the size of a plum.
I am not sure if it is impacted or sour or ?? It never gets rock hard, I don't smell rotten breath. She is eating and pooping.
We have tried olive oil and massage a few times (when it felt like a bean bag). Didn't help. We tried baking soda water and tried to "burp" her (when it felt like air). Nothing comes up.
We have already spent over $700 at the vet this month for 2 chickens who died anyway. I can't afford another vet bill now. Any suggestions?

 

[Pine Grove]

Seems normal to me, they dont always empty completey over night, This hot weather that we are haveing is causing them to drink more water than usual, Causing a bigger crop than normal. The plum size gob you are feeling(in the morning right?) is just feed left in the crop caused from the water passing quicker than the feed, Let her go on up in the day without food, but give her all the water she will drink, Im positive she will empty out..That will be $250.00 thank you....lol

 

[AZmama]

Thank you for answering! I am fairly new to chickens, but I really don't think this is normal. None of our adult chickens, nor the other 14 wk chick has ever had a crop anywhere near like this! I may not be explaining it well. (I forgot to mention- Last night and this morning, she started bobbing her head side to side.)
After I posted, I checked on her and it was bigger than I have ever seen. It was softball size! It swings back and forth as she walks. I tried to get a pic. This is the best I could get:

I may try your suggestion of confining her for an entire day w/ just water. It can't hurt.

 

[Pine Grove]

Ok a pic paints a thousand words. She definitely has sour crop. Sorry I cant help you with your problem as I have always culled, as it always seemed to reocurr. Maybe someone else has some suggestions, good luck

 

[dlhunicorn]

could be impacted/blocked ...does she have a "sour" smelling breath yet???
Stop giving her grains of any kind (got a starter or crumble? Wet that and add a bit of olive oil (dont let her pig out on it either) and give free choice live culture yogurt ) ....Massage the crop... hopefully it will pass through....

 

[redwa]

I just went through this sour crop/impacted crop thing (resulted in surgery - she is doing fine, recuping in our kitchen as I write...). If I were to do this again from the moment I noticed our chicken's enlarged crop (still eating/pooping, etc. ), I would do the following: Isolate her so she absolutely can not have access to any other food other than what I give her. I did not realize that because the food was not all being digested fully, she was trying to feed herself with anything she could find, including feathers (not getting enough calories/protein). The goal is to empty her crop, figure out what the primary issue is (sour crop is usually secondary) and restore it back to its normal functioning. I would take her to the vet and have them do a culture to see what if anything bacterial or ? is growing in her crop and give her the appropriate meds (if necessary) and avian probiotics, yogurt may not be enough at this stage. You don't want to give her meds unnecessarily. Olive oil may be good to help if there is something needed to pass. Most importantly is to deal with it now while she is still strong so she can recover vs wait too long and she may get weakened. Good luck!

 

[AZmama]

We have seen no improvement over the weekend. She does have stinky breath now. It doesn't shrink any overnight anymore. So, I took her to the vet today.
She tried to flush the crop but couldn't get much of anything out, even though it feels like it is full of liquid. She tried to make her vomit and could not get anything to come up. She said that is unusual. She said it is possible she has some sort of anatomical deformity that doesn't allow her to regurgitate.
She put a crop bra on her and said to cage her w/o food/water for 24 hrs and see if it goes down. Meanwhile she took a swab of the crop and is checking for an infection.
If it doesn't clear up she said we will have to bring her in for surgery. I pray it goes down, as we just cannot afford that!
As it is, they charge $23 for the crop bra (piece of gauze).

I must say, it is very fashionable, though!

Jessie modeling her purple crop bra.

 

[AZmama]

Well her crop is GONE this afternoon! If I'd known a crop bra could do that, I would have made my own and save us a vet bill.
We are still waiting on the swab results, she may still need meds.

 

[Lunachick]

Hope the swab comes back OK. But I do like that cropbra! She just might start a trend! Hope all goes well.

 

[Wooden_Pony]

You can also give her applesauce to help out. Natural applesauce no sugar added.

I worked for and helped raise exotic parrots with my neighbor/friend. When we stated seeing slow crop we feed applesauce to the babies it helped in cleaning out their crops.

PS purple looks good on her