Day 4 of enlarged crop/neck area. EDIT: NOT impacted or sour crop

[PlotTwistPoultry]

Lavender Commander is 15 weeks old. I've noticed she has a much larger appearing crop than the rest of the flock for the last couple of days. Zero behavior change in energy, eating, pooping (that I've noticed), or chattiness. I think today is day four of me noticing it and I decided to catch her for inspection when I noticed it was already large (or not emptied) early this morning.

I've included a ton of photos. No weird smell, doesn't feel squishy. It also feels much smaller to the touch than it looks in photos/watching her.

It did feel hard enough I gave her some unsalted butter (less a teaspoon total) since I don't have coconut oil and didn't want to risk aspirating on olive oil. I massaged the area gently upwards and it didn't seem to do much (but she seemed to enjoy it and almost fell asleep on my lap, murmuring.)

After about 20 minutes, she wanted up to explore the house so I walked her back outside and she's acting completely fine.

She's making me scratch my head and wonder if she might just be Quasimodo of the flock. Or maybe she's just a heavy eater?

Ideally, I'd like to avoid having to find a vet that would look at her.

Should I separate her and keep her without food for 24 hours or so to see what her crop does?

 

[Eggcessive]

Had she had access to food and water before you examined the crop early this morning? What do you feed the flock including any extras? I would remove food and water tonight from the flock, and get in their by daylight to feel of her crop tomorrow am. Hopefully, it will be mostly empty. If not, I would offer the chilled coconut oil or give her some cooked egg with olive oil or mineral oil tomorrow. Make sure that she is drinking normally. Hold off on feeding any seeds or whole grains or anything but her chicken feed today.

 

[PlotTwistPoultry]

Had she had access to food and water before you examined the crop early this morning? What do you feed the flock including any extras? I would remove food and water tonight from the flock, and get in their by daylight to feel of her crop tomorrow am. Hopefully, it will be mostly empty. If not, I would offer the chilled coconut oil or give her some cooked egg with olive oil or mineral oil tomorrow. Make sure that she is drinking normally. Hold off on feeding any seeds or whole grains or anything but her chicken feed today.

She did have access but the crop was still markedly larger than the rest of the birds. Their door opens at roughly 530 am, and I got out to her at 7ish.

For feed, I do Beaver's All Flock feed 18%, the entire flock gets to free range in my backyard for a couple hours each day (access to their designated run the rest of the time,) and she has access to the 6 grain/seed scratch mix from my local family feed store that I toss out for the flock (usually about a cup total for the 20 birds) and then they have access to a Purina Flock Block when in the backyard as well.

I've set up a "fasting" pen for her inside with water. She is chattering up a storm, letting me know she does not approve of the temporary accomodations. She's pooped once since being in there and it looks normal, if a bit soft. Which makes me lean towards an impaction still.

 

[PlotTwistPoultry]

I would remove food and water tonight from the flock, and get in their by daylight to feel of her crop tomorrow am.

The only reason I opted to remove her rather than all of the food and water is because it's fairly large again since I first tried massaging it*. So I decided to bring her inside. I'll let her have water in her pen until bed time, which I'll then remove and see how she is in the morning.

Edited to clarify what I actually meant since it barely made sense even to me originally

 

[PlotTwistPoultry]

This is her after ~12 hours with no food and water. So I'm cooking her some egg with olive oil. I'll give her that and water back and keep her inside. I'm also going to pick up some coconut oil.

 

[PlotTwistPoultry]

Okay, so I'm pretty freaking convinced this is NOT a crop issue. After fasting her, then still seeing the lump, I gave her coconut oil and started massaging.

Her crop feels separate to the immoveable boney structure I'm feeling in her neck. From my experience butchering chickens, I'm beginning to be convinced this is a bone/skeletal issue. The hard part feels connected to bone and is similar in firmness. There is absolutely zero movement of it that doesn't involve moving the entire neck. She continues to show zero impact on her appetite, energy, or pooping issues.

She does seem to "rest" with her head towards the right, and the lump/bump is on the left.

The lump itself is maybe an 1.5 inches long and maaaybe half an inch wide. I did my best to feel a long her spinal neck column and I'm pretty sure it follows the lump.

I'm considering wry neck or a hunchback /neck now, with the assumption that it may be a genetic defect since there are (so far) zero other symptoms.

 

[PlotTwistPoultry]

Maybe she's just the Hunchneck of Plot Twist Poultry Flocks.