Distended croup and abdomen in chick

[Kmo]

Hi yall,

I have one Salmon Favorelle chick that's a couple weeks old who I noticed today has a very distended abdomen and croup. Croup is hard, belly is almost like a water balloon feeling. Eating and acting normally. Thoughts? Ascites? Pics after soaking to see how big she looks.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would get that chick to a vet if possible. Is any of the enlargement puffy like air under the skin? Leaking air sacs from injury or infection could cause puffiness under the skin. It looks like the crop is impacted and I don’t know if the bowel is also backed up since it looks like the vent is protruding. I have no experience with this. Giving the chick water and a small piece of coconut oil orally to help lube things. Massage the crop every couple of hours to help move it along. I have doubts that this chick may make it.

 

[staceyj]

This chick is obviously constipated and completely blocked. What has she been eating?

There are steps you can take to try and unblock it. But this is an emergency situation that may not resolve due to its severity.

Give it a half teaspoon of whatever kind of oil you have in your kitchen - olive, mineral, canola...drop by drop or feed it a similar amount of solid coconut oil in bits.

If you have any molasses add some to it’s water. Molasses has a laxative effect. Dehydration is always a concern if the bowels have stopped. so if you have sav-a-Chik electrolytes (or something similar) add that to their water.

Chick starter should be soaked with water to a thin oatmeal consistency but this clog needs to be emptied before you give this chick any more food. The natural digestion process causes food to breakdown In the gi tract and if there is a bowel torsion then gas from this process has no way of getting out. This can lead to the bowel bursting.

Make sure you are providing “chick grit” to all your chicks if they are eating anything at all besides just chick starter and water.

I know that adult chickens can actually take human laxatives. They are usually in a gel cap form so if you have that in the house you could resort to that in the morning starting with half of the contents of a capsule.

Do make an effort to stimulate its bowels by warm warmer and gentle stimulation to make sure it’s not a pasty butt clog causing the problem.

Use the search engine here for more ideas by using keywords like “chick is constipated”
Or “constipation”

 

[Kmo]

Update: this chick is odd. Still big. Like all around big. Shes probably 2 or 3 times the size of the chick she came in with. Even her feet are big. But seems less feathered? Crop still huge, but will empty with no food overnight so not impacted. Belly still bloated but not constipated, faces totally normal. Eats and drinks just fine. Acts totally normal. If anything shes the spookiest of the bunch. I have no idea what's with her. She just looks absolutely awful but is totally fine otherwise??

 

[Kiki]

Update: this chick is odd. Still big. Like all around big. Shes probably 2 or 3 times the size of the chick she came in with. Even her feet are big. But seems less feathered? Crop still huge, but will empty with no food overnight so not impacted. Belly still bloated but not constipated, faces totally normal. Eats and drinks just fine. Acts totally normal. If anything shes the spookiest of the bunch. I have no idea what's with her. She just looks absolutely awful but is totally fine otherwise??

Poor thing...could she be a meat bird?

 

[Kiki]

You bought this chick at TSC?

 

[Kmo]

Poor thing...could she be a meat bird?

Heck I can't even say poor thing cause other than being weirdly bloaty looking shes fine!

I got her at tsc. In a bin of favorelles,although shes clearly not. No clue what breed she is. The other one we got at the same time is normal if not small so idk what the heck is going on.

 

[Kmo]

Yep

You bought this chick at TSC?

 

[sawilliams]

So honestly i don't have any solution for you. But I did have a chick a while back that had an enlarged crop. After doing all the above and making sure the chick was otherwise healthy I just kept an eye on it from then on. Eventually get body caught up with her crop and seeme looks perfectly normal now with no further issues.

 

[Kiki]

Yep

She look like she might be a Cornish X meat bird.