Empty Crop at the end of day

[vdesteph]

One of my 4 month old chickens is very thin, weak, and is going to bed with an empty crop. Throughout the day she seems fine, she free ranges. I see her eating, yet at the end of the night her crop is empty. She keeps losing weight and I don't know what to do? Along with free ranging I give her oatmeal, some yogurt, and scratch grains. And her poops seem normal.

 

[stevetone]

First, since this is your first post,

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My initial reaction was internal parasites (e.g.,worms), or external parasites, particularly in the coop, which would be a problem at night (e.g., Red Mites).

Have you inspected her closely for external parasites?

EDIT: After rereading your post, are you providing a balanced feed? Scratch grains, oatmeal and yogurt are all very incomplete sources of food, and I am not sure that her free-ranging will pickup all of the necessary nutrients for a young bird. If so, this is likely to be the problem.

 

[araceli]

Steve, reading your response to this persons empty crop situation I thought I would throw this question out to you. My one chicken of 5 is also ending the day with nearly an empty crop. I have been posting what has been going on. The rest of the girls have been fine with full crops. Because of this one chicken all of them are being de-wormed. This one is the only one showing worms in her feces which she did the day before I started de-worming. She has a mild cough at night, light and not too frequent, where last week one night is when I had my first concern because she was coughing more frequently and more loudly. So I think that may be improving. Two nights ago her crop was so empty it was nonexistent. Which I started de-worming two nights ago, this is the third night. Last two nights it was almost empty but I can find it and it feels like it has less than a teaspoon, so minimal improvement. Do you think she is gonna be okay? I thought to do a second de-worm to get all other worms in two weeks. She is the only one with the worms in her feces this time, and a year ago the same things happened, she was the only one with worms in her poop during a de-worming. Since last year I only did the Wazine which is what I've done this time, I figured adding in the second round of another de-wormer to get the larvae and other types might keep her from any more repeat worm problems. Thanks for listening and any help you can contribute. I appreciate any and all help I can get. So grateful for BYC!