Enormous crop on a 5 day old chick?

[SanctusPullus]

Just got this Speckled Sussex chick yesterday afternoon and thought the crop seemed a bit big but this evening it looks enormous. I've noticed that she's been drinking a heck of a lot of water and is pooping very watery because of it. She's only 5 days old and seems to be eating a little less than what I'd normally expect but she's not abstaining from food totally. Can a 5 day old chick be crop-bound? She's had nothing but starter feed. If so, what can be done for such a young bird? She's beautiful and got a great personality, I'd hate to lose her.

 

[Amyh]

Have you massaged the crop? Maybe try to give her some play sand for grit? I'm not really sure, I'm just trying to give you some ideas until someone more knowledgeable chimes in.

 

[SanctusPullus]

Yeah, my wife has been doing all the normal things you'd do for an older bird: forced a bit of olive oil into her and massaged her crop for about 15 mins. (She actually loves to snack on the grit - doesn't eat anything else at all other than the starter feed.) Wife just put some vinegar in the water too, guess we'll wait to see how things are in the morning. My concern was that she was only 5 days old and shouldn't have any of the issues resulting from behaviors of older birds.

Thanks for keeping the post alive though!

 

[dianaross77]

Oh wow! I think you may have a little piggy on your hands. I've seen mine stuffed to the gills like that on occasion. It was always in the evening before they'd hunker down for bed. Check it first thing in the morning and see if it's empty.

 

[sj3364]

I had a chick that was just a pig. I took the food away at night and checked in the morning if the crop was down and it was. If it is still big in the morning then you have a problem.

 

[SanctusPullus]

It shall be done! Thanks for the advice and will check in the am

Edited to ask: Were your chicks this young though (5 days)?

 

[saladin]

It doesn't look abnormal to me.

 

[RedDrgn]

Looks like our chicks did through week 2/2.5. No idea why, but they really started chowing down and all five had very large crops. However, they behaved as if nothing was wrong and ate and drank normally. Now into week 3.5 incidences of this have tapered off quite a bit. Certainly scared the heck out of us at first, though....but ultimately our chicks were just pigs.

 

[SanctusPullus]

Hope that's the case. Her crop was noticably smaller this morning - don't know if it was from the massage and olive oil or from taking the food away overnight. She's still attacking the water though lol Thanks, will have to wait and see then.