Hard Crop in Pullet Please Advise

[bionic_chicken]

My black australorp had temporary slow crop issues as a chick. She is now a large, seemingly healthy pullet. Yesterday afternoon, I noticed her huge crop while all were out in the yard free-ranging...thought nothing of it. This morning, although they've been up a few hours with access to layer mash in the coop, when I let them out into the yard a few minutes ago, she's the only one with a huge crop. I picked her up, have her in my lap in fact, it is hard...feels like half a baseball. I am very gently massaging. She is behaving normally, and was at the grass, weeds and scratch with the rest this morning. But now I suspect she is just packing food on top of a blockage. Please advise...bread soaked in olive oil? I want to clear this thing as soon as possible to avoid souring or worse. Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[Mahonri]

Isolate. Lots of water available. bread soaked in olive oil... yes. and you can lightly massage.

Anyone else can chirp in here....I've only dealt with it once and this worked.

 

[bionic_chicken]

I now have her in a large dog kennel on pine shavings. Plenty of clean water. I'm out of olive oil. Will canola oil do? If not, I will get the olive oil.

 

[lalaland]

yes, canola oil will do. idea is to lubricate crop, same idea with cats and hairballs..... massage does help as you may be able to sort of loosen the hard ball. You can do a search on here for handling impacted crops so if you aren't successful with the bread/oil method (and do go heavy on the oil, the bread is just a vehicle to get the oil into the crop) so you will be prepared for next steps if necessary.
best of luck! and post back and let us know the results.

 

[jvls1942]

and then again, she might not be impacted at all. a full crop will feel hard, even partially full crops can feel hard.. If she is showing no symptoms of discomfort, don't push the panic button, yet..

 

[bionic_chicken]

right...holding off of the panic button...but trying to stave off a problem...this young lady has a history. really appreciate all advice and thoughts.

 

[bionic_chicken]

Updating: She greedily ate the oil-soaked bread, and ingested a lot of oil in the process...the bread was completely saturated. What I thought was interesting was that she burped twice while eating. She still seems happy...no depression. But the crop really is ridiculously huge. When I let them out this morning, she kept either catching her toe on it while walking...or she was scratching at it out of annoyance of discomfort. The burping concerns me for possible fermentation or souring going on...but still trying not to push the panic button.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I would try gently massaging the crop to see if you might be able to get things moving again. This will also help the oil to saturate all the contents of the crop.

 

[bionic_chicken]

UPDATE: After all day in the kennel with water and one successful feeding of oil-soaked bread, the crop seems a bit more pliable...just a bit. She laid an egg...she pooped. I can't tell if she took in any water...thought I felt some fluid in the crop. Putting the other girls to bed, I found the fullest crop to be one-third the size of Betsy's. I'm really worried about her...praying it empties over night. Any further thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

 

[Lunachick]

I hope she gets better. Just watch her for now. You said you massaged her crop? Some hens have bigger crops than others too. (just a thought) Keep giving her a massage and some olive oil mixed with some veggies mushed up and see if she poops a lot, a sure sign she has stuff passing through. And keep an extra eye on her. Hope it all works out.

Do you have her away from any others so she can recuperate? Sometimes other chooks will pick on a vulnerable one. Good luck.