Help, 10 day old chick. Impacted Crop

[calliebeth]

Hello friends,

We just decided to expand our flock and got four 1 week old chicks from a local chicken breeder. I noticed last night that our smallest chicken had a pretty full crop. I gently massaged it and figured I would check in the morning to see if it has passed. I went outside at 7am and she was awake and I check, and it was still relatively full. The other 2 chicks were fine. She was behaving normally - peeping, running around, and very aware. After observing her and her sisters, I noticed they were eating their bedding. I immediately covered the bedding with paper towels. I needed to monitor her bowel movements and take away food, so I needed to separate her. By around 11am I had another brooder set up for her so I moved her in there. Given that her crop is firm and not soft I assume it is not sour so water should be safe. I gave her some olive oil, and put some ACV in her water bowl. No food in the brooder. It is warm enough. Every 2 hours I gently massage her crop, give her a few drops of olive oil ACV water mixture (she readily drinks this - not force fed). I have noticed the crop is reducing. She has been pooped firm (1/2 a pencil eraser size) small poops every 30 minutes. She has had nothing to eat in 8.5 hours. I was prepared to not feed her at all today and wait until the morning to see how her crop is. If it is emptied, I will introduce a little yogurt, and continue with olive oil and ACV.
Here are my questions:

1. If it is not emptied, should I still not give her anything to eat? I'm worried about starving her.
2. Any other recommendations for things I have it tried? I am not comfortable with the downward 60 degree angle forced vomit. I've heard of too many chicks choking from this.
3. How long should I wait to introduce her to former foods?

It is worth noting that yesterday one of the chicks suddenly became very lethargic and refused to eat or drink. I verified she was warm enough and nurtured her all day with hand feeding and providing water, and chick booster/probiotics. She passed by the end of the evening. As soon as I noticed her lethargic unusual behavior I separated her from the others and cleaned their coop.

I have been raising chickens for about a year and a half now. I have 8 adult chicks that I have never had any health issues with. We got them from a farm supply store and they were very healthy. Would someone recommend that I contact the breeder I purchased from? I don't know if I should let her know that 2/4 chicks were sickly, and one passed.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Callie

 

[Wattles7]

It sounds like your are doing a good job to help her crop start moving again. Keep doing what you are doing and don't feed her until her crop has emptied or that could cause even more of an impaction.

Keep the water out because yes only for impacted crops should hickeys have water out. Don't do the vomit method it's very dangerous, keep doing what you are doing and good luck.

 

[emmaie892000]

Sounds like you're doing everything else. The vomit method can be risky, yes. And it works much better with a sour crop than an impacted one, considering sour crops contain a lot of gross liquid and impacted ones tend to be harder masses. If it's going down, the treatment is working. I would continue with-holding food until her crop seems to be back to normal.

 

[calliebeth]

Thank you all, so much. Her crop was emptied this morning! Unfortunately, her 2 sisters are now struggling. Fortunately I caught it early with them and after only a couple hours this morning the oil, water, ACV mix is doing its work. They should all be on yogurt and egg purée by this afternoon!

 

[emmaie892000]

Yay!
The fact that multiple birds had the problem most likely means something environmental caused it. Wood chips are a likely culprit. To prevent this in the future, make sure they aren't eating whatever bedding you put in. Access to long grass or hay can also cause an impacted crop if they choose to eat it.

 

[calliebeth]

Both of the other chicks were easy today! I was able to give them the mixture, massage their crop and one of them emptied during the massage. The other waited about 10 minutes. All are on yogurt, and we are going to switch to sand today. Even after 4 days they still aren't understanding that the wood chips aren't food. They continue to try to pull up the paper towels to get to the wood chips. All on yogurt for the rest of the day and tomorrow we will introduce hard boiled egg purée.

 

[emmaie892000]

Sounds like you're doing exactly the right thing!

 

[speney]

I would like to say thank you for this thread. I have three peeps about a week old I didn't realize wood chips would cause that and I ended up w one completely impacted and the other two were getting there.I kinda panicked I have never had this problem in the four years of having chicks but I never had wood chips either. I took the wood chips out and they are all on there way to recover. Again thank you this thread saved my babies.

 

[Marianne25]

Since I'll be getting my first chicks in the Spring, this is an informative thread to read. What would you recommend for bedding other than wood chips? thanks.

 

[speney]

Since I'll be getting my first chicks in the Spring, this is an informative thread to read.  What would you recommend for bedding other than wood chips? thanks.

I usually line everything with newspaper and it has always worked great for me.