HELP - Baby chick tries to poop but nothing comes out!

[kellysmall87]

Aww. Good luck!

 

[frontman]

So, any more ideas besides massaging and olive oil, including grit? Because it looks like it's trying very hard to hold on, and I would like to keep it that way.

 

[kellysmall87]

More olive oil? Squirt some into vent? Will it eat grinded up mealworms? They're a natural laxative. Tonic in the water? Force feed it water or weetabix or mushed up mealworms? I use the word "force" meaning gently squirt some in it's mouth. My silkie chick was weak after hatching and I thought it would die, and I sat it on my hand and offered it mushed up food. I had to really persist as it kept refusing. It got there in the end.

 

[kellysmall87]

Massage its belly? It works with babies!!

 

[WI FarmChick]

If you give foods other than feed you need to make sure you have the correct size grit available at all times. Hay or long strands of grass will quickly get bound into a mass and get stuck in the crop.

You have to get the olive oil in the chick...then massage and massage and massage some more.... to break up the hard mass stuck in her crop, this can kill her so act quickly. you also need to make sure she doesn't dehydrate as well. give water with a little sugar or save a chick for energy.. If this last for a few days. you will need to give soft runny foods...things that can just slide thru so she has nutrients to keep her strength.


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sour Crop or Impacted[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Is more hard or like a water balloon? Sour crop will be like a water balloon; whereas, an impacted crop is hard. "Doughy" kinda sounds normal, but that is a vague enough term that it can encompass the whole range of possible problems. Is her crop still full in the morning when she awakes?[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]If sour crop:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Massaging the crop in a downward motion. Hold all food from her and give her water with some apple cider vinegar (ACV) added to it (preferably ACV with mother, but regular will do). Make sure it is in plastic or glass as ACV corrodes metal and this can be toxic. A few times a day (as available anyway), give her an irrigation syringe full of 1/2 ACV - 1/2 water. This will take some patience as you can only give a little bit at a time to ensure she doesn't choke on it. I had a hen with sour crop that I would massage her crop while giving her the syringe. It would gurgle something nasty and she would have gnarly burps, but she started pushing up against my hand to keep massaging her crop and would open her beak for more of the ACV mixture, so it must've felt better. Sour crop is a yeast infection in the crop (hence hold food so it doesn't ferment more in there). The ACV kills the yeast. After a couple days you should see a difference and after 4 or so days, she should be near normal. Sour crop kills, so act quickly.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]If an impacted crop:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]With Hold food. Give olive oil soaked bread (the bread is just to get the olive oil into the bird). Oil seems to be the best remedy as it slicks up the passage way to allow for food to pass through. It gets tougher it is long grass/hay stuck.[/FONT]

 

[WI FarmChick]

Now if its not either of one of these then you have to get it to poop. the Vent might be stuck shut with dry poop. soften the hard poop with wash rag or just stick its butt in a bowl of warm water for a while the gently wipe the poo off. repeat as needed until the vent starts moving like it wants to eliminate. if it has dried up poo farther inside it could possibly die. make sure it poops.

Good luck

 

[frontman]

Yep, it is a sour crop. I did use vinegar today and yesterday, but at the moment it doesn't seem to be wanting to eat anything. What should it eat? How should I make it eat? Its crop is noticeably smaller but at the moment it just seems to be starving itself.

 

[RonC]

Actually a little sugar water or sav a chick only might be the best thing to give her some energy. I wouldn't think you would want to add food to the problem at the moment. Let it all pass. I would have food in the cage in case it wants to eat but not force it till the crop empties out on it's own.

 

[frontman]

Well, it's crop is nearly empty right now but it still refuses to drink even sugar water, or anything. I looks very weak and refuses to eat or drink.

 

[kellysmall87]

Mine refused to drink when it was newly hatched. It wasn't standing and lay on its front under the heat lamp, and hadn't fully absorbed the yolk sac. I picked it up, and held a syringe full of sugared water to its beak and waiting until it parted its beak. It took a while but once it opened its beak a little - I gave it the water. It's fine now. Sugared water is good. But if it refuses point blank to eat or drink then it just wants to go.