huge crop and small body on CORNISH X ROCK hen

[terri1nd]

I have a 7 week old CORNISH X ROCK Female that has a huge crop and small body. I have 2 chicks like this out of 76. I have not withdrawn food or water from them. I am not sure what is happening with them. When I pick the one chick up she has the liquidfied feed just pouring out of her mouth and then she acts as if she is gasping for air. How should I deal with this problem to help her? Here is a link to some photos of her I took this morning. http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/563898141fqsdFH

 

[bheila]

That crop is huge. I've never seen that with our meat chickens. How long has she been like that? Maybe she has some sort of obstuction that keeps her food from going down and that's why she is smaller.

 

[terri1nd]

She has been like that for a week now. I picked her up and put her on the picnic table and was feeling it and trying to massage it for her today. I did not feel anything that felt solid. I hope massaging it might have helped. I thought it would make her spit some of the food in her crop out, but she did not.

 

[karen+3chickens]

I have a 3 month old plymouth rock with the same problem. I'm so glad you posted pictures because I couldn't find anything like that anywhere else. My chicken has also had an enlarged crop for over a week and although it isn't getting super hard it seems like it just keeps growing. I am taking her to a vet tomorrow because I don't know what to do (I am new to chickens). I had tried bread soaked in oil and massaging a few times and it didn't seem to help. I will post again tomorrow and let you know what the vet says. I hope he/she has good news and solutions for both of us.

 

[Mrs MIA]

I had a black australorp like that... we would massage it and make her spit out what was in it (sour crop) and then feed her yogurt with crumbled softened in it. No free rein on the food, though... only about 1/4-1/3 cup 3 times a day. It cleared up, but within a week after moving her back with the other birds it came back. We eventually had to put her down.

Try separating her, though, and try this recipe (I got it from a friend in Australia that really knows her stuff)...
Take ~ 1/4 - 1/3 cup crumbles and add a tsp of cod liver oil. Mix well. Add a tbsp of plain unsweetened natural yogurt and mix well. Then stir in 2 tbsp grated carrot and 2 tbsp grated apple. Feed this to her in the mornings for a few days and see if it helps. The yogurt should help with the "good bugs".

 

[peaceful]

I found a similar big bulge on my tiny five week old bantam tonight and got worried. After doing a lot of reading on the internet I have found out that that bulge is the crop area, and that it is normal for it to bulge as they fill themselves up but it can get blocked up (impacted crop) or have other problems (eg. sour crop). There is discussion of crop problems on the page
www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1198
Scroll down to find crop related topics on that page.
Since your chicken's bulge is so big for so long, it's a concern. From the info I read, help for the chicken for these kinds of problems ranges from gentle massage (don't press up- you don't necessarily want the chicken to regurgitate as they could apparently asphyxiate or get bacteria in their nasal passages) to adding to their diet (eg. oils (such as olive oil or mineral? oil, briefly) or yogourt), to surgery. Making sure they have access to good water (including possibly adding electrolytes), and perhaps removing any hay/straw/long grass access that could contribute to blockage were other suggestions.
More info I found: If the crop bulge is hard it is likely an impacted crop, whereas if it is soft like a waterfilled balloon it is likely sour crop. For the impacted crop frequent gentle massage, some olive oil etc. will help. Sour crop is apparently a fungal infection and the crop contents will smell (when they regurgitate or on the chicken's breath). Apparently you can feed the chicken live bio yogourt, soft nutritious food, and if needed anti-fungal drugs from a vet for sour crop. Also they say a little apple cider vinegar in the drinking water can help prevent problems in general.

 

[Mahonri]

I saw a chicken once with this. It had gotten into some dried rice. Once the rice got in the crop it swelled... enough got through the crop into the digestive system that it did the poor bird in.

If you have a pigeon problem... feed them some non cooked rice. It they eat it, it will do them in.

 

[terri1nd]

I want to thank you for all the information and tips. I have apple cider vinegar (with the mother) so I will use that in their water. I was thinking I had some mineral oil around, but I cannot find it now that I need it. I have 1 tablet left of Dr Ohhira's probiotics I may be willing to give her, but I really have to think about that before I do. I do not have any yogurt, plus I'm not so sure they would eat it. I tried giving the chickens some apple pie I had left over and they ran away from it. A few would walk around it looking at it but they would not eat it, they acted like they were afraid of it. I think I'll try to partition off a corner in the coop for her and feed her separate. I think I'll go ahead and add the apple cider vinegar to all their water.
I'll have to consult my son in law on some of the other ideas and see what he thinks, since he has his chickens in with mine. If there was any surgery to be done, I'd try to get him to do it. VBG.

 

[karen+3chickens]

I brought my chicken with a similar problem to the vet yesterday. I'm not sure if this will be useful to you, but I thought I would share. On Wed. morning I separated the chicken and put her on a water only diet. I figured if she was still pooping, then something in her crop was getting through. Later that day I took her to the vet. Because she had not eaten all day, her crop was a little smaller. The vet tried to flush out her crop and got out some grass, grit, etc. But she could not flush out a grape sized mass. The vet feels that because the mass moves around in her crop, it is likely causing a partial blockage, thus causing her huge crop. So, she is to remain separated for now. I have put apple cider vinegar in her water. I have been watering down some starter mash and feeding her about 1tbs a few times a day. The hope is that the vinegar and massage will help break down the mass so it can pass through (as long as it is something organic). I'm not sure what to do if is doesn't pass. The vet bill was pricey and the next step is to give her anethesia and try to pull it out with a hook. I'm not sure what we will do in that case. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it goes away and that her crop shrinks back to normal size. Hope this was helpful to you. How is your chicken doing?

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
I didn't think my birds would go for the yogurt, either, but they eat it plain out of a bowl and I swear I hear lips smacking! But if you mix a little into the mash, it just turns everything soft and mushy - they'll never know.