Huge crop/ slow crop problem! Please help!

[applethechicken]

This is Apricot, she’s 8 months old and lays. Yesterday morning (Wednesday 11/16) I noticed she had a very large crop, but that was after she had ate already. It was about the size of a softball. I didn’t separate her then because she was still very active and eating. I just gave her some coconut oil and tried massaging. (She also was drinking the garlic water that I had for everyone) I think it was around 45 minutes of massaging in total, but the crop didn’t get smaller, neither did it get bigger even though she ate. I did catch a avocado green cecal poop, and a normal poop yesterday afternoon (pic attached, it’s the one on the dirt, sorry for bad lighting). But her poop frequency has gone down, to over an hour instead of 30 minutes.

This morning (11/17), I caught her coming out of the coop at dawn, and it is still the size of a golf ball, or a little bit larger. I’ve now put her in my garage with only garlic water and grit. I also attached a picture of her poops from morning (the ones on the cardboard). It definitely doesn’t look normal. It looks oily, which could be from the coconut oil yesterday. She still wants to eat, and she’s also growling a lot

All the other 4 chickens are fine. I spend time with them everyday, and yesterday was the first day I noticed it was abnormally large. The contents in her crop don’t feel like a liquid, or solid like a rock. It’s squishy and pliable, like bread dough, but doesn’t hold its shape. No nasty smell.

She’s still active and wants to eat. She’s drinking a lot of the garlic water (like every few minutes).

Possible causes I can think of:
1. She eats everything, so many she ate something bad? I don’t have long grasses (large run, not free range), but she does eat vegetables and herbs, and she likes eating grass, but it’s short.
2. It has been raining a lot here, and she always goes to the uncovered parts of the run when there’s light rain, and she’s always digging through the mud.
3. She also has been spending a lot of time laying for the past few times, like it takes her over an hour in the nesting boxes, but never sick egg bound symptoms. The egg shells are still hard though. She gets egg shells and oyster shells, but she prefers the egg shells, and ate A LOT of them a few days ago, to the point where I could see small pieces in her poop. So maybe there’s too many egg shells stuck in there?

Also, she has always sneezed more than the others (once every hour or so), ever since she was a baby chick. It’s never wheezing or any discharge.

Lastly, I haven’t dewormed anyone yet, since they’re only 8 months old. They do get garlic water once a month for a week though.

Is this doughy crop? How do I treat? Should I massage? I’ve read just about every article and thread on sour/ doughy/ impacted crop on here, but I’m not sure which one she has.

Please help. I feel like I’m always dealing with chicken problems and sicknesses, and now my healthiest one is having problems too.

 

[applethechicken]

I forgot to mention, they eat all organic scratch and peck grains, along with other grains, some peas and corn. They get soaked grains (I bring them out every morning) and dry (always abatable) too. And they eat veggies and herbs from the garden. Dried mealworms and black soldier fly larvae for treats. Occasionally garlic water, ACV water, spices mixed into their food, and plain yogurt. Ive never seen them have problems digesting any of that, until now.

 

[applethechicken]

@Wyorp Rock @azygous @Eggcessive

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[azygous]

Drinking excess water is a symptom of impacted crop. Do you feed dried peas? Or have they been soaked and cooked? Legumes should not be fed to chickens in their raw state.

Calcium supplements, usually in the form of calcium carbonate, which are what oyster shell and egg shells are, are water soluble and need to be of a large enough particle size so as to remain as long as possible in the digestive tract for the calcium to be absorbed.

I would continue with the oil and massage after each dose. Use up to a teaspoon of oil each time. Coconut oil is easily solidified by chilling and is then easy to insert into the beak without risk of liquid oil being aspirated.

 

[applethechicken]

Drinking excess water is a symptom of impacted crop. Do you feed dried peas? Or have they been soaked and cooked? Legumes should not be fed to chickens in their raw state.

Calcium supplements, usually in the form of calcium carbonate, which are what oyster shell and egg shells are, are water soluble and need to be of a large enough particle size so as to remain as long as possible in the digestive tract for the calcium to be absorbed.

I would continue with the oil and massage after each dose. Use up to a teaspoon of oil each time. Coconut oil is easily solidified by chilling and is then easy to insert into the beak without risk of liquid oil being aspirated.

Thank you for your help
She didn't drink a lot of water yesterday, I didn't even catch her drinking in the few hours I was with her. She only drank a lot this morning, for the first 30 minutes or so, but not too much any more.

For peas, sometimes she gets little bit of dried. Its mostly soaked though. I thought it was only beans that shouldn't be fed dried, but I will completely eliminate dried peas from now on.

She doesn't want to eat the calcium carbonate pebble like supplements. I bought some natural oyster shells but they haven't arrived yet

She takes the coconut oil well, so ill do that. How often should I give her coconut oil and massage?
She just pooped again, still little oily but the brown part has shape now.

 

[applethechicken]

I just gave her a bowl with the solidified coconut oil, but she didn't want to eat it herself, unlike yesterday. I'm going to wait a few and if she doesn't eat it, ill try to insert it in.

Also, she's growling a lot (stress?) and I think she's laying today. Is it fine for her to lay in this quarantine cage?

 

[applethechicken]

Or have they been soaked

I soak the peas and corn for at least 24 hours, and then put them in the fridge after that, and usually they eat it over the span of 3 days. Is that okay? or should it always be at room temp, which is are 73 for me

 

[azygous]

Peas are the only legume that is safe to feed raw to poultry as they have very low phytohaemagglutinin. This is a toxin all the other dried beans and lentils have and it's poison unless the beans have been soaked and cooked. So you're okay to continue feeding the peas in any state.

Keep an eye on this girl when she gets into a nest box. Check under her half an hour after she gets in the nest to see if she laid the egg. If she has, she may be a nest malingerer, and not really having laying issues.

On the other hand, if she hasn't laid the egg in an hour, she may be experiencing laying issues that might need addressing.

 

[applethechicken]

Peas are the only legume that is safe to feed raw to poultry as they have very low phytohaemagglutinin. This is a toxin all the other dried beans and lentils have and it's poison unless the beans have been soaked and cooked. So you're okay to continue feeding the peas in any state.

Keep an eye on this girl when she gets into a nest box. Check under her half an hour after she gets in the nest to see if she laid the egg. If she has, she may be a nest malingerer, and not really having laying issues.

On the other hand, if she hasn't laid the egg in an hour, she may be experiencing laying issues that might need addressing.

for the past 2 times she laid, I checked in the middle and she hasn't laid in an hour. it was around an hour and 30 when she laid and she came out right after she laid. What laying issues could cause that?

 

[azygous]

Low calcium levels can affect everything from ovulation to contractions facilitating laying. These functions can also affect crop function when the oviduct is blocked for a period of time by a slow egg or double ovulation in a single cycle. Sitting more than an hour in a nest before getting the egg out is one indication she may be headed for egg binding at some point, especially as she ages.

The treatment for this is a boost in absorbable calcium such as calcium citrate. I give one tablet at the first sign of such a reproductive tendency. Two or three days of calcium citrate often "resets" the cycle to normal. This is also used when a hen appears to be suffering from an egg binding episode by increasing contractions to expel the egg. I get this at Walmart and keep in in my run.

This is strictly for reproductive crises, not meant to replace oyster shell or egg shells as it's much too high in calcium to give long term.