HUGE crop swinging from side to side when she runs

[echip]

Henrietta is 11 weeks old and has always had a pretty big crop,even as a tiny chick, but now it is gigantic. It literally swings from side to side when she runs - towards any food. It feels neither hard nor too squishy, but it is just so BIG. Her poops are normal. She doesn't seem in any discomfort.

She is an ee bantam and the crop is as big as a softball. Is this dangerous for her? She just LOVES to eat and eat and eat. Is there anything I should do for her? Could it burst? Help!

 

[pookiegoldman]

Treated one of my turkeys not long ago with pendulous crop. Same thing as your chicken. What we did is seperate her for 2 days from the rest of the flock giving only water, for a chance for that food in the crop to digest. It did not. So we placed olive oil in a squeeze bottle, and held her and squeezed some oil down her mouth. Then we massaged her crop for 5 minutes or so then held her sort-of upside down and actually regurgitated the turkey. Massaged the crop upwards until she spewed. A LOT came out!! And it smelled totally sour. Ever since then, she hasn't had a problem! I hear that once they get it, the chances of it happening again are high, if the muscles under the crop get stretched and worn. Before we helped her out, my turkey acted like she was always starving! She'd run up to the fence and kick when she saw I was coming with food. Turns out, she was always hungry because she wasn't digesting much of the food she was eating...

Look up pendulous crop, and maybe you can get some more info.. Good Luck!

 

[hinkjc]

Check her first thing in the morning to make sure it is emptying properly overnight. If so, I wouldn't be too concerned with it. I have some hens who love to overindulge and have the same huge bouncy crop when they run. One lived for 8 years without ever having an issue and she was like that from very young. If it's not going down, then you may have a crop issue going on. Along with the recommendation for researching pendulus crop, I would recommend looking into crop stasis (I believe that is what it's called when the muscle stops working properly that moves the food to the gizzard).

 

[echip]

Thank you both for your suggestions. I'm keeping an eye on Henrietta. I checked her first thing in the morning and her crop was about 1/4 the size of what it was in the evening - a golf ball size instead of a softball. It felt like a little bag of chick starter. It was not completely empty.

I'm, um, chicken, to try anything drastic yet since she seems happy and healthy otherwise. DH and I are preparing a safe chicken hospital/jail for sick or troublesome birds, but it won't be ready for a couple of days. It bothers me to think of separating little Henrietta from her freinds unless it is absolutely necessary. The thought of trying to empty the crop manually scares me too. But such things are the way of the chicken mama.