Huge, Pendulous Crop...video

[Eelantha]

I would be wary of anything with bright coloured paints as dyes sometimes contain toxic elements like Chromium and Arsenic.

What about ceramic floor tiles or kitchen or bathroom tiles?

I don't know much when it comes to fine-detail construction, but I'm pretty sure the half-glossy look of my kitchen tiles and the white tint of my bathroom tiles means they're painted/treated. The upper bathroom has false tiles (I think they're called vinyl tiles? Plastic tiles for short, I've seen bits of them used in DIY brooders for easier poop cleaning.) The rest of the house is either treated wood tiles or carpet floor.

I have four loose tiles on hand, extra ones from the kitchen, those ones don't seem glossy but look like they have dried glue or cement at the back (it's hard to tell). They belong to the landlady, so I don't think I can smash those. (I'll try and call her tomorrow to see whether her tiles are treated/painted, and ask if I can smash her extra tiles for my chickens.)

 

[Eelantha]

Grit is basically bits of rock, mostly granite. Do they have acces to the yard? If not maybe dig up some dirt with small stones for them to scratch and discover.

My chickens don't have access to the yard yet, there's too much snow and ice for me to unblock the door to their pen. I can however get them out by the front door, but they're not fancy of the snow and ice, and will try to get back inside as soon as I turn my back on them. There's not much to peck either, mostly snow, ice, some bits of rip that followed my boots out of their coop, and charcoal (we use hot ash from our fireplace to melt the path to our chicken coop, as the salt provided by the city is not enough to melt the ice for us to walk safely on it. The path looks very dirty as a result, but at least we don't risk losing the eggs or breaking a bone by sliding out on slippery terrain.)

Would charcoal work as grit for chickens? We have alot of it, and previous chickens have eaten it in previous winters at my coop, so I could fetch a few cold pieces if it proves effective.

 

[rebrascora]

You are looking for something mineral that is hard and ideally has angular edges. Charcoal is more soft and crumbly, so no, I doubt charcoal will work at all in that respect.

 

[Eelantha]

Shoot, back to square one again. I'll go check the local flower store tomorrow morning then, see if I can buy a few pottery pots to smash for my flock. As soon as the snow and ice melt enough for me to see the soil, I'll also start stocking up on rocks and pebbles, see what I can find that could make a make-shift grit mix for my chickens. Are riversides a good place for picking up small pebbles? (I'm asking due to water pollution. Is it safe to pick riverside grit in these conditions, or should I stick to the land and side roads?)

 

[rebrascora]

Ideally you are looking for small angular aggregates....about quarter or an inch and less. The pebbles on a riverbank will mostly be quite smooth.
Smashing a plant pot might work well until you can get some proper granite grit. They don't need a lot because they retain it in the gizzard until it gets ground down itself and passes out in their poop.

 

[RedMoxie]

Thanks all. This is all helpful. To answer a couple of questions: we still have her on chick crumbles, have a grit feeder in the hen house, and do offer some treats in the afternoon, largely meal worms and sometimes fruit scraps or salad greens.

Right now, between the straw in the henhouse and the salad greens, she certainly has had access to enough fibrous material to potentially account for the fibrous impaction that's been described here. Her crop is still full this morning but, as always, soft and squishy--I cant feel anything that feels like grass, or anything really, but I guess I'm just not experienced enough to know what I'm looking for.

I've read about vomiting chickens--I'm not ready to try that, so for today we will separate her in a crate, offer her water and yogurt for the next couple of days and, I assume, grit. I'll massage her crop and see if that helps and order the bra. I'll keep reading, too, see if there is anything else I should be focused on.

 

[Eelantha]

Ideally you are looking for small angular aggregates....about quarter or an inch and less. The pebbles on a riverbank will mostly be quite smooth.
Smashing a plant pot might work well until you can get some proper granite grit. They don't need a lot because they retain it in the gizzard until it gets ground down itself and passes out in their poop.

I've targetted quarter-inch pebbles with sharp corners on the road this morning. Are those okay?

Also, when I changed the water this morning I caught my brown hen and felt her crop as best as I could; it was very squishy, seemed a bit smaller than yesterday, and was not tender to the touch. I could hear it slosh though, and the vigorous gal still has diarrhea that stinks to high heavens and back. More worriesome is the fact that my spotted hen also seems to have some diarrhea, though in her case her butt is clean and it does not stink as far as I know. Her crop does not hang either. Everyone's been on amprol (amphrol?) to counter coccidiosis; this is their sixth day today and the diarrhea is still there.

My hens flew up on the perch to escape me when I started being active around their coop, so I took a picture of them since they were all facing me. You can easily see their crops; the brown hen is the biggest bird (white chantecler x brown hen cross), the spotted hen (at the far back) is mid-way between middle-weight and bendy size (white chantecler x barred plymouth cross, she looks like a runt), and the white columbian hen at the front is close to bendy size too, though her origins are unknown.

for a better sideways look:

the last picture was taken yesterday morning. The perch picture was taken today. They've eaten grain-grit yesterday, and yesterday evening my hen's crop was definitely bulgy. But today her crop, although appearent still, seems to be a tiny bit smaller, though her persistent diarrhea is still a problem. (She's had it ever since I bought her in mid-december.)

 

[21hens-incharge]

I've targetted quarter-inch pebbles with sharp corners on the road this morning. Are those okay?
View attachment 1307883
Also, when I changed the water this morning I caught my brown hen and felt her crop as best as I could; it was very squishy, seemed a bit smaller than yesterday, and was not tender to the touch. I could hear it slosh though, and the vigorous gal still has diarrhea that stinks to high heavens and back. More worriesome is the fact that my spotted hen also seems to have some diarrhea, though in her case her butt is clean and it does not stink as far as I know. Her crop does not hang either. Everyone's been on amprol (amphrol?) to counter coccidiosis; this is their sixth day today and the diarrhea is still there.

My hens flew up on the perch to escape me when I started being active around their coop, so I took a picture of them since they were all facing me. You can easily see their crops; the brown hen is the biggest bird (white chantecler x brown hen cross), the spotted hen (at the far back) is mid-way between middle-weight and bendy size (white chantecler x barred plymouth cross, she looks like a runt), and the white columbian hen at the front is close to bendy size too, though her origins are unknown.

View attachment 1307890
for a better sideways look:

View attachment 1307895
the last picture was taken yesterday morning. The perch picture was taken today. They've eaten grain-grit yesterday, and yesterday evening my hen's crop was definitely bulgy. But today her crop, although appearent still, seems to be a tiny bit smaller, though her persistent diarrhea is still a problem. (She's had it ever since I bought her in mid-december.)

I recommend washing the gravel really well. No telling what road treatments were/are on them.
Wash and rinse,rinse,rinse.

 

[Eelantha]

I recommend washing the gravel really well. No telling what road treatments were/are on them.
Wash and rinse,rinse,rinse.

I wash out the pebbles with what? Bleach? Hand soap? Dish soap? Simple water? Something else?

 

[21hens-incharge]

I wash out the pebbles with what? Bleach? Hand soap? Dish soap? Simple water? Something else?

I would use a bit of dish soap and then lots of clean water.

Here in the USA the chemicals they ate allowed to use are supposed to be environmentally friendly. But that doesn't account for a motorist with an oil leak.