I've had chickens for a few years now and I've never had a problem like this before. I got this chick at a day or two of age along with two others. For the first two days I used coastal as nesting material until I got some pine shavings. I noticed her stretching out her neck and making odd head movements about 3 days later. I tried all the usual remedies that you would for an impaction,... vegetable oil and massage, ACV water, watermelon, human baby food, etc. Nothing worked. My daughter is a RVT so she took it to her clinic and she and a DVM performed surgery on her. The chick didn't make it, she was just too emaciated. She died at just under 3 weeks. I was shocked at the amount of hay they got out of her crop.
Sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing this. When I have chicks in a brooder, I usually use paper towels on the floor with feed spread around their feet for a few days until they are used to eating. ThenI use pine shavings after, but chicks can easily get an impacted crop from eatingf bedding.
