I have a 6-month-old Wyandotte with crop issues I can't quite diagnose. Tuesday late afternoon I noticed she was self isolating in a corner of the run, didn't seem interested in regular chicken affairs, or in food. She was doing a lot of crop adjustments and upon examination, I found that her crop was huge and very full, though soft and pliable. I put her in a crate in the coop with just water. By the following morning, her crop had not emptied, so I left her in the crate with just water for the rest of the day and overnight. By the following morning, her crop was noticeably smaller and emptier, though still not completely empty. The pullet was finally in a good mood, active, talkative and very hungry. She had only produced one small poop since crated. She was eager to come out of the crate, but I didn't want to give her food yet since her crop was still not empty (though improving!), so I decided to compromise and took her out to a partition of the run, so she could stretch her legs and see her friends. Still only water, no food. I went to see her mid-day and to bring her some scrambled egg. I had been massaging her crop periodically, so I gave her another massage and noticed a lot of what felt like debris in her crop - no longer smooth, I could feel grain-size particles, short shreds of material, etc. It's been weeks since I gave the chickens any scratch as a treat, so it couldn't be grain. And then it dawned on me - she was out in the run, hungry, and probably ate a bunch of debris from the ground! (my run is a cold compost of wood chips, dry leaves, grass clippings etc.) So I gave her half a scrambled egg and put her back in the crate, but removed the bedding from the crate (pine shavings) so she doesn't eat that. That was yesterday. This morning she was in good spirits again, active and talkative and very hungry, and almost all of the debris was gone from her crop, but the crop was STILL not fully empty, and no poop in the crate. Her crop is very soft, loose and pliable, it just seems larger than any of her peers' (or the adults, for that matter), and floppy, and still doesn't seem completely empty.
So my question is, could it be impacted if it was never hard? If the debris from yesterday has mostly moved out, I'm guessing it's not impacted? There is no smell, so probably not sour crop? Maybe it got distended and now isn't shrinking back? Does it ever shrink back once distended? What do you think? What would you do? After the morning check today, I gave her another half a scrambled egg and left her in the bedding-less crate with just water...
The pictures are from the first day, when her crop was enlarged. She's standing on an elevated wooden platform here, that's not the run floor.
So my question is, could it be impacted if it was never hard? If the debris from yesterday has mostly moved out, I'm guessing it's not impacted? There is no smell, so probably not sour crop? Maybe it got distended and now isn't shrinking back? Does it ever shrink back once distended? What do you think? What would you do? After the morning check today, I gave her another half a scrambled egg and left her in the bedding-less crate with just water...
The pictures are from the first day, when her crop was enlarged. She's standing on an elevated wooden platform here, that's not the run floor.