Is this crop impacted?

[Prinette]

My khaki campbell has a very swollen and enlarged crop. It isn't nessicarly hard but its full ally the way up her neck. I'm scared that shes got something wrong with her stomach/ crop because she used to throw up several times a day when she was younger. She is currently 3 weeks old and I'm so scared I may lose her. I would really appreciate any help.

 

[Prinette]

She keeps sneezing, though I have no idea what that means. Her siblings seem to have fairly empty crops but not all the time. Is it possible I'm giving them too much food and they are constantly refilling their crops with food before the first bit can be digested? Shes not lethargic or tired, she eats every time a bit of food are an object big enough to get in her mouth comes into sight.

 

[Speceider]

Looks like a normal well-fed duckling.

Clint

 

[Prinette]

Okay, thank you. They are in a cage with hay and I've heard so many awful things about how they can get impacted by eating it.

Does anyone know what makes them sneeze so much?

 

[Speceider]

Do they have a waterer deep enough to clean their nares?

Clint

 

[Amiga]

Hi!

Do you have food and water with them 24/7? Or do they run out of food from time to time? If a duckling gets hungry (or thirsty) it may overcompensate, gorge, and then toss its overload. Not a pretty sight.

 

[Prinette]

I feed and water them every morning and as soon as I get home with others watering them if they need it while I'm gone. When I got home from school today they had emptied there water and food (spilled it everywhere). I was just worried because the other two didn't have big crops like that. I really appreciate the help!

 

[Amiga]

Yes, sounds like this one gets REALLY stressed without food and water. Can you get a different setup? I had to keep increasing the size of the chick waterers as they grew - ended up with a three gallon one, before moving them to their outdoor pen.

Might some of these things give you ideas?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/641902/created-a-water-saver-for-my-duck-brooder

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/679433/water-water-everywhere/10

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/858161/feed-water-solution-for-brooder#post_12901321

http://frankiemakes.blogspot.ca/2012/06/watering-solution-for-ducks.html

 

[Prinette]

I think that for the moment I'm going to try for a smaller version of some of those. Unfortunately since we only have about 3 ducklings at a time and this was our first year with them we are using a 150 gal container as a brooder (Only tall enough prefabricated thing we could find for our runners). Are there any compact brooder ideas out there that I could fit on our little back porch? I want something that would be easy to clean but right now the only thing that fits back there is a medium sized dog crate.

 

[Amiga]

A rabbit hutch with an old towel over the wire mesh bottom, with a drip pan underneath. Just cut the legs down so it's not so high if the ducklings leap out of your hand when you pick them up.