Lopsided swelling one on of my young hen's chest

teamchix

Hatching
6 Years
Jul 5, 2013
5
0
7
I have a young Buff Orpington (about 4 months old) and I noticed that today she has a swollen lump on one side of her chest. She is my "little" hen and gets picked on by everyone so I have been leaving her alone in the coop for a couple hours in the morning so she can have access to food without competition (hoping that she would bulk up a little to match the other ladies). I don't think that it was there last night, but I was packing a baby when I was putting her away last night (she likes to roost on the outside of the coop and pen so every night I have to go and climb up on a table to pick her up and put her into the coop for the night). It wasn't hard and she is acting as energetic as ever this morning, so I am kind of lost as to what it is. Does a really full crop show up as a lopsided lump? The pictures were the best that I could get today, sorry. I am new to chickens so any help would be greatly appreciated.



 
I am by no means an expert, but it looks like her crop to me. If it is squishy, then she probably just ate too much. I have a Buff that I call Baby Buff (who is a bit of a heathen but because she is cute she gets away with it
smile.png
) and she gets picked on by the other chickens so when she has a spare second she runs down and eats as much as she can. I think it is just because she is being a glutton, her crop fills up extremely fast and she has a HUGE lump just like that on her chest. I would just keep checking her and see if the lump is gone in the mornings. Generally their crops empty at night since they aren't eating constantly.
 
It's in the right area to be a crop, usually when I put my hand to feel a chicken's crop I can feel the contents inside. If they haven't had a lot of water then their crop will be hard and bumpy, when it's squishy it usually means that the chicken has had some water. Chickens eat most in the morning and before they go in the coop, at night they digest all that food.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for your responses, I am glad that everyone confirms my suspicions about it just being a very full crop. She is my one that gets picked on so I think that leaving her in there by herself she saw an opportunity to gorge herself without anyone interrupting her. Thanks again.
 
There can be injuries to air sacs that can cause chest swelling from air leakage under the skin, similar to a collapsed lung, but since she seems to be feeling fine, it is probably just a normal full crop.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom