My 2 month old chick has a huge bulge on her chest that’s starting to look as though it’s weighing her down, what do I do?!

[HappyChickens1245]

I first noticed this a couple weeks ago and my mom who’s had chicks and chickens before said it’s just her breed but over time its gotten bigger and now we’re both worried. this morning it seemed as though she’s being weighed down.. is it a tumor or something natural?!

 

[HappyClucker7]

Can you post some pictures?

@Eggcessive

 

[nao57]

Very likely more than that, it would be an abscess.

A lot of animals get abscesses, that get infected and swell up. This has a much higher chance of being this problem than a tumor.

Its very important to treat this ASAP if its an abscess because this means its swelling up and may have infection and fluid trapped inside. And often with abscesses, the worse it gets the harder it is to get the smelly infected fluid inside to drain out.

(Plus an abscess will swell up faster than a tumor.)

You will need to look for puss, and discharge to verify this. And to treat it also. But you also need to take a close look at what's going on with it, and look at it. (To look at this up close, you may have to restrain your bird, and have help holding her still and probably use an electric trimmer around the wound to clear away feathers to see and treat it better. This also may help keep the infected area cleaner afterwards to treat. But you may have to be careful taking too many. Plus, there's the chance isolation may be needed if the other animals see an open wound.)

* Also note that abscesses that are clogged may not have discharge until lanced, but still may have a smell.*

Often these have to be lanced a bit, and the fluid might not discharge on its own. But then you have to keep it clean and from getting worse infection over time while it both heals and discharges fluid.

** Now fair warning **

What I just described to you is how you'd deal with it if it was a dog, cat, or cow. I used to see dad fix them.

But he didn't work on poultry.

In theory the process to treat it should be similar.

**Important**

There should be a kind of sickly smell if its infected. Usually abscesses will smell bad from this. (This will also help to tell if that's what this is, etc.)

Not an expert, just describing stuff I saw growing up. Plenty of gross stories.

(I am not sure if chickens can get foxtails caught inside them? Does anyone know this? Dogs always get them in summer, and often the foxtails are caught in the wound and may cause infection as described above. But not all types of infections may have something inside it.)

 

[HappyClucker7]

Chicken abscesses are different than the ones other animals get. There is no liquid inside. There is a mass of something similar to the consistency of cheese. You would have to cut the lump open and press the mass out.

 

[NatJ]

Very likely more than that, it would be an abscess.

A lot of animals get abscesses, that get infected and swell up. This has a much higher chance of being this problem than a tumor.

First make sure it's not the crop! Some chickens get really big crops. (Crop = stomach on the front of the chicken, not inside where mammals keep their stomachs.)

Pictures would help.

Also, if it is a healthy crop, it would be smaller or not noticeable if the chicken goes 8-12 hours without food. (So check in the morning, before the sun comes up.)

If it is the crop, but it is not empty in the morning, then it is a problem-- but the treatment is different for an impacted crop than for an abcess or for a tumor

 

[nao57]

Nice.

Glad you caught that because I didn't know about crops much. (I like ducks more.)

Also, I'm curious what the cause of this will be.

With dogs if they have abscesses or infection, its usually fox tails as the cause. But with chickens, shrug.

 

[HappyChickens1245]

Can you post some pictures?

@Eggcessive

 

[HappyChickens1245]

First make sure it's not the crop! Some chickens get really big crops. (Crop = stomach on the front of the chicken, not inside where mammals keep their stomachs.)

Pictures would help.

Also, if it is a healthy crop, it would be smaller or not noticeable if the chicken goes 8-12 hours without food. (So check in the morning, before the sun comes up.)

If it is the crop, but it is not empty in the morning, then it is a problem-- but the treatment is different for an impacted crop than for an abcess or for a tumor

Here’s some pictures,

 

[NatJ]

That bulge is where the crop should be, but I see why you are concerned. That is much larger than any normal crop should be!

Does the chick sleep in the dark at night, or have light all night?
If it sleeps in the dark, try checking whether the bulge is smaller in the morning.

If the chick has light (like a heat lamp) all night, then it might be eating all night as well. In that case, I would suggest taking away the food for one night, and then see whether the bulge is smaller in the morning.

If you have any other chicks, you could gently feel where their crops are, then gently feel this chick. That could help you figure out whether this is an over-large crop, or something else nearby.

 

[nao57]

It will be easier to find out what's going on if you use a pair of electric clippers and very gently trim the feathers in the infected region.

This will open your eyes quite a bit to what's going on.

And I get that its harder with birds to do this, but you would have to do this anyway to reveal if there's a puncture wound, etc. Or where exactly the infection is.