Pluged up crop??

[fish28]

I am hoping some one can help with this guess of mine. I currently have an Americana hen who has a very large lump on her chest in the area of her crop. When you pick her up you can feel a large mass there. When she is not out scratching in the yard she is consinantly moving her head and neck around trying to work this out. My guess is her crop is full of feed. We feed cracked corn scratch and layer scratch and Im thinking the hen ( Jackie O) is plugged up. She doesnt act sick and is still eating, but not laying. Today I dumped some gravel in the yard and all the birds were in heaven. Does anyone agree with my diagonsis of the problem and the solution or am I missing something. We are new to raising chicken but we are avid bird hunters so I have a pretty good idea of how a bird works. thank is advance for any advice any on can send my way.

 

[the Old Rebel]

How does the lump feel? Is it really hard or grainy or squishy soft?? I'm no expert, but you need to determine if it is indeed the crop. Can you separate her from the others? Whether you do or not, be sure to check her first thing in the morning BEFORE she has a chance to get to anything to eat. See if the lump is still there and if it has gone down any.

If you determine that it is the crop and it hasn't gone down any, you can try giving her some olive oil and then massaging really well. Be sure to put the dropper far enough down her throat to miss the air hole. If she aspirates some of the oil, it can kill her.

Please keep us posted on how this is going. I HOPE someone else who knows more than I do will pick this up and help you out. However, there are LOTS of threads on impacted crop. Just google search impacted crop. Good luck!

 

[fish28]

Thanks for your idea's !! I picked her up a while ago and felt the lump. It is just a little smaller than a basball and feels like gravel in a balloon. I will garb her in the morning right out of the coup and see if it has gone down any. I will also research the impacted crop and see what I can find. It is winter here in Idaho and they have just recently started to get into the mud. The thing I dont understand is only one bird is having problems and the other two are fine. I will post what corrected the problem when I figure it out. Hopefully we will not need to call a MASH unit t the back yard a preform open crop surgery.

Thanks again

 

[chookchick]

That's funny, I have a hen named Jackie-O! She always has a huge crop, and she's a great layer. The key is to check the crop first thing in the morning, like Rebel says. If it goes down, she is just a pig, like mine. Another way to get olive oil in is to soak a bit of bread in olive oil and feed it to her.