- Sep 16, 2009
- 6
- 0
- 7
we have a 21 week old buff laced polish pullet. until 1 week ago, she and her 4 flockmates, who we received hatched in the mail, were in perfect health. when we went to move the young girls into the big coop, we noticed this problem with the polish:
she has a very soft, almost liquidy lump where her crop might be* (please read on) and it extends all the way to her right side under her right shoulder. after an initial panic, we referred immediately to the byc forum and gave her an armchair diagnosis of impacted crop. we treated her with oil (fed by eyedropper) and massaged the mass, removed her bowl of food and were feeding her liquids, yogurt and molasses. the thing is, her poops are always normal (reflecting what we fed her) and she never seems to be in pain. she was always the smallest one and she's still small compared to the other polish we have, and she doesn't move around quite as readily or enthusiastically as her buddies. we have attributed this to the size of the mass as opposed to malnourishment as she eats fairly ravenously (and the poops are always normal), but even after she binges the lump is always soft. there are some times that it seems the lump is within a muscle (crop?) because as we massage her sometimes it will become hard and small - like as though she's muscularly contracting it - but soon returns to a giant puffy mass.
our treatments for impacted crop did nothing to diminish the size of the lump, nor is it smaller in the morning, or hard after eating mash.
she does have some other issues. she stumbles a lot and makes strange ballet-esque movements with her feet - she always has, not just since the weird lumps arrived. she is also missing the middle talon on her right foot, which gives us the general idea that maybe something is just not ideal in her genetics.
she is currently staying in our 'isolation unit' - inside the house, in an unlined cardboard box. because the lump is so liquidy and soft and other impacted crop situations usually refer to a hardened mass, we are thinking it may be an infection and have started her on duramycin today.
any ideas?
she has a very soft, almost liquidy lump where her crop might be* (please read on) and it extends all the way to her right side under her right shoulder. after an initial panic, we referred immediately to the byc forum and gave her an armchair diagnosis of impacted crop. we treated her with oil (fed by eyedropper) and massaged the mass, removed her bowl of food and were feeding her liquids, yogurt and molasses. the thing is, her poops are always normal (reflecting what we fed her) and she never seems to be in pain. she was always the smallest one and she's still small compared to the other polish we have, and she doesn't move around quite as readily or enthusiastically as her buddies. we have attributed this to the size of the mass as opposed to malnourishment as she eats fairly ravenously (and the poops are always normal), but even after she binges the lump is always soft. there are some times that it seems the lump is within a muscle (crop?) because as we massage her sometimes it will become hard and small - like as though she's muscularly contracting it - but soon returns to a giant puffy mass.
our treatments for impacted crop did nothing to diminish the size of the lump, nor is it smaller in the morning, or hard after eating mash.
she does have some other issues. she stumbles a lot and makes strange ballet-esque movements with her feet - she always has, not just since the weird lumps arrived. she is also missing the middle talon on her right foot, which gives us the general idea that maybe something is just not ideal in her genetics.
she is currently staying in our 'isolation unit' - inside the house, in an unlined cardboard box. because the lump is so liquidy and soft and other impacted crop situations usually refer to a hardened mass, we are thinking it may be an infection and have started her on duramycin today.
any ideas?
