Really large, soft crop - is this normal???

[keeko]

Hey folks,

So I recently treated my 25 week old pullets for a bizarre case of coccidiosis...diagnosed on Thursday by an avian vet (I saw no symptoms other than bloody stools). They are up and moving, and appear to be fine.

However, one of my Ameraucanas has an enormous crop! I could see it from the profile when she ran - it looked huge! At least the size of a tennis ball, maybe bigger. I caught her and felt it, and it's quite soft. I know an impacted crop happens when they're very hard, right? Anyway, I'm just wondering if that's what it looks like before she starts digesting. They always have grit available to them, and sometimes I even sprinkle it in the feed (which I did tonight). She is free-ranging in the yard now, but I'm concerned because of the week we just had with the cocci scare.

Please let me know if I need to worry or if this is normal!! Thank you!!

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

soft like there's nothing, or maybe just liquid in it? Or huge and full of food?

 

[keeko]

Definitely has SOMETHING in it, my guess would be food. It's soft and I can squish it and move it a bit, and she doesn't seem irritated or in pain. But she was absolutely, certainly one of the ones that tested positive for cocci, so that's what concerns me. Plus, I've never seen that before...it really sticks out...

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

As long as it's full of food, it's completely normal. It may be that now that she is feeling better she went overboard on the food. Not to worry. If it feels like there's food in there PLUS a bunch of air or liquid, let me know and I'll tell you a story (still don't know what it is though, just have a story).

 

[keeko]

Please, do tell!

I think what you say makes perfect sense. When I took her to the vet a few days ago, he mentioned how skinny she was - anemic, actually because she wasn't absorbing the nutrients from the food (thank you coccidia). I've also had them all on Corid for the last three days, so she must be feeling better! Even if she overdid it a bit, that would still be great news!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

If the crop gows down after a while, maybe overnight, and you do not smell a sour fermented smell coming out of their mouth, everything should be working OK. Chickens are prey animals. One defense is to fill your crop really full then go someplace safe to digest it. And when they are hungry, they do fill their crop. As was mentioned, sounds like she has recovered enough to be hungry. That sounds like good news to me too.

I'd suggest not sprinkling the grit on the food. Offer it on the side. Grit is used in the gizzard, further down the digestive track from the crop. Grit will help prevent an impacted gizzard but has no good effect on the crop. Grit lasts a while in the gizzard, how long depends on how hard it is. Too much grit can cause problems in the crop or the gizzard. Since I don't know how much they actually need, I leave it up to them to decide how much grit they need.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Well, it's not an exciting story, but...a few months ago my son's bantam cochin pullet quit laying and went broody...or so I thought...she quit roosting and starting staying in her nest box all the time. So, I gave her eggs to sit on. She hatched 2 chicks and immediately attacked them! I was able to take them out right away and put them in the brooder unharmed. She kept sitting in the nest box...hmmm...I started taking her out every day trying to "break" her, and after a few days with no progress (continuing to eat and drink whenever I would take her out of the nest box) I took her in to my vet (where I work) because the last couple of times I had handled her I noticed that her crop was huge and felt like it was filled with fluid or air, and she was really thin, and had diarrhea (in once a day, broody-sized poos...YUCK). We did xrays to make sure she hadn't swallowed metal or anything that would show up on xray while she had been wandering the yard. Nothing showed up, but her crop was ENORMOUS. We passed a tube into her crop and aspirated some of the fluid to look for nasties....nothing abnormal under the microscope. Put her on Clavamox anyway for a week. After the first dose her crop emptied properly. Then it went back how it was the next day, and didn't change again. After a week on Clavamox, we gave her a break for a day or two and with still no change, put her on a round of Baytril. No change. I quit medicating her, since it obviously wasn't doing anything, and took a "wait and see approach", as she was still eating and drinking, and would be active whenever I made her go outside. After 3 or 4 more weeks her crop finally started emptying, and she has firmer stools now, with only occasional runny ones. Still trying to get her to gain weight, but everything else is back to normal...still have no clue what it ever was...

 

[keeko]

Very weird... I guess whatever it was wasn't causing her too much pain? I'm glad to hear she healed up though! What do Clavamox and Baytril treat, by the way? I'm not familiar with them just yet. I'd be interested to know what it was in the Clavamox that made her crop clear for a day...

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Clavamox is augmentin, and Baytril is enrofloxacin.

No, she never seemed painful.