Roo weaving his head back and forth like

[coloradochick]

the way a snake moves his body as he slithers. Kind of like a figure 8 motion. Any ideas of what this may be. I've wormed them. Wondering if it may be bugs. I looked but didn't see anything. Otherwise he acts fine.

 

[top of the hill]

Hi,

Look up sour crop, slow crop or impacted crop. This might be what is wrong. There is alot of information regarding what to do. some say "vomit" some say don't. Here is what I am doing (One of my girls currently has it and did the snake neck dance, that was how I knew something was up.)

If it is sour crop:

1. seperate him out (dog crate, another coop, big box) If you can, give his crop a massage pushing downward to hopefully move the contents of the crop through the system.

2. do not feed him for 24 hours (a chicken can go 2-3 days w/o food) but provide water with apple cider vinegar (I use Braggs brand but it must say "with the mother" to have a positive effect.) It helps to kill the bacteria that are growing inside the crop. (I give this to my girls all year!) p.s. do not put in metal waterer, only plastic.

3. on the 2nd day feed plain yogurt (full of proboiotics) which will add the good digestive bacteria into the crop. My girl did not like yogurt, so I opened a probiotic capsule mixed it with warm water and dropped it in her mouth.

4. next day you can feed a scrambled egg, more yogurt, depending on how the crop is looking. but only give soft foods.

Remember to massage the crop every few hours if possible. And remember that it takes a little time to work itself out. My girl got it from eating grass, I know this because I pulled a clump of it and threw it in the pen for the chickens to peck at. Little did I know my girl would be a glutton and it would get balled up to cause this... I know better now!

Impacted crop, you would use the same method only adding olive oil when you massage to try to loosen the material inside the crop. If really impacted, and you are up for it, there are step by step directions on impacted crop surgery.

Good Luck!

 

[ChicknThief]

Sounds like a pretty normal chicken behaviour to me

Probably just showing the hens where the goodies are.

 

[coloradochick]

No, not ordinary. He started doing it a couple days ago. Sometimes there are hens around, somtimes not.