Slightly impacted crop; treat or just monitor?

[fornax]

One of my hens (Isa Brown, 5 months, just started laying this week) appears to have a partly impacted crop. I'm new to this... this is my first batch of chickens (4). I've been checking their crops occasionally in the mornings, and yesterday I noticed that this particular hen had a small (slightly smaller than a golf ball), particularly firm crop first thing out of the coop. Last night I let them all roam in the yard for a bit, and shortly before bedtime I checked again. The crop was significantly larger, but still seemed firmer than normal (but I might not actually know yet what "normal" actually means). This morning, while the other 3 hens' crops were empty, this one was again a small but noticeable firm lump (about the same as yesterday morning).

So it seems like *some* stuff is moving through her. It's not mushy like I understand a sour crop would be. We just cleaned the coop floor trays yesterday and didn't notice any evidence of worms in the poo. She's not eggbound... we've gotten as many eggs as chickens the last couple of days. Should I be doing anything about this yet, other than maybe massaging it a bit? Maybe feed her some olive oil soaked white bread? Anything more?

 

[fornax]

More of the same for another day. Yesterday evening her crop was a bit larger than her flockmates', but nothing too bad, and the firmness seemed to be more or less gone. Didn't know whether that was good (mass broken up), bad (going sour), or neither, so I left her for another night. This morning, she was back to the golf ball sized firm lump. I spent a minute kneading at it... it's malleable. Still not sure whether I should be doing something about it... she's acting normally as far as I can tell. Still eating and drinking, and though I can't say for 100% sure that she's pooping (haven't watched her for long enough), she's still laying and I don't feel anything obviously building up anywhere.

 

[Eggcessive]

Welcome to BYC. Sorry for the delay in getting any response. Chickens can get impacted crops from long grasses that ball up in the crop, then cannot pass. When that rots, sour crop occurs, so sour crop may follow impacted crop over a week or two. It might be good to cage her inside her coop or run with only water to drink for 24 hours, and vitamins and electrolytes can be added. Then see if the crop is empty. Crop problems are best treated with flushing water through the crop, not with oil, since many think that can cause a bigger mess, and if a chicken chokes on oil when vomiting, they can get lipid pneumonia and die. I have never seen crop problems in my flock, so I will have to give you some links to read, and hope that your hen gets better:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/impacted-slow-and-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/answers-from-chicken-vet-on-impacted.html
http://www.tillysnest.com/2012/01/crop-issues.html

 

[fornax]

Thanks for the response. That's useful to have an approximate timeline on when things may sour in the crop. And thanks for the mentioning the oil thing, as I had read some recommendation to feed oil-soaked soft bread. I'll do some more research before I try anything like that.

As it turns out, this morning the lump was gone. Either my kneading it yesterday got it moving, or it just finally worked through on its own. I'll keep an eye on her to make sure it doesn't just stop her up farther along.