slow crop ? Please respond.

[chickenriot]

Hi,

Earlier today I posted on the emergency forum about my silkie chick with an abnormal looking (to me) crop. She has this bulging crop all the time and she is the smallest chick in the brooder with 8 other silkies.

I had separated her yesterday and cut off her food for 8 hours last night to see if the crop would empty. It still had a rather big bulge to it this morning.

When she was in the isolation box she had several droppings . Before I stopped her food , I gave her some applesauce and boiled egg which she attacked with gusto.

Some members who responded to my earlier post said that she's most likely normal but I'm beginning to think her crop is slow. Shouldn't it have been nearly flat after 8 hours of nothing but ACV water ?

The puzzling thing to me is that she is not acting weak. Does a slow crop cause the chick to be hungry all the time because food isn't moving fast enough through their system ? She is not trying to eat all the time and she naps with the others but I'm still concerned.

I just fed all of them a serving of yogurt, applesauce, and mashed up egg yolk and she was right in the middle of the plate with the rest of them. Here are the two photos I posted earlier.

Thank you for any information you can give. I appreciate it.

 

[Coffee4Me]

I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to your question. Hopefully my posting will bump it to where someone who knows the answer can see it.

 

[chickenriot]

Thank you for the bump.

I'm afraid I was right about her crop being unusually large because after I fed them the yogurt, applesauce and egg yolk she regurgitated the contents. (I think)

When I went into the brooder room I noticed that her crop looked smaller and her chest looked damp. She has been trying to preen herself. Her crop looks as normal as the other chicks now. As soon as my husband gets back from town I'm going to get him to help me clean her up a little.

She is still active and eating but I'm not sure if regurgitation is a good sign or a bad sign in her case. Hopefully, she kept some of the yogurt in and it will help boost her immunity.

 

[elmo]

Chicks are pretty much hungry all the time because they are growing so fast. I would be very careful about restricting food for a chick..in other words, I wouldn't do it unless an experience poultry vet I trusted advised me to do it, and could explain to me the reasons why. With chicks this young, I'd be careful about giving too many foods other than high protein ones (chick starter, egg). You don't want their growth to be affected by lack of protein at this young age; in addition to their body growth...which is phenomenal...they're sprouting feathers which are made of protein, too.

Do you have shavings in your brooder? Sometimes a chick gobbles a big piece and it sticks in their crop. Something like that might have happened. Once this clears, everything should be ok again.

 

[chickenriot]

Quote:
Hey Elmo,

I have aspen shavings in my brooders but they are covered up with paper towels. I wanted to wait until they were at least a week old before I had them on shavings exclusively. Of course, they have managed to find a couple of little areas where a shaving or two poked out and have picked at it. I don't know if there has been any eating of them. I hope not.

I had read on one of the baby chick/sour crop threads that yogurt, applesauce, and egg yolk are good for them. (maybe not all at once) I guess I'm over reacting on trying everything I can because of our other small silkie not surviving. This one has the same tough little spirit as the one we lost and I want to help her if I can. I'm still pretty much in panic mode.

Thank you for your help. I really appreciate it.