Softball sized swelling in breast area

[soehls]

Hello everyone! My son has a flock of 12 chickens he adores and takes immaculate care of for the past two years. They are his special pets. One hen has a very large squishy lump in the middle of her breast. Its softball sized. She is hiding under the porch by herself the past few days. What can we do to help her?

 

[Allie Grace Sanders]

Probably impacted crop, but I need a picture to tell...

 

[soehls]

Probably impacted crop, but I need a picture to tell...

Ill get one just a sec

 

[soehls]

It is mainly on the right but it goes down under her neck and down the breast. My son has his hand cupped around the swelling, but he still couldn't fit all of it in his hand ( he's a tall 11 year old)

 

[aart]

Crop is stuffed.
How long has it been like that?

 

[casportpony]

If she were mine I would put her in a dog crate on a towel and check her crop in the morning. Have you seen her poop? If you do see her poop, please post a picture of it.

 

[aart]

Yep, thought I added this before:

isolate bird in a wire cage within the coop for a day or two....so you can closely monitor her intake of food and water, crop function(checking at night and in morning before providing more feed), and her poops. Feel her abdomen for squishy or hard swelling.

I like to use a fold-able wire dog crate (24"L x 18"W x 21"H) with smaller mesh(1x2) on bottom of crate under tray.

Then you can put tray underneath crate to better observe droppings without it being stepped in.

If smaller mesh is carefully installed, tray can still be used inside crate.

 

[Dawnclucks22]

Like mentioned above, if you don't choose to isolate her at least check her crop in the morning before she eats to make sure it's emptied.

 

[soehls]

Its been like this for about 3 days. She did eat a bit, not as much as normal. I've observe her poop. What do you think it could be?

 

[Allie Grace Sanders]

Sour crop