Something stuck in chick's throat

[Lacy Blues]

If you only have the one heat lamp, you can section off an area for this one chick. Make it big enough for her to get close to the heat or farther away and put her water in there with her. If you have some hardware cloth (1/2 inch square holes in a wire "fabric") that would work great. Just make a circle of it to keep her in. It needs to be high enough too that she can't jump out.

 

[klmclain1]

Shadowmane - I see you're in Salisbury? Know the Cliff Bernhardt/ Virgil Bernhardt family?? Let us know if the oil massage helps at all...

 

[shadowmane]

Hi klmclain1,

No, I don't know that family. But I'm just starting out. I haven't spread my wings out in the farming community around here. I think the chick is doing well. I put her in a pet holder last night, and my wife put some minerals in her water to help her relax. I don't really know if she drank much of the water. I put some feed in her pet holder this morning (just a hand full so she don't fill her craw up again) and she seems to have done well. She's still a little swollen on her right side, and I may have to "express" her some more before its all over. For now, she's alright, but I haven't checked on her in about 2 hours.

 

[shadowmane]

It appears as if whatever was blocking her crop has cleared out. I'm still holding my breath. I have to go to work tomorrow, and have asked my wife to monitor her. I still have her in the pet carrier, and I've only been giving her a handful of food at a time. I've done it several times today. I went out to eat a little while ago, and when I returned, her crop was completely empty. I put her in the brooder while I cleaned up the water I had in the pet carrier. She immediately went to the water and drank her fill (I don't know if she was actually drinking the water in the pet carrier). Once I was done with the carrier, I saw she was back at the food, so I pulled her back out of the brooder and put her back in the carrier. I put another handful of food in, then closed her in for the night. I intend to leave her in the pet carrier for at least one more day, just for good measure, then I'll put her back in the brooder.

 

[shadowmane]

Well, she's back with the flock. We're going to keep her monitored, but I think the worst is over. My wife thinks she hit a little growth spurt and that dislodged whatever it was in there. I'm still holding my breath, but again, I think the worst is over.

 

[FutureFarmGal]

I know this thread is pretty old, but if you see this... I have a 4.5 week old chick that's doing the same thing as yours was in the video. Did your chick end up being okay? Would you recommend doing the oil and massages to the crop? This is my first flock and I'm just worried about her.
Thanks!

 

[Eggcessive]

Oil is not very safe to give due to the risk of choking and getting the oil into the lungs. I would give water with SaveAChick vitamins and electrolytes or similar, and massage the crop as often as you can. Not whole grains, and I would probably only give her runny food, plain yogurt,mouth nothing solid until her crops goes down. Look into her throat to make sure that she doesn't have a piece of food stuck in her airway.