Swollen craw

[denabry]

I have 52 chickens. Several have swollen craws. How do I treat so many chickens?? At least 6 are like that. One severely swollen. What causes it? We give them laying pellets and scratch and occasionally I have fresh fruit or veggies for them. We provide fresh water everyday. I add polyvisol and ACV too.
Don't know what I'm doing wrong!

 

[chickencreek]

do you mean swollen crops? crops are wear there food goes. if your not sure post a picture of one or two and i'll tell you.

 

[denabry]

Yep. That's what I meant. I'll snap a pic in the morning and post it. Thanks

 

[chickencreek]

yeah the crop swells because the food is in there and thats what starts the egg laying process. So the more feed they eat the bigger it gets.

 

[hennible]

Lot of wet foods, apple sauce, olive oil, even water down some of the regular feed. Also you can massage the lump to help break it up so it moves onto the next stage of digestion. Do they get lots of grass or wild greens? I've heard or read ( can't remember ) that old greens, tough fibrous grass or dandelion can cause this ( just hard to break up )... Just a thought. Good luck

 

[denabry]

No they've cleared all the grass out. Just laying pellets and scratch.

 

[hennible]

Well it was worth a try. Wonder why then....

 

[hennible]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/906381/swollen-crop
I didn't see any info about cause in this thread but it had some good info for clearing it

 

[hennible]

Sorry one more post. Could they have eaten any string or anything " string like "? Stuff like that gets stuck ( like the old grass ). Or sometimes they over load on dirt an grit ( rare ) and that's what blocks the crop up.

 

[denabry]

This is the worst one