(UPDATE) slow crop ? Please respond...

[chickenriot]

My baby chick regurgitated the contents of her crop today after I fed all the silkies some plain yogurt, applesauce, and egg yolk. Her crop looks more like the other chicks' now.

I don't know if this is a good or bad sign. She is acting normally and eating the crumbles with the others.

I have fresh ACV water in their brooder so, hopefully, it'll keep working on her.

I plan to monitor her closely until I'm satisfied that she has passed the critical stage.

If there is anything I need to know or do to help her, please tell me. I would appreciate it greatly.

Thank you very much.

 

[sunnychooks]

How old is she? If she is very little that may be a lot of different stuff too soon. She really only needs the crumbles until she gets older. If she is older the only thing I can suggest is not to give her so many different treats the same day and be careful not to give her too much. If she is acting normally now, I would just keep an eye on her. Good Luck!

 

[elmo]

You saw the contents of her crop come back out?

 

[chickenriot]

Quote:
She is one week old today. I've been checking on her often and fed all the one week olds as well as her some crumbles moistened with water today. I stopped the extra treat stuff. They have dry crumble free choice.

I only started giving her the yogurt, etc. when I became alarmed at the size of her crop in relation to her body size. I think the regurgitation relieved some of the pressure.

I guess I'm getting overwhelmed with all the archives I've been reading because a few of them said to only give soft, easily digestible food if there seems to be a crop problem.

Her crop looks pretty full now but not like before when it looked like it might explode.

Thank you for your help.

 

[chickenriot]

Quote:
No, what I saw was a damp chest area (most of her chest) and a much smaller crop. Apparently she flung her head when the stuff came out because the top of her head was wet too.

Her crop had been huge for a couple of days and it just looked odd to me in comparison to the other silkies. I just surmised that she had either regurgitated or thrown up since the crop was huge for so long and her chest was wet.

I don't know what I'm doing.

I'm just trying to keep them alive. Thanks !

 

[elmo]

Try to calm down. You can actually do harm sometimes by intervening. I think what you're reading about crop problems here apply mostly to adult chickens (especially the part about restricting food). In my experience, large crops are normal for chicks: they're eating a lot because they're growing a lot (and pooping a lot goes with that, too).

Your chick could have gotten wet from mucking around in the waterer, right? It doesn't necessarily mean she regurgitated her food.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this chick isn't a silkie, is she? You may not really be able to compare her directly to the different breed. If she's eating, pooping and acting normally, I wouldn't be worried simply by the fact that she shows a large crop sometimes.

Egg yolk (hardboiled, cooled, peeled and then mashed) is fine to serve young chicks. It's a very nutritious, high protein feed. That and chick crumbles are the only things I'd be giving week old chicks, especially if I had concerns about the health of one of them.

To ease worries, I'd get a gram scale and weigh this chick daily at the same time of day. Then you can see for sure that she's growing.

 

[chickenriot]

Quote:
Hi Elmo,

This chick is a silkie and she is in a brooder box with 8 other silkies that are all bigger than she. I was comparing her to them, not to my barred rocks in another brooder.

I think she might have hatched later than the others which might explain the size difference. I guess when birds come from a hatchery, they don't worry if a couple are a little smaller than the rest, huh ?

The other silkie that we lost was small like this one and I never gave her anything other than crumbles. When she began to go downhill, I gave her the Poly Vi Sol (no iron), but it didn't help. She just got weaker and weaker.

Since it's only been 3 days since she died, I guess I'm still in panic mode.

Thanks for all the advice you've been giving me. I really appreciate it.