Upright posture, Head shaking- Entire Flock

[Corbbean]

Hi everyone,
All 8 of my hens are acting strangely tonight and I am very worried. This is the first sign of anything wrong that I've noticed other than thinking earlier today "Huh, there isn't as much poop on the poop board as I would have expected" when I went to scrape it. But, to be fair, I just had a baby and have not been paying much attention to the hens aside from making sure they have food and water :/

I went to check on them this evening to do a head count. They are perched for the night, but keep taking this upright posture and pumping their necks. It almost looks like a crop issue and so I felt around and all their crops feel fairly hard and very full. I did see several of them poop and all poops were about the size of a quarter, so small, but looked fine in color/urates. A lot of them look thin, but with the moulting and this cold winter, I don't find that terribly surprising on it's own.

Here is a video:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/A4e9IDSAs41F9sQ62

We're in NY, it's been very cold, but warmed up into the 40s in recent days. The hens have been staying mostly in the coop and are molting (seems like they've been moulting for months!). We haven't seen an egg in weeks. It's pretty dusty in there from the moulting. They have a light bulb on a timer, the coop is not heated. They get their water from a hanging bucket with chicken nipples that is kept from freezing with a heat cable (has been in service for 4 years). Today they were out in the run, eating snow and digging around. Again, I didn't watch them for long when I was out to care for them, but nothing seemed odd at the time. I threw them two pieces of old bread (I did not check it carefully for mold, but it seemed fine when I grabbed it) and some scratch earlier and they all went after it as per usual.

When I noticed this weird behavior tonight, I gave them some water in a dish to drink, which only some of them were interested in and they didn't seem overly thirsty. I left the water in the coop, took their food out, and plan to check crops again in the morning to see if they are empty.

Any ideas? My gut says something respiratory or some sort of parasite? Anything else I should do for them tonight?

 

[Relleoms]

Following. My EE does this as well. She’s suffered from impacted crop, sour crop & pendulous crop for 9 months. I massage her crop at least every morning and she wears a crop bra when she’s feeling full. I notice she does the “neck thing” when the muscles in her crop contract while masssaging. I thank God every morning she’s still alive because I feel like she’s living on borrowed time. That being said, we’ve attributed the neck thing to her crop but I’d love to hear what others think.

 

[Dawnclucks22]

I would worm just to be sure, it does seem like something in their crop might be causing an issue (or digestive in general).
Best wishes and congrats on your baby!

 

[Corbbean]

I would worm just to be sure, it does seem like something in their crop might be causing an issue (or digestive in general).
Best wishes and congrats on your baby!

What would you worm with? I think I remember some wormers not being suitable during moulting because they impact feather growth.

And thank you! The past few weeks have been a blur.

 

[Dawnclucks22]

What would you worm with? I think I remember some wormers not being suitable during moulting because they impact feather growth.

And thank you! The past few weeks have been a blur.

There are lots of different kinds but I use a broad spectrum type in pill form. If you can pick them up easily it's easier than you might think to get it down.

 

[Corbbean]

Oh, Also wanted to add that they started a new bag of chicken food a 4-5 days ago. Country Feeds layer pellets from Country Max.

 

[Relleoms]

My vet recommended liquid safeguard for goats at a dose of 5cc/gal of water for 5 days, but if you’re able to dose them individually I’ve read 0.25ml/lb for 5 days. She also suggested wetting the pellets to help increase their water intake.
With a new baby, this might be too much extra work. Congrats & good luck!!!

 

[Corbbean]

Update today- This morning crops were empty in all birds except for one (Annie), whose was still rather large and hard. The other 7 were very exited when I moved the food bin back inside, but Annie was not interested in eating. None of them are doing the weird posture, head pump thing today.

I let the 7 eat while I massaged Annie's crop. I could move stuff around in there, so it wasn't totally rock hard, and I could feel the textures of things she had eaten and seemed mostly like layer pellets. After I was done massaging her, I removed the food again. I made up some nutri-drench in water, used that water to soak some pellets until they were mushy, mixed in some chick grit, and have that in there as the only source of food right now. I also put in some open dishes of water rather than just the chicken nipple waterer so that they can get some gulps of water instead of just the slow drips. I did not separate Annie out yet, will see how she does today. I have seen her drinking quite a bit and pecking just a little at the soaked chicken pellets. I'm also interested to see if they do the weird head thing tonight while roosting. I do feel a little less worried that they are all going to die, though.

All I can think is that the two slices of bread I threw them caused this. I've given them bread lots of times before with no issues, and now this happens to all 8 at once? So weird. Regardless, no more bread!

 

[Corbbean]

Following. My EE does this as well. She’s suffered from impacted crop, sour crop & pendulous crop for 9 months. I massage her crop at least every morning and she wears a crop bra when she’s feeling full. I notice she does the “neck thing” when the muscles in her crop contract while masssaging. I thank God every morning she’s still alive because I feel like she’s living on borrowed time. That being said, we’ve attributed the neck thing to her crop but I’d love to hear what others think.

Sorry to hear that your EE is dealing with this chronically. It was comforting to read that it isn't automatically a death sentence, though. Every time I notice something wrong with one of the girls I automatically think "She is going to die!" so to see all 8 acting weird last night had me feeling sick to my stomach

Is her crop always full and hard in the morning? I was doing some reading and it sounds like pendulous crop isn't really fixable and usually just keeps getting worse. That you've been nursing her with this condition for so long is amazing!

 

[DaviJones]

Just found the thread, I'm glad they're doing better today! Mine once ate all the leaves off a mulberry branch when I first put them in the coop and did the exact same thing. I massaged all their crops and they were fine in a day or two. I think they'll be fine, probably ate a bit too much, maybe Annie just has a slower crop. I believe bread is just more likely to cause sour crop, but please correct if that isn't true. Hope they continue to get better!