Very large soft crop **Pics added**

[Moriah]

Just before I had to go to work at 3 I caught the roo in question and brought him into the house. It is now just over 5 hours later, no food or water, the crop is a bit smaller (not much) and he has had 2 very large brown white capped poops (as large as my cats poop) and then he did a very runny stinky brown one down the side of my leg, which most of them do. He is certainly acting hungry but is pretty calm, even with the two cats in the house.

I really feel tempted to try to make him "vomit" but I am afraid that if it is sour crop, I dont want him to aspirate any of it and get a lung infection. His breath does not smell at all, just smells like their food.

Here is a pic of hubby holding him, you can see that the crop is swollen, the first pic makes it seem a bit exaggerated because his head is down a bit.

 

[Moriah]

Ok, after talking to some people and reading more online about sour crop, as that is what most symptoms seem like, except lack of foul odor I kept reading that trying to clear the crop was the best course.

I massaged it a bit and got him to drink a bit. Then we hung upside down over the trash can and emptied it as best we could carefully so as not to aspirate anything. I was a bit relieved because besides mostly gooey food, there was no green smelly ick, just a few bits of wood shavings, no suprise there really. It all just smelled like wet chick crumbles. Once he figured out what was happening, he went with it willingly.

The crop is still large, but more normal. He got some good drinks of plain water in and is now asleep in the crate. He will stay inside tonight and tomorrow and when the store opens I am going to get some apple cider vinegar and active culture yogurt. He did seem more curious about trying to explore the house, which I guess is good.

I know I may not have taken the "best" route by forcefully emptying the crop, but I didn't feel like I could wait much longer, as this was his third, maybe fourth day like this. I do realize that he can still get much worse.

 

[d.k]

* Moriah, does he get grit--other than the sand in the run??

 

[dlhunicorn]

The lack of foul smell would seem to indicate no candidiasis/yeast ... and if there is no blockage/impaction an underlying systemic order (or perhaps gizzrd problems as suggested above).
The voluminous poo would be one indicator of what might be going wrong.

 

[Moriah]

There is small pieces of gravel mixed in with the sand and small rocks that were just part of the ground where we constructed the run. There is no actual supply of a specific grit, as none of the stores near me sell it. I could possibly get a bag of more gravel than sand at the hardware store, and I know they sell parakeet sand in town too, but I thought that small bird sand was too small to be of any use.

He is very alert this AM and his crop didn't swell back up, but it is still squishy, he has only had water though. He also looks like he keeps trying to swallow or yawn, doing that since yesterday.

 

[Moriah]

Well his crop is smaller than it had been. The only food he has had access to was a mash of chick starter and bits of olive oil soaked bread. He hasn't gorged himself, and his crop while still a bit swollen is a bit more firm. He has certainly been more active today. How long should I keep him in the house in a crate?

 

[d.k]

* How's he doing, M.??

 

[Moriah]

After two days of chick starter mixed with olive oil and crop massages, the swelling went down. I put him back into the coop yesterday and other than being picked on by the other roos he is doing good. I feel bad for him because he is now at the bottom of the heirarchy and when I go out to check on the birds he runs up to me and will hide behind me or jump onto my shoulder and hide behind my head. Things this evening have really seemed to settle back into a routine and his crop was completely empty earlier this afternoon. The best part of it all has been that he is the only roo who willingly comes up to me for attention.

In our flock of 26 we have around 8 or so roos, we are only keeping two, this little guy (whom my husband named Deuce) and a silver ameraucana roo.

 

[d.k]

* Two days and he lost all seniority? That's rotten. Boy, chickens are tough!! Glad to hear the crop is better, though. He sounds like a sweetie.