Week-old Chick Impacted Crop?

[walia]

Hi, we recently got 8 baby chicks, who are now a week old. They have all been acting very healthy, but today we noticed that one of the ameraucanas' crop is hard and larger than the others'. She is not acting any different -- eating, drinking, playing, etc., and she is the same size as all the other chicks, maybe even a little bigger, but her poop is not watery at all -- it is dry, more like dog poop.

We noticed this issue towards the middle of the day, so did not get to observe whether or not this issue was present in the morning (before she ate anything).

We read that we should massage the crop, but how hard/gentle should I be massaging it? (I don't want to hurt her or anything)

Any advice on whether or not this is impacted crop, and, if so, what we should do?

Thanks!

 

[casportpony]

Welcome to BYC, how is the chick today?

 

[walia]

Hi, thanks! She is doing very well today, I felt her crop in the morning, and it was much smaller and not hard at all, so I think it was a false alarm.

Her crop got a bit hard again later today, but I assume that was just from her eating?