What is wrong with Denise?? *PICS*

[mondotomhead]

This is my 9 month old bantam hen. She acts normal. She's eating and laying eggs but you can see in the pictures there is something wrong with her. She lost all her feathers near her vent but they have since grown back. Does anyone have any ideas?



She has a lump on her chest.



Here's another picture of it




Here is a front picture

 

[nurse_turtle]

She has an enlarged crop. I recommend separating her form the flock overnight and remove her food. The lump on her chest should be significantly smaller by morning, if not I would be concerned about an impacted crop. The feather loss on her lower back is typical of too much rooster loving. Feather loss around the vent and bum area can be caused by mites or lice.

 

[mondotomhead]

She's actually been like this for a little while, maybe a little over a month. Because she's been so "normal" I never suspected it being her crop. Would she appear sick if the crop was impacted? Like I said, she is being no different that she ever was.

 

[CMV]

They can hide a variety of ailments under all those feathers. She may not act sick until she is on her last leg, but in the meantime be wasting away under the fluff. I would remove her feed for the night, as well, and re-check the crop in the morning. If her crop is still quite large it is time to assess what she has going on. It could be 1 of 3 things- impaction, sour crop or pendulous crop.

 

[mondotomhead]

They can hide a variety of ailments under all those feathers. She may not act sick until she is on her last leg, but in the meantime be wasting away under the fluff. I would remove her feed for the night, as well, and re-check the crop in the morning. If her crop is still quite large it is time to assess what she has going on. It could be 1 of 3 things- impaction, sour crop or pendulous crop.

I will separate her tonight and read up on those three things......thanks!

 

[n8ivetxn]

keep us updated.... I have a 3 wk old chick, may be having a problem. I gave it some olive oil in a syringe last night. The crop looked a little better this morning, but the chick looks a little under the weather.....

 

[CMV]

keep us updated.... I have a 3 wk old chick, may be having a problem. I gave it some olive oil in a syringe last night. The crop looked a little better this morning, but the chick looks a little under the weather.....

Is s/he eating shavings/bedding? This is fairly common in the youngsters. You may need to swap out your bedding.

 

[n8ivetxn]

Wow, I never thought about it....I'm using the same thing the breeder used - pine shavings..... I think most of it is too big for the little thing to eat, but anything is possible... Thank you, I'll look at some clean playground sand, instead....

The little thing is eating and drinking and pooing normally, but then stands around looking frumpy.