Gassy chick - swelled crop

I have a 2 1/2 week old Ameraucana chick that I hatched which seems to have been growing and feathering out well, just like its hatch-mates. I noticed today that the crop on this chick is tremendously swelled up and gassy. I have massaged it and there isn't anything apparently impacted, as I can feel with my finger that it is just bloated and empty. When I massaged it, the chick started frothing and blowing bubbles out the beak, and spit up long stringy white saliva type material. No odor of decay or anything sour in the liquid though. The little chick is lethargic and appears to be in a little pain when I press down on the crop near the top of the breast. Any ideas anyone? I have been feeding them all medicated chick starter, and no electrolytes in the water.

I found this and found it to be pretty informative and amusing all at the same time.. at least I will remember the information I learned.

http://www.1976design.com/blog/archive/2004/04/16/sour-crop/

wish i knew what to tell you. i would put someting int he water to pep her up and help her tummy. but i can't for the life of me think what. sorry i am no hlep ;-(

Read that article frans. Do chickens have a food part of their throat like other birds do? I know with tiels (and parrots) if you put the feeding tube the wrong side you will kill them. Like drowning them.

MollyD

It sounds like sour crop, the bloated and foamy part.
But I'm not sure of this. I will search around, and check
my book and see what I can find...

how can the crop become sour if all she has eaten is medicated starter crumble???

I would agree, but it didn't smell bad, and no access to anything that would ferment like the article referred to. They are all inside, and only one is like this. WEIRD... By the way, I talk to my chickens and smell them all the time, Am I certifiable?

You already answered that in a former thread. Of course you are!!! Just like the rest of us. LOL

oh Molly.. please don't look to me for answers..;-0
I am newer at this than you are.. I just happened across that article minutes before I read Scotts plea for help..

My chicks won't be here until the 9th, although dd & dh came home with 2 cornish from the feed store 2 days ago... I asked if they had lost their minds? They said they wanted to train the animals with $1.50 chicks... before the real chicks got here.

Anyway, she named them Me & You.. and the big dog guards them and will not allow the cats or other dogs near them.. quite funny actually.

I did love the picture in the article.. I learned a lot in that little short bit!

LOL hope the big dog isn't thinking he's saving them for a snack later!

MollyD

They are in big trouble! Poor things!

MollyD

Well I did the olive oil and yogurt thing, then held the chick upside down and massaged the crop. Actually more of squeezed it real gentle and tried to get anything out that could be in the crop, kind of like getting the last of the toothpaste out of the tube. What came out looked like mushy chick starter, it didn't smell bad though. There was a ton of it in there, and now the crop is normal size. I will have to wait and see if the chick drinks or eats anything once the "shock" wears off. I gave it some more of the yogurt stuff when I was through, to loosen up anything else that may be still in there. Funny that nothing odd was in there, I couldn't feel anything abnormal either.

Scott, could it be that the chick didn't have enough stones in it's crop to grind the food up? Just a thought when you said it looked like mushy chick starter.

That is possible GG, I do keep two containers of sandy gravel in there, but who knows if that chick may not have figured it out yet. They also love to dust bathe in that stuff. I will try putting the chick in with that stuff to see if that helps, as I can't see how to force feed the gravel to it.

I thought I read that if you were feeding starter you didn't need grit?
Shoud I have a little, maybe in the bottom so they can find it under the litter while they are scratching? Or maybe a small bowl?
My two are only about a week old, if that. I figure a week wednesday.

I took in two slow crop baby teils, they were fed too frequently and they were considered slow/sour. I feed them apple sauce, pedalite (baby gator aid) and puree'd fresh papaya. It worked for them. Also, I added that stuff in good yougart, aphodolfulus* sp (f-o-doll-full-us) in capsule form, I opened up the capsules and mixed some of it in. There is also a thing can benabac that is suppose to help replace those things lost after your bird has been on antibotics. Granted these are parrot things, they may help.

Is there anything in chickens similar to megaesophagus in dogs? It is where the food does not move properly through the digestive system and the esophagus becomes distended and filled with food. It is common in some breeds. It is due to a neural problem and some puppies outgrow it--but you have to make sure the esophagus doesn't become permanently distended. I don't know if this ever occurs in birds--it does sometimes in human babies.

Now your really scaring me...

Fed too frequently.???. I thought chicks should have starter offered at all times? Should they have a set feeding time?

Will I ever learn all of this?

Oh no not chicks parrots need to empty their crops especially as chicks, chicks eat when they are hungry!! Don't worry they should have food all the time!!!!!

Sorry for scaring you, if you have ever fed a parrot chick you will be so amazed that a chick hatches, dries about a 24 hours in the incubator then eats and drinks on its on after dipping its beak in food and water. Parrots, raptors and other birds (song etc) need to be fed or they will die, Chicken chicks amaze me everytime!

sheeesshh lol... dh says I am reading way to much and ocd is taking over.. I have smothered my chicks and they are not even born yet...

I have to go lay down now...

lol

OK, sorry to point this out, Scott, but they don't need grit with processed feeds, only with whole grains. and it oculd very well be that the chick had sand in her crop. so watch and see if that ahppens to the others. you really have no need for sand or gravel at this point, and until they learn NOT to eat it, i wouldn't. a chicken can overeat sand and die...

tf

Thanks, tf, for that info. I didn't know that.

Ditto TF - don't ever be sorry for pointing anything out. They do love to play in it, and dust bathe, and they do eat some, but maybe this one got a big piece in there jammed and can't pass it? I screen it all with 1/4" hardware cloth first, but maybe that is what is going on. Poor little chick is really in bad shape this am, swelled up worse than after I got it emptied last out night. I am going to try to grind up some antacid/gas tablets and mix it up with water and inject some of that to get the swelling down. Is that a bad idea, anyone? I did give them all terramycin in their water for about three days back during the initial AE scare, maybe that knocked out the beneficial things in their digestive tract? What can I give them to replace anything lost to the terramycin?

Scott the most natural source is real yogurt. Not that processed stuff like Danon with fruit or any of the ones that look shiny . Those have had the beneficial bacteria killed off.

MollyD

Thanks Molly - any suggestions on how to feed it out to about 70 - 5 week olds?

I use to put it on my fingertips and let them peck it off. Not sure if that's a good way for you with so many! Maybe you could pack it into mesh balls and hang it just above their heads so they have a fun time pecking at it without anyone stepping into it?

MollyD

Well the sick one is gone on to that big coop in the sky. I was massaging the crop and trying to get out more stuff - which there was still more - and he just kind of gave up? Maybe he choked or something, or just ran out of will power - idk? There was still a bunch of fermented starter in the crop, I am going to open it up and see if there was anything else lodged in there, will update.

sorry. let us know.

I'm sorry that happened Scott. Maybe there was something wrong with that chick from birth?

MollyD

Sorry- forgot to report back. There was nothing stuck in the crop. There was nothing in the intestines either, but near the vent in the" large intestine?" the chick was all backed-up with what appeared to be yellow waxy substance, maybe undigested corn particles from the feed? The skin on the abdomen had started to turn black and that is the reason I noticed and opened up the whole chick. The substance didn't smell rotten or like feces, but definitely had a strange, strong odor I can't really describe. That could explain why the chick got gassy - except that the intestines were otherwise empty. Very strange...

Sounds like he ate a foreign (as in shouldn't be eatten) object and it plugged him up. Poor critter.

MollyD

weird. sorry he died...

Do chicks get intersuceptions? Where the intestines become telescoped inside themselves? It might explain why the food suddenly wasn't moving through, although it was present at both ends.
I am sorry, Scott.

thank you all for sharing your experiences.

Sorry to hear about the chick you lost Maineiac.

I hope its ok to ask a follow-up question on grit. I never gave
my chicks grit before but then got worried about this batch
eating the bedding and needing something to help them digest
it. So I gave them chick starter grit a few times (put a tray in
for all 25 of them). They just scarved it down! Was I being
silly in worrying about them digesting the pine saving bedding
w/o grit?

I need to get some plain yogurt for my crew too.
Thanks
Tam

Idk the correct way to introduce them to grit. I have made it available to them since they were about a week old, and they both eat and play in it. They love the dust bath, but I suppose it is instinct regardless of what they have ingested, to follow-up with some grit for their crop to aid in the first stages of digestion. I'm sure mamma would have them eating it if they were born in the wild. Granted - chick starter is pretty small stuff, but unless they eat too much of the grit, I don't see how it could hurt them.

i don't think chicks know what to eat without momma there to tell them YES and NO.

mine take dust baths in the chick starter/bedding mixture. i always dump the powder from the bottom of the feeder into their bedding.

since my full grown chickens free range and don't eat much grain, i don't put out grit anymore. they eat gravel fromt he driveway...