baby chicken with wry neck and swollen crop

Henkie said:

Hi all, I am new here to this forum. I found a little baby chicken on the road in Bali and I have been taking care of it for already 3 weeks. Unfortunately this poor baby developed wry neck and I have been a lot on internet and forums to figure out how to take care of this. I now give him vitamins and antibiotics.

What the local vet here discovered (but there aren't any chicken vets around here) was that his crop was swollen. I then changed his diet. First I put him 12 hours overnight with nothing to eat. Then I give him some yoghurt and porridge. He eagerly eats this. I just fed him a little yoghurt and as you can see on the picture, it is clearly visible in his crop. What worries me is that his crop is so easily blown up and it also looks so transparent, the skin around it so thin.

Crop skin is normally quite thin on many breeds, bar possibly some fighting breeds and nakednecks which seem to have thicker skin in most pics I see. So, genetics at play there, but normally it is indeed quite thin, often translucent.

Also should the crop go all the way to his back/shoulder?

A very full crop in a chick will often be right up on the same level as the back of the neck sometimes, but it's also normal for it not to be. Not necessarily a concern there.

I massage it a little but It feels so delicate that I am a little afraid to hurt him. Also after how many hours should the crop be empty? In the morning his crop is empty.

That's good, in the morning it should be empty. Like us chickens can have fast or slow metabolisms but chicks should be filling and emptying their crops several times a day, generally. Not filling it completely is generally best, most baby animals and even most adult animals do not get to regularly stuff themselves full and it can be harmful when they're enabled to do so. The digestive system performs better when it's not always crammed full. I'm not suggesting withholding food on a regular basis but don't panic if he doesn't want to eat till he's stuffed, either.

I have no idea how a healthy crop should look like in young chickens, so please can you have a look at the pictures and tell me if I should be worried about his crop? Thanks a lot in advance, also from Henkie

It looks normal enough to me. His neck looks weak though. Is it twisting in one direction or just limp? Can he hold up and move his head normally? Have you or your vet considered whether this might be Marek's disease or an injury?

Best wishes and good luck with him.

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Henkie said:

Just some extra symptoms today, his head, neck and in general his skin looks quite reddish. And he is itchy. He scratches his head a lot and is picking at his feathers. He gets bald spots here and there.

Sounds like mites or lice, or even both, perhaps even ants or other insects like fleas, are getting to him possibly. Another possibility is allergies or reactions to chemicals in the environment. The anti-insect sprays used in many houses and gardens, carpets, and so forth can be enough to kill birds and small animals we keep indoors. Treated carpet underlay can make even large animals sick too, I've had reactions to it myself.

Also when I had him on his back (wrapped in a towel) to give him his vitamins, I noticed the bone underneath his belly is really sticking out. Is that normal too?

Sounds like his breastbone, and yes, it's normal in all but the extremely meaty breeds. Most other breeds don't get a rounded chest area until older.

I have attached a picture.Also he stretches his legs a lot and sometimes (not so regularly) he is stretching his neck and gasping.

That sounds bad, sorry to hear it. There's so many things it could be, pain, lack of oxygenation, muscle/nerve issues, kind of pointless to hazard a guess at this stage.

I am really worried about him now. Even thinking about putting him down because I don't want him to suffer so much. Sometimes he is good and sometimes it's so bad, his neck is down all the time. I just wish there was a good bird vet around, but there isn't one here. I really hope it isn't Marek. I have started with the st Johns worth tincture today. Let's see if it will help him. Any advice or comments on the extra symptoms is much appreciated!

While symptoms are general guidelines rather than golden rules I would expect, as you said before, if it were Marek's he'd be paralyzed too. Still, all this sounds and looks pretty dire. The tincture should say if it's not for consumption, i.e. for external application only, so good to make sure it's for internal consumption if you haven't already. Sometimes they add things to it that aren't safe to ingest.

I hope he makes it, but he does look like there's something quite wrong with him and not many birds recover once looking so unwell, so good luck and best wishes with this.

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