Aftercare advice for impacted crop

[MiloDaisyMissy]

Hi everyone. (TLDR; any further aftercare for when an impacted crop has softened?)

I have a four week old Golden Laced Wyandotte who got completely overtaken in growth by her sibling who is now much larger within a week. She is tiny when they both were identical in size, yesterday and today she was soo lethargic and not her usually hyper self just sleepy a lot.
I separated her from the brooder as the others are quite larger than her now and gave her a wet chick food mix and some water with amprolium. She slept, woke then ate then slept. Her crop which was empty, filled. I assumed it was coccidiosis.

Today, I picked her up and noticed her crop (while shrunken) was soo hard like a golf ball, I touched her siblings crop which was squishy and soft.. I googled and learned about ‘impacted crop’ and found a great thread on here. I gave her some olive oil, waited and massaged and withheld food all afternoon. After dinner her crop was soft and squishy!!!

I put her back in with her friends for sleep time as she was crying for them, do I have to do any aftercare for her tomorrow? Do I withhold food again and do five more oil and massages? Or is it fine once softened?


Pictures -sleepy chick taken thirty minutes ago the others are from last week where they were happily running and chasing each other for food. They were same sizes, but now it’s sister has outgrown it in size. Also -fluffy bums

Thank you all. This forum has been incredible for learning! Thanks.

 

[SmiYa0126]

How is she today?

Tagging some experts!
@Wyorp Rock @azygous @Eggcessive please help!

 

[azygous]

First of all, never withhold food. Never withhold water. Always make them available. Advice that tells you to withhold food is ignorant and not useful. Another tip is to use chilled and hardened coconut oil instead of liquid oil so you avoid the risk of getting oil into the lungs.

What you may have is a failure-to-thrive chick (FTT). The cause is often genetic and it causes organs to be under-developed at hatching.
These chicks will often appear normal until they reach a tipping point where their immature organs can't handle digestion and metabolism, and they slow down their growth over night. They often have issues with constipation and pasty butt.

The treatment is to give them special feedings of wet feed, boiled egg or crumbled tofu, and a few times a week, Poultry Nutri-drench for easy to absorb nutrients their bodies aren't absorbing from food. If you see the chick isn't eating and is lethargic, it is a sign of constipation. Especially if you see it squatting and chirping in pain as it tries to poop. Chill a teaspoon of coconut oil and give it in tiny pea-size pieces shoved into the beak.

 

[MiloDaisyMissy]

Hi everyone. My four week old gold laced Wyandotte was lethargic and just not herself for a few days, I figured it was impacted crop as it was so hard and firm. I have done the two days of massages with oil and her crop has fully emptied both nights now and gone soft and squishy with treatment.

She is not growing like her sister and has remained the same size. I have cooked scrambled eggs up and crushed up her chick starter feed with some hot water and mixed them all together for brekkie this morning as I feel she will die.

Do I keep her on this diet for a few more days? I gave her chick starter too soon. The other day and her chilled up hard again.
All the other chooks have outgrown her in size and she has no drive to fight for food like she used to. I have her separated because of this.

I just want the best for her so any aftercare tips would be welcomed! Thanks.

Photos- one where they were babies and both same size, and photo today, my Goldie is just not growing

 

[MiloDaisyMissy]

First of all, never withhold food. Never withhold water. Always make them available. Advice that tells you to withhold food is ignorant and not useful. Another tip is to use chilled and hardened coconut oil instead of liquid oil so you avoid the risk of getting oil into the lungs.

What you may have is a failure-to-thrive chick (FTT). The cause is often genetic and it causes organs to be under-developed at hatching.
These chicks will often appear normal until they reach a tipping point where their immature organs can't handle digestion and metabolism, and they slow down their growth over night. They often have issues with constipation and pasty butt.

The treatment is to give them special feedings of wet feed, boiled egg or crumbled tofu, and a few times a week, Poultry Nutri-drench for easy to absorb nutrients their bodies aren't absorbing from food. If you see the chick isn't eating and is lethargic, it is a sign of constipation. Especially if you see it squatting and chirping in pain as it tries to poop. Chill a teaspoon of coconut oil and give it in tiny pea-size pieces shoved into the beak.

Thank you so much. Oh I felt so bad taking food away overnight but everyone on here suggested it to see if their crop emptied overnight- which it did. But when she eats again, it gets hard? So I’m curious if that’s actually normal and it’s only hard because she’s so tiny? The other chooks are bigger and have much softer (and larger) crops.

She is actually a bit more lively today, not sleeping every two seconds and is actively eating, she’s cheeping because she either wants to be back with her friends or is sick and in pain. I’m unsure. I gave her a scrambled egg and I mashed up her chick starter in hot water and mixed that in with the eggs. She filled her crop again.
I have to head to work all day today and I left her with that and her water with multivitamins in it.

Can I just keep her on the mashed, wet food and eggs for a few more days and what you have suggested too?
Thanks so much. I have watched her for hours over the past few days and it’s breaking my heart!

 

[azygous]

Chickens don't eat at night. You were removing the food so the chick wouldn't fill its crop in the morning before you had a chance to check it. If something someone advises makes no sense, ask questions. We have both seasoned Educators who have tons of experience and can usually be trusted to give safe advice as well as people who just got a couple chickens last week that can't resist giving advice even though they know next to nothing about chickens themselves.

Of course it's okay to feed this chick. No one is suggesting otherwise. But you need to keep a close eye on whether it's pooping and check it's vent frequently for poop clogging it. It will not be able to poop if the vent is pasted shut with poop. You need to clean it off.

If the chick is constipated, you will see it standing around very droopy with eyes dull and unfocused. It may appear to be scruffy. You will see it occasionally squat and strain to poop while rapidly chirping in pain. Then is when you must treat it for the constipation or it will die.

It will also require a little more warmth than the others due to it not metabolizing its food efficiently.

 

[MiloDaisyMissy]

Chickens don't eat at night. You were removing the food so the chick wouldn't fill its crop in the morning before you had a chance to check it. If something someone advises makes no sense, ask questions. We have both seasoned Educators who have tons of experience and can usually be trusted to give safe advice as well as people who just got a couple chickens last week that can't resist giving advice even though they know next to nothing about chickens themselves.

Of course it's okay to feed this chick. No one is suggesting otherwise. But you need to keep a close eye on whether it's pooping and check it's vent frequently for poop clogging it. It will not be able to poop if the vent is pasted shut with poop. You need to clean it off.

If the chick is constipated, you will see it standing around very droopy with eyes dull and unfocused. It may appear to be scruffy. You will see it occasionally squat and strain to poop while rapidly chirping in pain. Then is when you must treat it for the constipation or it will die.

It will also require a little more warmth than the others due to it not metabolizing its food efficiently.

Thank you. The chickens stools are on the runnier side of normal, with a few normal ones in there. I attributed this to the oil? No pasty bum at all thank goodness. Maybe whatever it is has passed
It’s 31degrees here today but I’m having the heat lamp on at night for it.
I’ll keep a careful eye! Thank you for your help

 

[MiloDaisyMissy]

Hi everyone. So the chicken pulled through. But must have something wrong genetically? It hasn’t grown feathers… still. It’s basically ten weeks old looking naked! What causes this? It should be the same size as the silver laced by now

 

[azygous]

She's likely a failure-to-thrive chick. Yes, it's genetic. What you see on the exterior is matched by lagging development on the interior. Most of these chicks die young. That this one has survived to ten weeks is encouraging.