Bald lump on baby chick shoulder

[HeartofPaso]

I noticed the bump shortly after the chic was born. Probably 2 or three days old. It struck as odd because there was no feathers growing on that spot. Now that the chick is two weeks old the spot appears to be bigger and is bulging. If it was the crop wouldn't it be covered by feathers? Also it seems hard. Wondering what the little yellow sacs are just under the skin. Perhaps grain? Just seems a little too odd.

 

[3riverschick]

that is very odd. take this over to the emergency thread and see what they have to say.
Best,
Karen

 

[azygous]

Here's what I think this could be. https://www.beautyofbirds.com/feathercysts.html Feather cysts.

To confirm this hypothesis, Get a strong magnifying lens and take a close look at the yellow cysts. You should see teensy feather shafts doing a 180 back into the skin. If you see this, you should be able to take some fine tweezers and liberate the feather shafts by gently pulling them out of the skin. They should suddenly pop up and out as you pull on them.

Have some Vetericyn spray handy, and spray the area after you finish "operating".

 

[rebrascora]

Do you feed your chicks grains?
They look like grains inside the crop to me but obviously can't be if you don't feed grains.
I would be wary of feeding chicks whole grains but they will definitely need access to grit if you do. The size of the grains compared to their infantile digestive system will make it difficult for them to pass through the digestive tract and the gizzard may not be sufficiently developed to break them down.
It may appear bald because the skin is stretched to such an extent by the bulging crop underneath, perhaps inhibiting feather growth as a result.

 

[TwoCrows]

I am so sorry about your baby.

I am not an expert on this, however I have a hen that gets a lot of ingrown feathers and feather cysts and they don't look like this but again I am not an expert. Does this area feel like it is full of air? Or is she having difficulty breathing? Ballooning of the skin or air under the skin is called Subcutaneous Emphysema. The causes are a ruptured air sac, air gulping or fermentation of food in the crop producing gas. Babies are known known to over eat and sometimes develop crop issues. If so this gas could be leaking under the skin.

 

[aart]

That is odd...looks close to top of crop but maybe not.
Can you differentiate this 'growth' from the crop?

 

[MegC]

Was that chick vaccinated? I'm a chicken newbie, but a few of my chicks had spots like that, and I attributed it to getting them vaccinated. Feathers grew in normally after a couple weeks, and they're completely fine today. Just a guess!

 

[lazy gardener]

That appears to be the crop, and not the shoulder. How does it look when the crop is empty? If you use a heat lamp, try taking the feed away tonight, and check her crop tomorrow morning. See if it has gone down. If so, it may simply be a spot that is missing feather follicles.

 

[Nopps1]

This is a strange coincidence.
I now have a 1 1/2 week old Ayam Cermani, like the one in this picture.
It has the Same condition but I can't see the seed like things.
I'll lock closer and post pictures.
Did you find any that can help as time went by?

 

[Suzi18]

I'm curious to know what ever happened with that chick??