Chicken drool??

[danimajor1988]

Hey, so I just noticed my chicks mouth filling up with water or drool, then she swallowed it. Then she did it again but the drool fell out. She has scissor beak and a missing right eye, she's about 3 weeks old and still in the brooder. I've been checking get weight every couple days and she's been gaining about an ounce a day. I felt her crop last night but it was empty which is weird for her. I trimmed her beak like 5 days ago and this is the first time she has shown any weird or difference from her normal behavior. This is my second round of brooding checks, I only have 2 birds with this round because I have 7 other birds that just left the brooder and who are about 7-8 weeks now. Just wondering if anyone has seen this before? If you need more info let me know!!

 

[rascal66]

The only time I've ever seen this happen is when a chick/en has drank a lot of water in a single moment. Sometimes it spills out at a certain angle. I see it happen often with the broilers when getting fresh water for the morning (as I refill it) they drink so much they end up throwing some of it up. It has never seemed to harm them however. Its likely your chick just drank a lot? But because of the scissor beak, I really don't know.

 

[Aapomp831]

Crops should be full at night from eating all day; I’m wondering if there’s a blockage in the chicks actual throat preventing the food / water from even reaching the crop? Maybe this is why the water is spilling out of the mouth? I would observe a little more, if she seems fine other than that one incident, then more than likely rascal66 is right.

 

[danimajor1988]

The only time I've ever seen this happen is when a chick/en has drank a lot of water in a single moment. Sometimes it spills out at a certain angle. I see it happen often with the broilers when getting fresh water for the morning (as I refill it) they drink so much they end up throwing some of it up. It has never seemed to harm them however. Its likely your chick just drank a lot? But because of the scissor beak, I really don't know.

So I've been looking some stuff up and I'm thinking possible sour crop? I mixed brewer's yeast in with the all flock feed I have because I have ducks. I'm wondering if it's given her sour crop, it may explain why she didn't have a full crop last night before bed. It is essentially a yeast infection or thrush for chicks which has to do with fermentation and since brewer's yeast is yeast I'm wondering if this is the cause? Do you know anything about that?

 

[danimajor1988]

Crops should be full at night from eating all day; I’m wondering if there’s a blockage in the chicks actual throat preventing the food / water from even reaching the crop? Maybe this is why the water is spilling out of the mouth? I would observe a little more, if she seems fine other than that one incident, then more than likely rascal66 is right.

Do you know anything about sour crop? I don't think it's blocked but am wondering about brewer's yeast giving it to her.

 

[Aapomp831]

So I've been looking some stuff up and I'm thinking possible sour crop? I mixed brewer's yeast in with the all flock feed I have because I have ducks. I'm wondering if it's given her sour crop, it may explain why she didn't have a full crop last night before bed. It is essentially a yeast infection or thrush for chicks which has to do with fermentation and since brewer's yeast is yeast I'm wondering if this is the cause? Do you know anything about that?

It’s rare for chicks to have crop issues; but yes, sour crop is a yeast infection caused by a blockage in the crop that doesn’t allow the food to go down. It sits there and ferments - but this doesn’t sound like your situation bc you said the crop was empty last night. An impacted crops takes awhile to sour - you would have noticed a huge bulge by now. I wouldn’t feed them the yeast though; what exactly are you feeding them? Including any and all treats?

 

[PippinTheChicken]

as chicks, my chickens got super excited when I put fresh water out. they drank up more than they could swallow, shook their heads, and water flew everywhere from their beaks! They are older now and know how to drink without spilling.

 

[danimajor1988]

So I am feeding them Nutrena Brand all flock feed. I added brewer's yeast to the whole bag of feed. Luckily I have 2 other bags and opened a new one for them and gave it to her. I have tried to give treats of meal worms and mixed bags of scratch here and now but the little ones won't eat the treats yet, just the feed. Her crop is now bulging up a little since she has been eating this morning. No more drool now either which is good. The other birds don't seem to have a problem but they're older and they eat a lot of compost scraps, lettuce, watermelon, meal worms, rolled oats, fennel seeds, Sunflower seed hearts, oyster shells, corn, basically whatever I feed my ducks because they're housed together during the day although separate at night. But the ducks are horrible beggars and I am easily swayed to give them treats all day. My fridge is full of lettuce, collard greens, tunip greens, and kale. Not for me but for them haha. I've been meaning to juice them but end up giving it to the birds. They also free range supervised for a couple hours in the yard with the older birds and may have gotten into the treats I have for the bigger birds. Hopefully there isn't anything in the yard that could make the baby scissor beak sick, I am so new to chickens so I'm glad I found BYC because everytime I search something on Google for the chickens it pulls up threads from BYC, that's how I found this site. So asking questions is easy this way and I want to be a good chicken mom so badly, so thank you for sharing any info you have about this.