Chicken makes gagging/choking motion

[cutebunny]

Hi, I have a pair of Serama chickens. They may be around 2 months old ( look like adults).

2 days ago I noticed that my pullet keeps doing this gagging motion. We hadn't feed her long grass or anything. Just some chicken food and mealworms.

Today, i notice that she stopped doing the motion (or i didnt notice it), but she did it again at night.

Her stool has remarkably reduce in size, could it be that she's having impacted crop?

She's eating fine and still stay active like she normally would. There are no signs that show that she is not feeling well.

Can anybody list down the signs and symptoms of chickens having impacted crop?
thanks cuz i'm truly worried.

 

[Thatothercrazychickenlady]

Croup being swollen and squishy usually means it hasn’t emptied. You’d want to look in the morning as it usually empties at night. Potentially would also have a bad smell coming out of her beak. Chickens do do a gagging motion when rearranging things around in their croup which is normal.

 

[rebrascora]

If you think her crop might be impacted, feel it at night when she goes to bed, remove access to food, in other words take the feeder away, and then feel her crop again in the morning. If it is not empty then she has a blockage somewhere in her digestive tract which could be anywhere from her beak to her vent, but usually it is either the crop or the lower intestine. If she is making snaking movements with her neck, then that usually indicates it is the crop. If that is the case, remove access to dry food and only give her water with a good poultry supplement like Nutri Drench in it and very sloppy mixture of her regular food soaked in a lot of water. Do not give her any more mealworms or anything else that is not really sloppy and would pass easily through a kitchen sieve and start gently massaging her crop. Be guided by her, so if she is not happy, try being more gentle. What type of bedding do you use? Sometimes they eat that and get impacted.

 

[cutebunny]

I touched her crop this morning and it felt normal ( no hard lumps ). She's pooping fine now. But she still did the gagging motion once.

I use fine sand i got from a local hardware store as the bedding.

I'll try to pay attention to her throughout the day and see if anything goes wromg.

 

[rebrascora]

Can you get some video footage of her behaviour and upload it to a hosting site like You Tube or Vimeo and post a link, so that we are seeing what you are. It may be a respiratory infection.
Don't be frightened to feel and/or massage her crop rather than just touch it. Many chickens will actually enjoy a light crop massage even if they are not impacted. It is good to know what a normal crop and it's contents feel like and it can vary throughout the day, so it can be helpful to get comfortable with feeling it and knowing what the ranges of normal are.

 

[cutebunny]

Hi guys, I've been observing my chickens since then, and they stopped doing it. Thank you so much for you time and advice!

 

[rebrascora]

Pleased to hear the problem has resolved itself.