Chicken bald back

[hilda-and-evadne]

I recently hatched four cuckoo marans chicks, two boys and two girls. The smallest, a female, has developed pendulous crop. At first I thought it was sour crop but now, on day two, it looks more likely to be pendulous crop. She is alert and eating well.

 

I am reluctant to put her on water only for 48 hours - which seems to be the usual treatment - because she is so young and has no fat to live off but I have separated her from the others - she was getting knocked over a lot by the boys as they rushed around the cage - and drained her crop enough twice a day to take off some of the weight and to make room to give her about 30mls yoghurt and 30mls water with a syringe. I am also massaging her crop every few hours.

 

I'd welcome any advice anyone may have. I read on the web that pendulous crop tends to be a hereditary condition but I wasn't planning to breed from her anyway.

 

Thank you.

[hilda-and-evadne]

In case it helps anyone else, I am adding a note about what seems to be working.

 

Food is going through the chick, so there isn't a blockage (tumour, whatever).

 

1. Live yogurt, 30ml by syringe first thing and last thing every day - so that anything that stays overlong in her crop doesn't go sour - and 30ml water. Massaging her crop for a minute or so after that. [Edited to add: 10ml at a time, not 30ml all at once! Too much risk of it going into her airway, because she is so small, if I gave her 30ml at once.]

 

2. Emptying her crop first thing if there was anything in it (there was on the first day but not on the second day).

 

3. First day: keeping her separate from the other chicks, I took away the feeder for a morning and then gave it back to her for the rest of the day, even though she then gorged herself. Massaged her crop a few times.

 

4. Second day, morning: gave her the feeder for an hour, took away for an hour (to give her time to absorb what was in her crop), gave it back to her for an hour. Massaged her crop.

 

5. Second day, afternoon: put her back with the others because I was worried that they might start to treat her as not of their flock. Took her out a few times to massage her crop.

 

And for two nights she has slept in the cat carrier, next to the cage in which the other chicks spend the night.

 

Other things that might or not be relevant.

 

* removing stress (she is the smallest, and the two cockerel chicks keep knocking her over as they race about), especially at night;

 

* removing competition for food, on the first 1.5 days (in case she had formed an association between food and not being able to get at enough of it because of the other, larger chicks).

 

This chick has a lot more growing to do, and I am hoping that if I go on doing this her pendulous crop will come to be much smaller relative to the size of her body.