Not again

We have another sick chicken, another chicken in my kitchen.

I noticed the chest on this guy looked big, but being the novice chicken keeper, I didn't know if something was wrong or if it was just the way this bird looked.  He acted fine, ate normal, ran around with the other birds.  Every night when I was moving the birds from the nest boxes to the roosts, I would forget to check it and during the day, there's no way to catch them.

Two nights ago when I picked him up to move him, I definitely felt something.  It wasn't just a fat bird, it felt like a huge balloon of air or fluid.  I put him on the roost and came in to research things.

Sounds like he has a pendulum crop.  A bird can have an impacted or a sour crop.  The crop is like a pouch in the neck where food goes.  Sometimes, food can get stuck like a huge nasty hairball and it becomes impacted.  It's serious and deadly.  Sometimes, it can go sour and get infected.

If these issues aren't fixed, the muscles in the chest and neck can become too weak and won't go back to normal, and it becomes a pendulum crop.

So the next morning when I went to let the birds out, I scooped him up before he had a chance to run for freedom and I brought him to the house.  I put him in a box in the mud room with water for most of the day, and then when I thought it was just too hot, I brought the box into the house.

What I read said to withhold food, so I did.

The last time I checked on him at night, he threw up a little and then I remembered that I'd read you're suppose to make a sour or impacted crop bird throw up.  For about 10 minutes the oldest son and I massaged his crop and tilted him upside down to let him throw up.  It was gross.  It could have been worse.

The lump was still the size of a grapefruit.

The things I read said to withhold food for 24 hours, and someone else said to just let him go back with the flock.  So the next morning, after 24 hours, I took him back outside.

He was a good patient, sat patiently in my arms and didn't cause any problems.  I just feel bad for him.

He's the first of Silkie Sue's chicks to be named.

Bubba.