Chick Troubles!

[hodgsonhorse]

Help! (Tim or someone whos knows as much might be best to answer this!) My latest hatch of chicks have hugely filled croups! (The 1s that are having problems are 3 pekins & 2 silkies)

Should i give them oil & see if it shorts itself? & how much oil should i give? I usually use vedgetable oil is that ok?

Or, should a drop a small amount of mildly warm water in the the back of their throats & then tip them upside down? Again how much do i give them?

I've done both many times before as but i'm slightly unsure this time as these are only about 10days old!

They're in a very small house bedded on shavings (which i've debated changing as it could be the shavings that are causing this if they're eating them!!!) with a heat lamp & have a very small run about 6ft x 3ft on short non muddy grass & fed a constant supply chick crumbs & fresh water...

Any advise would be hugely helpful!

Amy

 

[snifter]

I'd not attempt to do anything like crop massage at 10 days old. If they are bright and well otherwise I'd see how well the crops have emptied by the morning. They may have just stuffed themselves silly now and will be find in the morning. I'd also be inclined to keep them off the grass totally this time of year (as that could be causing them problems. I'd leave them inside till bigger for sure.

I'd take them off shavings and put them on paper under the heat lamp.

 

[hodgsonhorse]

Brilliant, huge thanks for the reply...i'm only concerned as they've been very large for about 3days now (sorry forgot to put that!) Glad you agree with scrapping the shavings, i tend to use them as i find it encourages them to scrat around from an early age, but have a gut feeling that the shavings aren't helping this lot! & will def take your advise on no grass...i don't normally have problems with them but this is my last hatch of the year & obviously the weather etc is starting to go against me!

Thanks again

 

[snifter]

I guess if they are under a heat lamp they are going to be grazing 24/7 as its always light. So their crops are never really going to be empty. The only thing I can suggest in that case is to remove the crumb before you go to bed and get up early to check their crops etc before putting it back down.

If they have emptied down ok then you can relax a little. If still full then :? Maybe a gentle massage is the way to go but I'd be wary of the pressure you apply. Are they pooing normally? Drinking?

 

[hodgsonhorse]

Very good idea so have been out & taken food out, will hopefully help!

Yep everything else seems perfectly fine & they're very bright & flapping around like lunatics...so we'll maybe not panic just yet! Will hopefully have good news tomorrow, fingers crossed!

Huge thanks!

 

[snifter]

I'd think that would probably explain it, the 24/7 lighting and feeding. If they were under a hen they would of course not eat overnight and be under her till morning. So crops would have time to empty out. But artificial lighting means they may sleep/rest but not for those 12 hours or so as they would under a hen.

They won't starve overnight and I'd think their crops will digest overnight. Sounds like all is well in all other respects.