empty crop with lump

[chickenfan]

One of my birds has stopped eating. Her crop is empty but I can feel a smooth lump in it about the size of a walnut which seems quite tender. She is a good weight and is moulting, but looks reasonably well otherwise. Any ideas what this could be?

 

[chickenfan]

She also has diarrhea so its like a crop impaction. Lump is mobile and more the size of grape.

 

[chrismahon]

We had this problem repeatedly with piggy Orpingtons Chickenfan. They ate so much during the day they couldn't digest it all overnight. Eventually a hard lump formed and the crop went sour. Treated by a water only diet (we used an Avipro dose first) and regular massaging until the lump broke up, the crop cooled and everything was passed through. One of them had this problem repeatedly over 2 months until she went broody and stopped eating as much. Since then she has started moulting and so far seems OK.

 

[chickenfan]

I think this is really good advice Chris. I'm so glad I rescued Grace, my blue Marans, from the jaws of being put to sleep when she was so miserable with impacted crop. She's now 7 years old and lays gorgeous brown eggs nearly all year.