Impacted crop

booty

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One of my 6 girls (Black nova looks like Rhode island red) has a swelled crop it feels quite soft rather the pack hard. All the other are fine, they have clean water and food every day.
Every time we pick her up she is sick, with a little light green poo.
She is eating and drinking little bits. Up and about, but very slow in her movements.

Any help would be greatfull

Phil
 
Mine had a similar problem last year and I managed to clear it by gently massaging her crop several time per day. Not sure if this would work for you girl, but maybe worth a try.
 
If the crop is soft and squishy and doesn't empty overnight, then it is probably sour crop. If it's a hard lump then it will be impacted crop.

For the first, best to give warm water, massage the crop and then tip the bird upside down so that the muck comes out of the beak - but be careful you tip her up the right way so she can breathe! For impacted crop, a couple of folk have had very good results feeding live fishing maggots, the undyed type that you get from fishing shops.
 
Its perhaps both impacted and a little sour Booty, along the lines Philcott has described. The little green poo would be very fine particles, like paint rather than grainy poo. Her breath will smell with just sour crop and her poo would be squitty. Give her 5mL of Olive or Cod Liver oil once then every few of days and massage her crop, as Sue says, several times a day. Can take a week to clear. Can't treat her conventionally for sour until any blockage has gone and it may then resolve anyway. Some people do turn the birds upside down and push the contents back out. This is particularly risky as the bird can choke and die, so I personnally would not recommend it unless absolutely the last resort. White maggots do work on impacted crop -we've tried it, but they need to be given every day over a week.

The only concern I have is that the softer crop in these circumstances can mean an impacted gizzard. Drinking a lot of water will make the crop soft, which is what they do when their system is solid. Treatment is the same and important to keep her moving about several times a day. Survival rate is low in that case apparently. I say apparently because we have had two and both pulled through, but it took a month and both had wasted away to nothing at the end -big and fat now! Impacted gizzard is caused by eating insoluble and permanent objects like small plastic pieces and metal bits which replace the grit in the gizzard and don't grind down. Ours had eaten Damson stones.
 

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