Update on Pepper

I am continuing to give the girls live yogurt in the morning and maggots in the afternoon, which they love. Pepper is eating, drinking, pooping and her tail is up, she seems happy enough but still looks lop sided. Unfortunately she is not used to me enough yet, to allow me to pick her up and feel if it’s hard. The advise says the maggot treatment takes five days to work which will take us to Sunday. If it’s not improved by then I will look for a vet on Monday. I feel so awful that this has happened so early on, yet the other two girls are fine.

Pepper with her bulging crop on her right hand side

The other thing I did today was change them over from chick crumb to growers pellets as I was advised to, at the end of their first week with me. I was worried they wouldn’t like the change but needn’t have been, as they loved them. I think getting used to the maggots has got them ready to accept the slightly bigger pellets. I have also bought layers pellets ready for the next stage, when they are ready to lay, which may be around October time.

I shall be keeping a close watch on Pepper and may try to entice her into the dog crate tomorrow, where I may be able to pick her up. The other advise is to gently massage her crop but it’s a bit tricky when she doesn’t want to be picked up. I can’t stop worrying about her at the moment and do so hope she gets better soon.