Further update on Pepper

As the chooks were getting ready to put themselves to bed tonight, I took the chance to quickly pick Pepper up and have a good feel of her crop. It was squidgy and liquid like, not firm as in compacted crop and no smell as in sour crop. I have now done a bit of further research on the internet to try to find out what could be the problem with pepper’s crop and it looks like it may be what is called Pendulous crop. The pictures looked just like Pepper. It said that the crop gets blocked and the food  then stretches the crop so that it hangs down lower than it should.

The treatment is to pour a couple of teaspoons of olive oil down the hens throat and massage the crop for five minutes. Then turn the bird upside down and massage the contents out of the beak, for a short period of ten seconds at a time. Return the bird to the right way up in between to rest and breath or it may suffocate. This is a two person  job and needs expertise. Not a job for the likes of me! I now need to either find a vet that can do this or take her back to the farm we got her from, so that they can do this. It is a four hour round trip (without traffic problems) which I am afraid may also stress her. I will ring some vet’s tomorrow. I will keep posting as I get more information on this.