hey there...
we have a naked neck chick with an impacted crop and swollen/purple anus and butt. we've tried massaging the crop (holding her both upright and upside down) and have been bathing her butt in warm water (may have had pasted butt) but nothing seems to be moving. she is fairly lively and alert. it's been in the 90s here, so the problem is not from chilling. please help!

Mmgood, how do you know her crop is impacted? could be she's just eaten alot? I don't know anything about nakednecks so I don't know what their bums look like an a normal day.. how old is she? I'm pretty new to chickens myself, but I'd think that if she was ative and alert then she's probably ok.. just keep an eye on her to see if she poops... ? I realy hope she's ok!!

her crop was obviously impacted because of how distended it was, and far more so than her other naked neck sisters. and her butt was really swollen and purple and she was straining to "go". our large animal vet was on the property to look at her and confirmed that there was definitely a problem. i have gotten her to poop a few times, and its very dry...i think its a combination of the heat/dehydration, overeating, and pasted butt. im hopeful that she'll make it, but i also know how these things can worsen on a dime with chicks. thanks for the words of encouragement. mary

Mary,

I have read that feeding oats (even just regular oatmeal) to chicks can help with pasted vents. I think it might tend to give them a bit of diarrhea but in the case of your girl, it sounds like she might need that. Maybe you should separate her and also add a tiny amount of sugar to her water (2 tsp. per gallon). That can also cause slight diarrhea but seems called for in her case.

I have never had to deal with an impacted crop. I hope somebody else chimes in with an idea on that part! Good luck with her!

Susie

Key word search for 'impacted'... LOTS of information!
Though I couldn't find anything on swollen purple bums. sorry..
would you let us know how she does?

I saw something here last month or two about making a small cut in the crop from the outside and massaging the stuff out of there. It seemed to produce good results and there was no excessive bleeding. I even think in healed right up. The hole must not have been too large...