Reba's sick.....

I knew something was wrong right away this morning when I let them out.  Reba is usually the first to run to the pile of feed I put on the ground (hey, that's the way they like it - no feeder for them!) and gobbles it up.  But today, I opened to coop and everyone came out EXCEPT Reba...then she sauntered out and walked the opposite way from the food.  I thought, hmmm, strange.  The other three were just gobbling up the food and Reba was just slowly walking around...a peck here, a peck there.  So, in the house I went to get on backyardchickens.com to see what I could find.  Hard to nail down "looks lethargic" on that huge forum.

So back outside I went, I cornered her and picked her up to see if she had mites or something.  I was holding her around her midsection, wings pinned between my arm and my side, with her head behind me, looking through her feathers - no bugs.  So I figured, I will check her vent - as I went looking for it (they have a lot of feathers there!!) I heard a sound like a waterfall behind me.  She was "puking" water out from being tipped slightly upside down in that position.  Light bulb goes off in my head - aha!  Sour or impacted crop.  Great.  I turn her around and start massaging her neck, where I think the crop is.  I don't know - I'm still a newbie at this!!  It doesn't feel exactly squishy, but not hard as a rock either.  Back inside to the laptop - was it olive oil or vegetable oil - can't remember.  Find it - olive oil, although they say mineral oil is best.  Of course I don't have mineral oil.  Get the olive oil, put it in a tiny measuring cup (like the kind that comes with cough syrup), back to the run to try and get her to drink some of it.  Yah....right.  So I just keep dipping her beak in it, and every so often she licks it off.  Then she gets mad and wants to be set back down.  I figure, good, she is showing some of her old spunk.  Put her back down after rubbing her neck a little more, and she walks slowly under the coop and just stands there. Poor thing!!

I will keep trying to get more oil in her today, and I have to go to the store and get some plain yogurt.  They say that is good too - but not too much.  The point is to get her crop emptying again - not keep filling it faster than it is being emptied.

I thought I was done with "burping babies".  My daughter is 20 - hasn't needed that in a long time!  But, apparently, chickens need it every now and then.

Will let you know how she makes out.  Any other advice?  Did I miss anything?  Thanks.