[Nelson International]

We have some 2 1/2 week old chicks, and one has developed what I think must be sour crop: the crop inflated, and then when I massaged what I thought was air, voided a lot of brown mush.

It's been otherwise alert and healthy, and continues to be.

My question is what to do - all the treatments I've found have been for hens. I've separated it from the others and it only has water for now. Is that right, and how long should I wait before reintroducing food/what should i give it?

Thanks for any advice.

[Richmond]

What breed of chicks are they? Could it have just over indulged? I regularly rear table birds and some can really be real gannets and gobble endless chick crumb till their crops are almost touching the ground. But they seem to otherwise function normally.

If the chick is not showing any signs of distress I would leave it be and it may just be a developmental phase -  it may over time learn to moderate its intake.

If it fails to thrive compared to its siblings eg slow growth then I would put it down to a digestive problem that may or may not sort itself out. If it doesn't then it would be sensible to cull it.

At this early stage I would just keep an eye on it - no need to separate as it will need its siblings for company (if you need to ID it mark it with purple spray on its back or head) and it will need to feed frequently for normal development.

What sort of bedding are they on? Could it have eaten some shavings which have temporarily slowed up the digestion process?

[Nelson International]

Thanks. It's half Bresse half err I'm not sure. (We were aiming to breed or Bresses but the hen was under the weather so we put the cockerel to some other hens.)

That's quite encouraging - the chick definitely wanted to be back with its friends and is still very sprightly. They're on kitchen roll and don't seem to be eating it, but I've just changed to a different feeder that allows them to access more feed, so maybe this one has gone wild. It's one of the bigger of the clutch so I don't think it has digestive problems at least yet. I'll leave them be and keep an eye on them.