Young chicks with impacted crops from eating pine shavings

[Smolfarmcatlady]

My chicks are 8 days old and they are bedding eaters. They had been eating some pine shavings so I covered them with paper towels until they were older. However they kicked the paper towels away and I caught them devouring pine shavings. They no longer have any shavings in their brooder and only have chick crumbles and water. 3 of the 4 chicks have grotesquely enlarged crops and I can feel the shavings crispy edges so I'm confident that's what is in there. One of the three chicks has a little more give to their crop than the others. I should have taken the shavings out sooner, so no need to bring that up, I already feel awful.
The impaction happened today and so far they are happily eating and drinking and seem like their usual selves. They are pooping as much as they were.
What should I do for my chicks? Since they are so tiny and are going to grow a lot in the next few weeks, can I leave the impaction alone since as they grow the compressed pine shavings will become relatively smaller and smaller to the birds, or is it something I need to take care of immediately?
I welcome all advice! I don't want to lose the chicks but I think all of their treatment will need to be done at home.

 

[cottagecheese]

Haven't seen any pictures, but by the way you describe the situation 'grotesquely enlarged crops', this seems bad. Just my opinion, but I would be afraid to allow such a (proportionally) great quantity of shavings to travel through their entire digestive system, chances are they won't make it out. I really think you need to do emergency surgery. They are young, they'll recover from the surgery, the other alternative could be you lose them. There was a recent thread documenting a successful crop surgery:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/crop-issue-advice-update-surgery-was-a-success.1301650/

Really sorry about all this.

 

[chkva]

Giving them chick grit would help and putting a little oil on their food to help loosen up what's in their crops. There may not be a ton of shavings in there. You can also massage the crops to see if that helps it empty out. I would wait and see if these things help before trying more invasive things.

Get some sand like the building sand not play sand and use that as your bedding. If they eat it, it's grit so you're knocking down two things at one time. It also dries up their poop so you just scoop up their poop with a cat litter scoop. I used sand with my last chicks and I used the same sand from begining till they left the brooder. Every day I'd scoop out the dried up poop and the chicks absolutely loved it. They bathed in it, ate it, and it absorbed the heat from their light so it honestly had not no cons besides one... it can have a bit of dust but I used an electric air purifier to clean the air in the room they were in.

 

[Saaniya]

You should check first how full or impacted their crop is
Then.stop the food for 24hrs and give some olive oil or vegetable oil or coconut oil for lubrication but very carefully
You can also give some grit to break down but if there's not much impaction Olive oil work good

 

[dawg53]

My Light Brahma chicks did the same thing. They are now full grown adults and still love to munch on pine shavings. I have to close the pop door to the coop when I go out to clean the coops early in the mornings, otherwise they would be munching on them as much as I like munching on Cheetos.

I had to remove the shavings from the brooder tray also. At about 10 days old, I sprinkled a small amount of parakeet grit onto the tray about 2 or 3 times a week, they would eat it like it was their last meal. Then I replaced the parakeet grit with chick grit as they got older, same thing, only 2 or 3 times a week.
Sand is okay, however I suspected that my Brahma's would gorge sand and cause gizzard impactation. That's why I used small amounts of grit only once or twice a week.

Currently I suspect one of the Brahma's has something stuck in her trachea, probably a piece of pine shaving, or when she gorged feed at some point. She "chirps" often, especially after eating. The food she swallows must be pressing against the stuck object in her trachea to cause her to chirp after she swallows feed.
Otherwise she acts completely normal and lays an egg every day, she's very friendly like her sisters.
Once birds start a habit of doing something, it's tough to break them. They "teach" other birds to do the same thing. Another good example is egg eaters.

 

[Smolfarmcatlady]

Thank you all for responding! Overnight their crops have gone down significantly so some of the mass is on its way through. I gave them grit this morning and they are eating and drinking and pooping normally. I don't know if it wasn't as bad as it looked and felt or if my prayers were answered. Hopefully everything goes through ok. No more shavings for this group of chicks!

 

[chkva]

Thank you all for responding! Overnight their crops have gone down significantly so some of the mass is on its way through. I gave them grit this morning and they are eating and drinking and pooping normally. I don't know if it wasn't as bad as it looked and felt or if my prayers were answered. Hopefully everything goes through ok. No more shavings for this group of chicks!

They always eat things they shouldn't! Glad their crops went down!

 

[Corn Pone Princess]

Just curious about how things ended up? I too used pine shavings that my 4 week old white leghorn was eating cuz it mixed with the feed I suspect. It's a hyper kind of destructive bird lol so anything could have happened. Had to take the paper towels out early on that I used during the full 6 weeks with no problems in my americaunas... but my leghorn eats everything!!! I noticed these huge crop and also could feel rough things inside. Gross. It does go down each night and I take away their food at night and they only have access to fresh water in the brooder. I only have two leghorns the same age and the other is just fine.
Sometimes it's hard, sometimes squishy. Bird seems very active and healthy other than the larger crop.
Did your chicks get better without surgery???

 

[SaiyanMother]

I put carefresh bedding in the brooder this round since I had some leftover from the hamster cages and my other option is pine shavings. I haven't had issues with the pine shavings yet, but I keep reading about possible respiratory issues so I gave the paper stuff a try. It seems that my little bielefelder pullet ate a good bit of it before I changed it back to the shavings and she has a large squishy crop. I will be trying some of the suggestions here. I hope I don't have to do anything drastic to her. She is a sweet and robust little chick otherwise.