No feathers ruffled here Russ. In fact, I appreciate your candor.
Culling was my first instinct too. When I first got serious about breeding standard-bred poultry, I vowed that nothing weak, unfit, defective or carrying unsavory recessives known to me would ever leave this farm. And I’m happy to say nothing has. I call it selection. I also do not vaccinate and believe in breeding for disease resistance. A fellow fancier once told me the only real medication I’ll ever need is this:
…actually, his was an axe. I just prefer my machete. Same result in the end though….and a much healthier flock for it.
Because this chick is from an unfamiliar strain that is new to me, I thought perhaps the impacted crop was a feed issue on my end, and therefore curable, and preventable. (I use both dry and wet mash). None of my home flock, or their offspring, have ever had crop issues before this. Which could be coincidence…or not. I am not willing to take that chance.
Also, I think the chick may have developed ‘pendulous crop’, which HAS been proven to be heredity in turkeys….so reason follows that it could be in other land fowl as well. The chick is recovering, yet its stretched out crop still hangs low (even when empty) and doesn’t look like it will return to normal any time soon…if ever. I know what I have to do now, and likely what I should have done from the get go….still doesn’t make it any easier though.
Sigh... I knew it was going to be one of those days when I heard it’s snowing in Calgary, 8 hrs west of here.