hen has lump on chest

[cre]

My hen has a huge lump on her chest, it's almost the size of a tennis ball and is bloated like a balloon.It feels like it has grains of food inside. She's acting a bit weird...sitting on her nest for days when there are no eggs in it...otherwise she seems fine. Does anyone know what it may be and how to get rid of it?

[woofgang]

take the poor chook to the vet!!

[cre]

Sorry - I should have mentioned - I already did, and the vet said it could be one of a number of things, but unless it gets bigger or gets passed on to the other chickens, not to worry. I'm new to having chooks, so of course it's worrying me still...I was just wondering if someone out there may have had a similar problem with theirs and could shed some light on it for me as the vet was rather vague.

[Noweia]

It sounds like the crop - a muscular pouch that sits off the gullet and is used to store food:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_(anatomy)

http://www.idahoptv.org/dialogue4kids/birdsofprey/images/crop.gif

If the crop is larger than normal it is possible that there is a problem with it - take the bird to your vet and have her checked out just to be sure!

[woofgang]

with respect to your vet, he doesn't sound very helpful or knowledgable about chickens, maybe itsd time to find a different vet!!