Noticed a hanging crop a couple days ago in r 7 week old white broad breasted turkeys & after researching, realized it was pendulum crop. Sounds like this can be the result of gorging themselves & is often associated with sour crop. R turkeys typically have food accessible 24/7 in their coop, but we let them pasture all day so find that they often don’t return to the coop during the day & then act famished at night once they r back in the coop. Not sure if they don’t return b/c they’re just not very smart or they simply enjoy the freedom of roaming. After a full day without the pendulum crop improving, we massaged it multiple times. First we tried to massage it down into the gizzard but no success. We then opted to try & make the turkey throw it up. We massaged the crop (which felt squishy/liquid) then tipped the bird upside down. Some say u need to use ur finger to hold the mouth open, but r turkeys automatically opened their mouths so we didn’t need to assist. U can bounce or shake the bird a bit to help get the fluid out. Kev liked moving the neck around. After another day of this with only minor improvement, we took the feed from their coop & instead gave them some plain Greek yogurt w/garlic mixed in. By the next morning they looked great. We gave more the next morning along with/some scrambled eggs & then again at night yogurt/garlic/scrambled eggs. At this point we no longer c any signs of pendulum crop so will b reintroducing feed tmrw. We will probably try to put them back in the coop midday to eat a bit so they aren’t overdoing it in the evening. Will c if this made a lasting impact.
#rurallife #homesteading #turkeys #sourcrop #pendulumcrop