crop injury--- maybe rupterted???? help

[wantplum]

my Rhode island red chicken (about 2 years old) was looking a little off the other day. yeasterday, I turned her on her back to check out her chest area that was missing a couple of feathers. There seemed to be food all down her stomach and it seemed wet. i thought that maybe she rolled in the food. So i took a damp cloth and whipped away. the smell was gross. what i then saw was a black mass with a small whole in it. There was small particles of food that seemed to be stuck in the whole. I took a cotton ball with some first aid stuff and whipped the area. did the same thing this morning.
Today i went on the web and read all about crops. IT seems like it is some kind of crop injury. But can a crop ruptured? When i massage the area food does come out of that whole i saw. when i looked it up online did find any info for it. she is eating drinking and acting normal so far. I don't know what to do. I have her in a small cage with no food just water right now. since i just put her in the cage i am unsure about her poop. will keep you posted on that. Please if you know anything please contact me.
thanks rebecca

 

[JennsPeeps]

Try giving her a mash made of wetted food & in small quantities. If she's injured she'll need food to heal. A mash shouldn't have sharp edges to further enlarge the hole.

Keep an eye out for infections & be prepared to treat her if necessary with antibiotics. You can get them at any feed store.

If you can get your hands on "steri-strips" - at any drugstore - you may want to use some of those to hold the hole closed while it heals.

 

[wantplum]

after reading your post i feel a little better. Posted on another mesaage board and they said to sew her up or super glue her. but i wasn't really sure if this was the best advise. i don't want to do soething to make her worse. so i think that i will try this first.

is chick start good ( for the mesh food). also i just ask for antibiotics for my chickens and they will know what i'm taking about? will it be in liquid form or something i have to rub on? just so i know what i'm looking for.

everytime she eats food seems to come out the whole.

thank you so much for your help. any info is helpful.

rebecca

 

[caralouise1974]

I would think that chick crumbs would be fine, as long as they're not medicated.

To be honest, if you leave ordinary layer's pellets in a little water or milk for a few minutes they dissolve down into a smooth paste, so you might just want to do that. Some moist scrambled egg finely chopped would also be a brilliant boost for her - lots of protein to help the new flesh grow.

As for the antibiotics, I am in the UK where antibiotics are a prescription-only medicine, but I would imagine you will be giving the antibiotics orally, and probably something broad-spectrum like Baytril would be best. I expect the feed store would be able to advise you on dosage for a chicken, and probably a lot of people on here will know too.

For topical application, I hear you guys have a triple antibiotic cream (again, in the UK topical antibiotics are not available without prescription) that you can buy over the counter for use on humans - this would work just fine for your chicken, once you have cleaned up the wound and put the steri-strips in place.
NOTE: Do NOT use the triple antibiotic cream with the added painkiller, it is toxic to poultry!

Good luck!

 

[wantplum]

just wondering why not medicated?

 

[caralouise1974]

Because the adult (unless you reared her yourself) may have been vaccinated for cocci at the hatchery, so you shouldn't then give anticoccistat feed.

It's not a big deal, but adult hens simply don't need the medication as they will either have been vaccinated or will have built up immunity. If you only have medicated feed though, it isn't a huge problem.