Crop Surgery?

[trailrider731]

Those who have performed crop surgery, can you tell me how you knew your chicken's crop was impacted? Did you feel something in the crop, or take a guess that it was impacted?


hay hay,

My little chicken's crop stuck WAY out and was hard. I compared her to the other hens and theres would go down at night.

sad to say, My GG hung on for 3 weeks or a bit more, but declined steadly, im thinking there were other issues further in?

she was always happy to see me, but was barely eating after the first couple of weeks. She would only eat treats and then quit that. I could not see hardly anything coming out the other end. When she couldn't get up I finally helped her over the rainbow bridge and squalled my fool head off. During that time I lost another favorite to some type of respiratory ailment. It happened very quickly, I barely knew she was ill. so i've been really bummed about them. I would never have believed i would get so attached.

 

[jbs]

Sorry for your loss trailrider. It's tough to watch a hen suffer, and harder making the decision to euthanize, but sounds like you did the right thing. I wish they'd all die peacefully in their nest boxes. I lost one the other day to sour crop, and I wondered if she might have an impacted crop as well, which is why I was asking. I took my girl to the vet, but I didn't like the vet very much and am not sure that I got good info. He emptied the liquid from the crop with a tube and treated her with antibiotics, an anti-fungal, and something to get the GI tract moving, but she died a few hours later. I asked about impacted crop but he said he doesn't normally see that in birds, and sort of dismissed me. He wasn't very nice to me, but he was an avian vet and if an impacted crop is somewhat obvious I'm sure that he would have felt it in my hen's crop.

I have been reading that there's often something else going on with a chicken before she gets sour crop, some major issues with organs shutting down and whatnot. I think the only way to know for sure is to cut them open once they're dead, but I'm on my own this week and can't really handle doing something like that alone. Altho I'm starting to wish that I had at least tried.

 

[trailrider731]

hay hay and thanx,

I too think there must have been something besides the impacted crop going on with the chicken, she wanted to eat, it just wasn't getting through, I do wish she would have just gone to sleep like the little chicken with the respiratory thingy, if they were not so secretive about being ill, we might have caught on to an issue before it went to far. The surgery thing wasn't that bad except for the smell. Plus afterwards I got to thinking, I did not see big globs of hay or straw,stems and such. most looked well mashed, so the issue must have been further in. I just don't have the money to have a necropsy or whatever they call it done.
thanx and love them chicks!!! Im down to four, I don't know if i will get any more. its just so hard when i lose one. I've been to that rainbow bridge with so many critters over the years, I don't know how many more times I can do it.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

My vet did surgery on my favorite hen for an impacted crop yesterday. The hen seems to be doing great. I have her in the house in a dog crate. I've fed her some soft quick cereal, smashed up pear, and some applesauce and now she's happily pecking at baby chick crumbles. She won't eat them if they are wet. She's drinking water so I figure they will just mash up in her crop.

What else should I be doing? Anything?

I did let her outside in the yard with her sisters so she could stretch her legs and spend time w/ the other hens. I don't want them forgetting her.

But how long should I keep her all caged in the house?
And how long on a soft diet?

She seems to be doing so well. But I don't want to mess that up. But I also freak out if I have to leave the house to run an errand and leave her alone. So my goal is to get her back outside as quickly as possible.

I'm thinking maybe another full day in the house. Maybe two. Then put her out for a few hours outside.

I guess the question is, how soon should I let her have truly solid food like bugs and worms? Is day three okay? Or should I wait longer?

 

[casportpony]

Don't take this the worng way, but didn't your vet tell you all that? You should follow their instructions.
-Kathy

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

Don't take this the worng way, but didn't your vet tell you all that? You should follow their instructions.
-Kathy

Oh she did. She gave me a HUGE dump of info and it's all kind of a blur now. I was very upset over the whole situation. She said to keep her isolated for several days and feed her really soft food like applesauce.

The surgery was yesterday and today she'd doing AMAZING. Much better than I had anticipated. I've only fed her soft foods and baby chick food today. She's VERY picky about what she will and will not eat. I think I'll try some scrambled egg tomorrow.

I did let her outside to run around in the yard today with her sisters and I followed her around to make sure she didn't eat much off the ground.

I didn't specifically ask the vet when she could have grit and bugs. So I was trolling the internet for direction. I think I'll up her to eggs and slightly more solid food tomorrow. And if that goes well, then Thursday I'll put her back in her run for a brief time. Maybe an hour and see how that goes. Food is clearly going through her as it should. I just don't want to push her too fast and have her relapse.