Just performed impacted crop surgery - update post #54: caution!!

[feathersnuggles]

I've been thinking about this bird's situation. Even though I've never done crop surgery, I'm leaning toward saying you should go in again, right away, and take out the rest of the blockage. Otherwise, she may end up with crop stasis, which is fatal even if you do surgery. It seems to me, thinking about this further, that the excessive rocks & stones she's been eating were her way of trying her best to grind up the packed & obstructing material. She just kept ingesting more & more grinders. Her crop could wear out and quit working, eventually.

IDK, it just seems to me her crop will only recover when emptied of the stuff it's been trying to get out. If you open the incision again, you could try flushing up the lower stuff, with a large syringe filled with water. ?

 

[technodoll]

Quote:
I am just so confused and scared to make the wrong decision...

She is fluffed up and in a corner of her broody breaker box, occasionally passing a solid poop.

I don't know if her attitude is due to the broodiness or to pain/ discomfort.

She is drinking and the two times I have given her a tiny piece of soft white bread, she tried to eat it but regurgitated pale brown liquid.

So it seems she cannot eat???

Her crop is still distended and hard, BUT not as hard as it was this morning.

My gut feeling says to operate again to clean out the mess, but I am terrified of hurting or killing my baby, she is so weak now

 

[feathersnuggles]

It's a tough decision either way, right? Maybe you could wait til tomorrow morning, to see how she's doing? By then, you may have a better feel on what direction to take next.

I know there are BYC folks who have done the crop surgery before. Have you contacted any of them to see what they say?

 

[feathersnuggles]

Here's yet another description of crop surgery. They removed the obstruction using surgical tweezers and also using pressure to squeeze the contents of the crop UP, and OUT through the incision.

http://www.c-hickencrossing.org/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=809941

ETA: why is this link getting changed to another one? I had to embed a dash in the url... please take it out to get the website correctly. sorry I don't know why it kept getting automatically changed.

 

[technodoll]

Quote:
thank you for the link, i read through it and the surgery is about identical to what we did (but we did NOT suture the crop to the skin, this is dangerous!). I did not get the entire crop contents as the incision site was getting stretched and torn, it had been 15 minutes of poking and prodding and I was afraid my girl would not make it... I tried to get the deeper masses but failed, didn't want to use tweezers as I was afraid to tear into the crop by accident.

I will wait and see how she is tomorrow morning... she is drinking and pooping quite a bit (some normal poops, some oily black poops), she seems alert but will not eat the scrambled egg and applesauce mix I gave her. She will however eat a few bites of white bread. Her crop is still grainy and stuck though, but it is smaller than it was this morning, or so it seems

 

[silkiechicken]

Best of luck. Hopefully it is just her crop. If it doesn't get better, there is a chance her gizzard is impacted, or her intestines have started to grow tumors thus not allowing food to pass, and the crop being the symptom that you can see.

 

[technodoll]

thank you... she seems to be doing well but cannot eat as liquid comes out of her mouth every time she bends her head down - is this normal after crop surgery?

she sure has pooped a lot today though...

*worries*

 

[MotherJean]

She may be experiencing some swelling or edema at the site of the incision. Try holding a cold compress on the incision for short periods of time - like 10 min. on and 10 min. off. If she isn't able to keep water down, I would do the second surgery tonight. A bird can go days without food, but not without water. Also, I would consider using the same incision site, but making the incision larger. If that compacted grass mass is as big as you say it is, you'll struggle getting all that out through a tiny incision. I think I would keep her on a liquid/soft food diet for 5 to 7 days after surgery, too. Pedialyte works well as a water replacement and gives both sugar water and electrolytes. Baby cereals, eggs, bananas, yogurt - foods that would require no grit.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

give her vitamins and electrolytes in her water tonight if you have any on hand to help boost her some. Do you have any baby aspirin? I've crashed a tiny bit (not even a pinch) of baby aspirin and mixed it in a spoonful of electrolytes for a injured chicken before for pain.

I'd say first thing tomorrow (preferably I'd say tonight ASAP) if she's still oozing food/liquid back up and isn't eating go ahead and do the surgery asap. use the same sight, clean it as best as you can with peroxide or iodine is better but not necissary really...Use blunt tipped tweazers if you have them or anything you can sterilize decently with a small blunt tip, even the tail end of a baby spoon...and slowly and gently get her at an agle to allow you to reach the crop where the impaction is. Gently massage the mass in an upward motion, then go to the tweazers and work it up to the entrance hole, repeat this over and over again, add oil or water to try to soft and loosen the mass and make it any easier...

Either way your taking a big risk, but I'd say the better chance of her surviving is going in and finishing what you started ASAP...She stands the better chance in my opinion, yes your risking her going into shock or over stressing her, but if you wait she'll probably die of infection or starvation/dehydration or even a heart attack from pain anyway...

I've got to be honest, you've got a slim chance with this bird pulling through, but you seen exceptionally competant and if she pulled through once thats going in her favor to pulling through for a second surgery. But if you dont get the blockage out and if you think there is food matter there, you're risking all kinds of issues that can take her life if you do nothing, so again I just feel the more worthwhile risk is doing the surgery again and finishing it up, as long as it takes, just be gentle and don't rush.

 

[technodoll]

Update... Angel has been drinking a lot today and seems to be keeping most of it down, it's when she tried to eat more than two bites of soft bread that she regurgitates pale brown liquid.

She won't eat the scrambled egg and apple sauce I gave her tonight, so tomorrow I will try something else.

I have put Poly-vi-Sol (no iron) in her drinking water.

Her crop feels less engorged tonight than it did this morning.

She is passing a lot of pebbles/heavy grit in her poop so that's a big relief, looks like her crop is moving junk out on its own now! There is still lots to go and I don't know if she will ever pass the impacted straw/grasses but as long as she is pooping, drinking and if she can keep some soft foods down then I won't open her up again, at least not for a while.

come ON sweet little Angel, you can make it

ps: below photo taken april 4th, only now do i realize that the enormous bump on her chest was an impacted crop... she's been suffering for a while and i'm the most stupid chicken momma ever