Molting hen with crop issues

[Winchikn]

Hello,

I have a 2.5 yrd old Buff Chantecler who is molting along with the rest of my flock of 9, and I noticed 3-4 days ago that her crop was full in the morning. I started with coconut oil and crop massages for the first 2 days but that did not relieve the blockage and she has refused to eat the oil (or anything with the oil on it) for the last 2 days. I tried molasses in water 2 days ago and she drank some but not all of that and moved some fluids and pieces of grass with bits of digested food through. I started clotrimazole 1% 2 days ago in case some yeast started.

Her crop is hard in the morning, a bit smaller than a golf ball, and is moveable/feels a bit doughy with massage. Her energy levels and appetite are good. No eggs because of her molt. She is passing fluids and some pieces of food and bits of grass. She's having the odd thick brown cecal poop as well.

I gave her a first dose of docusate sodium (colace stool softener) this morning. She's very happy to eat soft dog food so I pierced the 100 mg gel capsule and squished it on some of that along with the clomitrazole. I am about to give another dose of the stool softener and I think I am also going to treat for worms later today. I have a few questions...

1 - how much of the stool softener can I give in 24 hours/how often should I repeat dose?
2 - I'm not too concerned about how her feathers look so am I okay to worm with Safeguard?
3 - should I try Acidified Copper Sulfate to clear the blockage or does that just treat yeast?
4 - how great are the risks of tubing water/molasses for someone inexperienced with doing this?

Note that this hen HATES being handled and is a feisty/fearful/suspicious little thing. I am thrilled that she's still eating from me and don't want to force too much on/down her until I absolutely have to as I'm afraid that will break my ability to get her to take any meds from me in food - and we've got 5 more days to go with the yeast meds.

As always, very appreciative of any advice.

 

[Tookie]

What I would do, is stop all you're doing for treatment, and treat according to this article. ->
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/
It would be good to treat for the sour and impacted crop to be on the safe side.

Deworming would be a good idea. Instead of using Safeguard, use Valbazen as it can be used while birds are molting and won't cause any feather damage.

 

[Winchikn]

What I would do, is stop all you're doing for treatment, and treat according to this article. ->
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/
It would be good to treat for the sour and impacted crop to be on the safe side.

Deworming would be a good idea. Instead of using Safeguard, use Valbazen as it can be used while birds are molting and won't cause any feather damage.

Thanks, Tookie. It is based on many readings of that very article that I am following the course of action outlined above. I'm not 100% sure if she's doughy or impacted, but given a couple of days of slow movement I wanted to start the yeast meds and because I can't get things to clear out that I've started the stool softener.

I'm in Canada and don't think I can get Valbazen but I will check again. The other wormer I have on hand is Piperazine but I'd rather give her something I can administer directly and not in water so I know she's getting the right dose.

Just read another post that suggested the yeast cream tucked in bread soaked in olive oil. I'm going to give that a shot as the stool softener has put her off the dog food...

I'm still curious about the acidified copper sulfate as a last resort if I can't get this to move. There is no vet here who will treat chickens so I'm on my own.

 

[Tookie]

Thanks, Tookie. It is based on many readings of that very article that I am following the course of action outlined above. I'm not 100% sure if she's doughy or impacted, but given a couple of days of slow movement I wanted to start the yeast meds and because I can't get things to clear out that I've started the stool softener.

I'm in Canada and don't think I can get Valbazen but I will check again. The other wormer I have on hand is Piperazine but I'd rather give her something I can administer directly and not in water so I know she's getting the right dose.

Just read another post that suggested the yeast cream tucked in bread soaked in olive oil. I'm going to give that a shot as the stool softener has put her off the dog food...

I'm still curious about the acidified copper sulfate as a last resort if I can't get this to move. There is no vet here who will treat chickens so I'm on my own.

Well then, if you can't get the Valbazen I suppose you could just use the Safegaurd. Being in Canada does make it tough to get these sort of things.

You can use the copper sulfate, if nothing else works.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I tried molasses in water 2 days ago and she drank some but not all of that and moved some fluids and pieces of grass with bits of digested food through. I started clotrimazole 1% 2 days ago in case some yeast started.

She is passing fluids and some pieces of food and bits of grass.

1 - how much of the stool softener can I give in 24 hours/how often should I repeat dose?
2 - I'm not too concerned about how her feathers look so am I okay to worm with Safeguard?
3 - should I try Acidified Copper Sulfate to clear the blockage or does that just treat yeast?
4 - how great are the risks of tubing water/molasses for someone inexperienced with doing this?

I would only give 1 stool softener a day for only 2 days in a row. You can just pop the gel pill right into the beak, there's no need to try to squeeze out the contents into food.

For the molasses flush to work, all of it really needs to be consumed. It's 1tsp Molasses to 1/4 cup water.

You need to allow time for these treatments to work though. Jumping from one to another is of no benefit. You always want to hydrate your bird/make water available during waking hours.

If you are treating with Clotrimazole then finish the full 7 days twice a day.

Acidified Copper Sulfate is used to treat Sour Crop (yeast/fungal infection), it probably will not act as stimulant that you are looking for - that's what the Stool Softener or Molasses is for - to activate the digestive system to help push out the material/blockage.

Work on hydration. I let my birds eat their normal feed as they wish. You can also offer wet feed or bits of scrambled egg.

 

[Winchikn]

I would only give 1 stool softener a day for only 2 days in a row. You can just pop the gel pill right into the beak, there's no need to try to squeeze out the contents into food.

For the molasses flush to work, all of it really needs to be consumed. It's 1tsp Molasses to 1/4 cup water.

You need to allow time for these treatments to work though. Jumping from one to another is of no benefit. You always want to hydrate your bird/make water available during waking hours.

If you are treating with Clotrimazole then finish the full 7 days twice a day.

Acidified Copper Sulfate is used to treat Sour Crop (yeast/fungal infection), it probably will not act as stimulant that you are looking for - that's what the Stool Softener or Molasses is for - to activate the digestive system to help push out the material/blockage.

Work on hydration. I let my birds eat their normal feed as they wish. You can also offer wet feed or bits of scrambled egg.

Thank you.

I am trying to do my best for this hen and have spent a lot of time reviewing crop-related posts. It is not my intention to hop from one thing to another but when I left her for a full day with the molasses flush and she hadn't consumed it and her crop was still full the following morning, I thought I should try something else. She has freshwater available at all times and is drinking well. It is a relief to know I can let her eat what she wants.

I will give one more stool softener tomorrow, and will definitely finish the yeast meds as I do not want to create resistance and am done 3 days of the 7. I will also deworm as it turned rainy here about 10 days ago and so I think there's some risk of worms.

Unfortunately this hen does not like egg, refuses anything with any kind of oil in it, and won't eat the wet food mash I offer her. She will eat meal worms very happily - the one thing it's impossible to sneak medication into...

I'll keep working at this - somewhat reassured by the knowledge that these treatments can take a while to work.

 

[Winchikn]

Update on this hen.

I've continued with the clotrimazole and have just finished day 7. I dewormed my whole flock with piperazine 2 days ago. I have let this hen be with the flock and living a normal hen life through the week, with morning and nighttime crop massages at the time of yeast meds administration.

Unfortunately her crop has not cleared. It had been somewhat stable through the week but suddenly felt more impacted than ever last night. This hen has always been prone to eating feathers and the shavings I use for bedding - clearly not helpful under the circumstances. I reached out to our local large animal vet about a surgery yesterday but have not heard back, and now it is the Thanksgiving long weekend here in Canada.

Because her crop was so much fuller last night (and online videos helped me figure out a better way to get things into her beak), I isolated her today and filled her with 4-5 solid doses of coconut oil and some really intense massages. She is passing water and some bit of grass and some now bright green very small bits of poop, but nothing more. The mass in her crop will soften with massage but it's not moving.

We will not attempt home surgery and I fear I am going to lose this little hen who is clearly starting to lose weight. She is still bright-eyed with lots of energy and a decent appetite for tiny bits of meal worm but absolutely NONE of the soft things I try to feed her.

Any advice on last-ditch efforts to clear this blockage?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

What is the crop like in the morning after she's had a night's sleep?

You can try the molasses flush and see if that helps push the material out. She needs to consume all of it for it to be effective. Syringe or tube the molasses solution into her if she's not willing to drink it on her own.

 

[Winchikn]

What is the crop like in the morning after she's had a night's sleep?

You can try the molasses flush and see if that helps push the material out. She needs to consume all of it for it to be effective. Syringe or tube the molasses solution into her if she's not willing to drink it on her own.

Her crop is hard in the morning but softens with massage and even more so once she had something to drink. She’s still passing some chunks of undigested grass and some other poops, but her crop is pretty full every morning for a small hen. To br totally honest, I don’t think I have the skill or confidence to tube the molasses into her and I’m very concerned about aspiration with syringing fluids.

The big update is that I managed to find a different local vet who will see chickens which is great news as no one was a couple of years ago. I took this hen in today and had her examined. The vet said her crop didn’t feel that impacted and wondered about issues farther along the digestive tract. Further diagnostics suggested were barium X-ray, with a fluids flush or surgery if indicated. The X-ray alone was going to cost me $700 with sedation which was way outside our budget.

The vet was very curious about the virus that went through my flock this spring - which I thought was IB and I believe resulted in the deaths of 3 of my 12 chickens between April and July. The vet wondered about Mareck’s but the symptoms my flock showed were some sneezing and then reproductive issues followed - nothing that looked like nervous system stuff but I’m no expert. Some of my hens stopped laying and two of my younger ones developed soft-shelled eggs, which I treated as best I could with calcium but they deteriorated quite quickly. I think I lost the first in April, one in May, and the last in July.

I never would have imagined that this digestive issue could be related to that virus but once the vet mentioned other issues possibly triggering the crop, I realized that I’ve heard the odd sneeze out of my flock the last week or two. From a flock of 9 maybe one a day, mostly from my roo who has had a weird respiratory wheeze his whole life so I didn’t think much of it. And many of my hens are going through a pretty hard molt. Additionally, my one Easter Egger has also had a partially full crop the last 2-3 mornings so I now have 2 with issues despite no change in feed or access to grass, grit, or anything else.

Long story short, my vet’s take is that there may be something else going on with my flock. And given the risks associated with further diagnosis and treatment (all requiring sedation or anesthetic), I’m going to continue with some massage but limit further interventions because I think my vet might be on to something.

The Easter Egger who is just showing some crop issues is the love of my chicken-keeping life. Heaven help me if she goes downhill.

I will continue to do my best within my limits of knowledge, skill, and financial means, and I will probably send this hen for testing if she dies.

So hard on the heart…

 

[Winchikn]

Four days later and this hen is still very perky and running and eating with the flock like usual, with a very full crop that just doesn't want to empty but doesn't ever really seem to have gone sour. She's pretty thin, but doesn't seem ready to give up the fight. I thought I'd be putting her in a box for the lab by now but her quality of life is still pretty good.

I have another hen whose crop has gone off which I'll make a separate post about, but given I now have 2 out of 9 chickens with crop issues during a molt, I'm wondering if anyone here has any thoughts about Mareks or IB resulting in these crop issues. I see no signs of the neurological issues associated with Marerks in my flock but there has been some sneezing the last couple of weeks and I'm wondering if virus could be at the heart of these crop issues.