post impaction surgery, slight complication, how much to feed this hen?

[ktpaco]

My 7 month old Blue Copper Maran had to have a crop impaction surgically removed. I had hope to clear it myself with some of the remedies on here, however to no avail - so the avian specialist removed lots of impacted grass and some sand 6 days ago.

Here crop is healing well, except that I think it is slow now or just really saggy. It gets nice and big during the day (just laying crumble mash, feather fixer, a little yogurt, vits, and antibiotics) and in the morning it is about the size of a small plum - very soft and squishy. I have ordered her a crop bra. She is isolated from the others.

My concern is how much to feed her, but without overfeeding her to prevent sour crop? I am giving her 10 ounces a day of laying crumble/feather fixer, and she definitely would eat more if I let her. She is a little underweight, so that's why I added the feather fixer - more protein without being hard to digest.

I know that the impaction was not due to worms, egg binding/internal laying, metal/foreign bodies. I know I could still lose her since she could still have the issue that caused the problem in the first place, however vets are not inexpensive so I have to consider that in my decision to provide the best care I can for her now that the immediate problem is handled.

Can anyone give me an idea of how much food to provide her with due to her circumstances?

Thanks!

 

[sourland]

Rather than feeding her ad lib have you tried feeding her small quantities several times throughout the day. That way her crop would be less likely to fill up.

 

[ktpaco]

I can do that on the weekend, but not during the week since I work. She gets the majority of her food in the morning, roughly 2/3rds, then when I come home - I give her the last third. At nightfall I check the crop size and compare it to what I find in the morning. It's definately smaller, but not empty. She poops ALOT. I'm hoping that the bra will help correct the problem. She is just so hungry (I'm pretty sure she would just eat all day long if I let her) - so that's why I want to make she she is getting adrquate nutrition but not too much, I don't want her getting sour crop. I give her a 10 ounce jar of the crumble with feather fixer, so that's not even counting what it comes out to be when it's made into a mash.