Recurring impaction - now watery bloody fluid droppings

[chickenlady]

This poor girl has an impacted crop again. She is beyond skinny, I dont know how she is still alive but she is. I have her in the house again giving fluids.

I dont know why she got the impacted crop to begin with but with some work, she healed up nicely. This time though, her crop will not go down. She has been without food for about 36 hours. She is walking around like she is the queen and preening herself, however, she wont drink. Her crop is very large, she stumbles every now and then. I am giving her oil and massages. I am also giving fluids in the beak and subQ. She will not touch bread with oil or yogurt. Today she ate some oatmeal (cooked and soaked with oil). She has pooped a watery white poop only twice all day today and twice all day yesterday.

I guess my big question is, is it time to cull? I cant stand to see her so skinny and possibly suffering. Her crop is not getting any better since Sunday. This is basically the third time with an impacted crop. Obviously there is something wrong with her that I cannot fix and this has become a recurring problem. I will not do a surgery here and do not have the money to spend at a vet. Is it in her best interest to cull her?

 

[ILoveJoe]

Tough decision.

If this impaction clears, then it sounds like she may need a special soft diet for the rest of her life. Does she lay well?

 

[chickenlady]

She was laying pretty good up until getting impacted. Once cleared, she laid only a couple more eggs. She is about 4 years old now. I would not be able to house her separately to ensure she have a special diet. Whats weird is she is going through a second molt right now in this 3 months. Poor girl, 2 molts since August.

 

[hankshens]

I gave mine laying crumbles that I put hot water on and she ate them fine. What all does she eat that keeps impacting her? Mine are free range and I cant tell what they eat but this worries me that she will do it again. Good Luck.

 

[chickenlady]

I feed her layer pellets and she freeranges for a couple hours each day. I'm not so sure it is something she ate, rather some illness that is affecting her digestive system.

I have her out of her crate right now walking around the kitchen. She seems to have such a will to live and I think I would have trouble culling her. I want to give her a chance but at the same time, I dont want to keep her here just for ME. I'm not sure what to do. She did another little watery yellow poop. She is eating very little and I am still giving her water via a syringe and sub Q. She is quite a fighter.

 

[chickenlady]

Here is an update: not good at all. I need to make my decision today as to culling or not. I tried earlier but couldnt get myself to do it.

Her crop seemed to be going down some but today, all of the sudden, hard as a rock again. All she was eating was very little olive oil bread, she wont eat anything else.

She was pooping watery white pools of fluid, as of this morning, they are watery red pools of fluid. I can only assume blood. I have no idea how to help her anymore and I think she is suffering.

Is there any further treatment that I can or should try???

 

[princess araucana]

not sure if you already made the decision or not.... but
have you tried her regular feed pellets in water? I had my roo in and did surgery on his crop, I gave him quite a buffet of yogurt and eggs and everything all the other chickens love, but he did not eat it. When I gave him the regular pellets he went crazy for them.
I had a dish of water and shook the pellets in a bowl and sprinkled them into the water and he got really excited by the noise and gobbled up the wet mushy food. I found after he ate the normal food his poop was normal too.

However, I have never dealt with blood in droppings, so that could be major? and scary, sorry to hear.


Good luck! (my rooster's crop will not shrink down so I don;t know if he will make it back in the yard.... so hard to think of culling!!!)

 

[chickenlady]

I tried everything and she wouldnt eat. Last night I made my decision. Actually is was pretty easy to make when I saw her standing in the middle of my kitchen all puffed up and dripping blood from her vent. I immediately knew what I had to do. It was painful (for me) though.

Crop impaction is usually only a symptom of another illness. If you already did the crop surgery, the crop should be empty. If it is impacted again, I would think you need to treat the real illness, whatever that may be. I truly wish you and your roo the best. I sure hope he can over come this. Thanks for your input about my hen, it is appreciated.

 

[dlhunicorn]

I am sorry to hear about your hen (((hugs)))

She did another little watery yellow poop.

yellow urine can indicate liver problems and yellow poo can often indicate worms (capillaria often presents with bloody droppings)...
I mention this as I am wondering if you have ever wormed your birds? If not you might think about doing so.​

 

[chickenlady]

Thanks DL. Yes, I worm my chickens regularly using eprinex pour on whether they need it or not. I just wormed her 2 months ago. I also wormed 10 days following the first worming. I believe she had some internal problems such as a liver problem or maybe even cancer.

She wasnt of best quality if you know what I mean, came from a long line of inbreeding the same chickens over and over again. A couple of her daughters died at 1 year old and a couple of her granddaughters died as well by 1 1/2 years old so I think genetics have played a part here. I still have one of her daughters and one of her granddaughter here, they were fathered by a different rooster than the one at the farm she came from so I will see how they do.