Rooster with slow/impacted crop

[MamaFox78]

Oof, yeah I would suspect a toxin if the rest of your flock isn't affected - he very well might have eaten a bad caterpillar or something! Usually the bright colored ones are poisonous. I would consider it lucky that he didn't get worse!

I'm glad his impacted crop has cleared out, seems like your method did the trick! I've just found that very diluted ACV works fast and prevents sour crop, especially when you follow up with probiotics.

It's encouraging that he's got energy to chase a snake! Hopefully he's past the worst of it, and will continue to improve. If it was a toxin, it should clear out of his system pretty soon. Fingers crossed for you & roo!

 

[Dovemaiden]

I have a roughly 1.5yr old barred rock rooster. I think his crop is moving things through since he's pooping, but it seems much slower than it should be since it wasn't emptied all the way last night - which is the only reason I know there's something up with his crop vs other stress issues. He is currently lethargic but drinking a lot and will readily eat anything sugary or protein-rich, like sugar water, berries, and bug treats. He will also chug his regular feed if I offer it by hand. His poop is often watery because he's drinking a lot, but otherwise he definitely has solid, normal-looking material in it. I've seen some normal cecal and regular poops although they're smaller than normal. His comb and wattles look fine. I think the progression of events that led to this was an instance of my hens attacking him (I think they thought he was attacking me at the time; he wasn't), after which he was reluctant to eat out of feeders if they were nearby and then I suspect he binged on a bunch of dandelions that he got access to. I don't see any obvious sign of injury from the hens aside from a few bent feathers and it doesn't seem like sour crop (yet) - crop is firm, breath is ok. I got him to eat some unrefined coconut oil this morning. I've done periodic crop massages. I have him in the house right now so the hens don't badger him and he pretty much just wants to just stand in place and occasionally drink. I can't tell how much of the lethargic behavior I'm seeing is stress from the social upheaval vs malnutrition from the crop issue. I'm also not sure if I should continue keeping him isolated vs. keep him with the ladies - I don't know which is the less stressful thing to do for him in this situation.

Although I don't think it's directly related, I lost a hen earlier this year to a combination of sour crop and what was probably cancer, although her condition was much worse much faster and it was probably a tumor that caused her crop issues. I don't see anything like that in my rooster and his poop looks a lot more normal than hers did. Still, seeing crop issues again in a different bird is freaking me out a bit.

EDIT: I forgot to add my rooster is also molting and has been molting for a while. It's a soft molt that started well before the incident with the hens.

Edit #2: this is his most recent poop if it helps determine anything else that could be wrong.
View attachment 3226057

I just saw your post, and I have been studying crop impaction this year; what causes it, how do treat, etc. I am going to pull out one the books Dr. Remple wrote on the raptors( some will apply to all birds).These are not normal droppings, imo. A falcon friend told me when you see a lot of green in the feces, its because the birds are not getting enough nutrition, and you are viewing bile. He said the brighter the green, the less nutrition it gets.

 

[Dovemaiden]

I have a roughly 1.5yr old barred rock rooster. I think his crop is moving things through since he's pooping, but it seems much slower than it should be since it wasn't emptied all the way last night - which is the only reason I know there's something up with his crop vs other stress issues. He is currently lethargic but drinking a lot and will readily eat anything sugary or protein-rich, like sugar water, berries, and bug treats. He will also chug his regular feed if I offer it by hand. His poop is often watery because he's drinking a lot, but otherwise he definitely has solid, normal-looking material in it. I've seen some normal cecal and regular poops although they're smaller than normal. His comb and wattles look fine. I think the progression of events that led to this was an instance of my hens attacking him (I think they thought he was attacking me at the time; he wasn't), after which he was reluctant to eat out of feeders if they were nearby and then I suspect he binged on a bunch of dandelions that he got access to. I don't see any obvious sign of injury from the hens aside from a few bent feathers and it doesn't seem like sour crop (yet) - crop is firm, breath is ok. I got him to eat some unrefined coconut oil this morning. I've done periodic crop massages. I have him in the house right now so the hens don't badger him and he pretty much just wants to just stand in place and occasionally drink. I can't tell how much of the lethargic behavior I'm seeing is stress from the social upheaval vs malnutrition from the crop issue. I'm also not sure if I should continue keeping him isolated vs. keep him with the ladies - I don't know which is the less stressful thing to do for him in this situation.

Although I don't think it's directly related, I lost a hen earlier this year to a combination of sour crop and what was probably cancer, although her condition was much worse much faster and it was probably a tumor that caused her crop issues. I don't see anything like that in my rooster and his poop looks a lot more normal than hers did. Still, seeing crop issues again in a different bird is freaking me out a bit.

EDIT: I forgot to add my rooster is also molting and has been molting for a while. It's a soft molt that started well before the incident with the hens.

Edit #2: this is his most recent poop if it helps determine anything else that could be wrong.
View attachment 3226057

The simultaneous molting is not helping the situation. It is stressful, and stress causes inflammation.

 

[Dovemaiden]

Oof, yeah I would suspect a toxin if the rest of your flock isn't affected - he very well might have eaten a bad caterpillar or something! Usually the bright colored ones are poisonous. I would consider it lucky that he didn't get worse!

I'm glad his impacted crop has cleared out, seems like your method did the trick! I've just found that very diluted ACV works fast and prevents sour crop, especially when you follow up with probiotics.

It's encouraging that he's got energy to chase a snake! Hopefully he's past the worst of it, and will continue to improve. If it was a toxin, it should clear out of his system pretty soon. Fingers crossed for you & roo!

What does the acronym ACV stand for? Thank you!

 

[Dovemaiden]

He is more interested in sitting with me than with hens so I'm going to keep him in the house for now. He is ravenously hungry, but I can feel a fibrous ball in his crop that isn't going down so I haven't fed him anything since early morning. He's had some more coconut oil just a bit ago. Is there anything I can safely feed him for energy that won't risk making the impaction worse? Mashed up berries maybe?

As this was occurring, there was no emptying every two hours? It was just crop distension?

 

[DonyaQuick]

A falcon friend told me when you see a lot of green in the feces, its because the birds are not getting enough nutrition, and you are viewing bile. He said the brighter the green, the less nutrition it gets.

Unfortunately I do think I've seen the worst end of the green spectrum - the hen I lost earlier in the year to sour crop and cancer had that and it was GREEN green, like 7up bottle green. Very unnatural looking. There was also no solids in it for that bird, basically just green and white gelatinous matter. Fortunately I think my rooster's case is better; his poop is more of a dark blue-green right now and has some solids in it; eating lots of blueberries will turn chicken poop dark blue to a kind of dark green even in healthy birds. He also has bits of brown cecal poop showing up in the mix occasionally.

The simultaneous molting is not helping the situation. It is stressful, and stress causes inflammation.

He has had about the worst couple weeks really...molting, bashed by his ladies, and then the crop mess. It's just lucky he's friendly and likes me, so my interaction with him isn't adding to that I don't think.

What does the acronym ACV stand for? Thank you!

Apple cider vinegar

As this was occurring, there was no emptying every two hours? It was just crop distension?

He went probably at least 12h on Wednesday in the house with no noticeable crop emptying, although it didn't get larger really from berries. The berry goop was somehow getting around the ball of hardened crud I think.

He's keeping his crop fuller than I'd like to see during the day now, but it does empty pretty completely at night. Feels empty but still kind of inflamed in the mornings. Now he also does have the regular emptying but I think as soon as space frees up he gobbles more.

 

[MamaFox78]

What does the acronym ACV stand for? Thank you!

Oh! It stands for apple cider vinegar.

 

[DonyaQuick]

My rooster's improvement with moving around and such seems to have plateaued for the moment. Still quite wobbly like yesterday. Might not be able to take him outdoors today due to ugly weather. Overnight I think he pooped a greater volume of stuff than 3 of my hens combined.

He is slowly going back to wanting to eat normal things. This morning he wanted to go straight for dry feed crumbles - but that was a mistake! I should have stuck to wet foods first thing in the morning. Dry feed seemed to get stuck in his throat and cause him pain on the way down, which then made him not want to eat or drink anything else for a while. He is now losing interest in fruits (except blueberries), but dry feed seems too harsh and he doesn't like sloppy mash, so I tried lightly moistened feed and hid some blueberry bits in it to get his interest. He seems happy to eat that and also is finally drinking unprompted.

 

[MamaFox78]

My rooster's improvement with moving around and such seems to have plateaued for the moment. Still quite wobbly like yesterday. Might not be able to take him outdoors today due to ugly weather. Overnight I think he pooped a greater volume of stuff than 3 of my hens combined.

He is slowly going back to wanting to eat normal things. This morning he wanted to go straight for dry feed crumbles - but that was a mistake! I should have stuck to wet foods first thing in the morning. Dry feed seemed to get stuck in his throat and cause him pain on the way down, which then made him not want to eat or drink anything else for a while. He is now losing interest in fruits (except blueberries), but dry feed seems too harsh and he doesn't like sloppy mash, so I tried lightly moistened feed and hid some blueberry bits in it to get his interest. He seems happy to eat that and also is finally drinking unprompted.

Aww poor guy! Yeah from everything you're describing I definitely suspect a toxin... my best guess is that he ate one of those poisonous caterpillars, it likely made his crop swollen which caused the impaction, and he's trying to shake the lingering effects of the toxin. His crop is probably still inflamed and sore, which is why he's having a hard time eating dry feed. I'm glad he's at least eating some moistened feed with berries, that'll keep his energy up.

Do you have a vet you can call for advice on anything else you could give him to counteract the suspected toxin? Honestly at this point it may be too late for that, and he might just need to work it through his system. But personally I'd call my holistic vet just to check for more ideas... sometimes they have a magic fix that we didn't think of. Perhaps something like meloxicam would help reduce the pain & inflammation while he heals, but the vet could tell you if that's the best remedy or if it might be contraindicated in this case.

 

[MamaFox78]

I just looked up some info, and apparently the hairy caterpillars are to be avoided, especially gypsy moth caterpillars which can kill chickens if ingested... do you remember if the ones you saw were hairy or smooth? It might be good to look up the species you saw for an ID, to determine if that was the culprit.