Regarding the crop surgery, it was a case of do or die. I had been doing all the non intrusive stuff like oil and massage and vomiting for nearly a week and she was so emaciated I knew she wouldn't last much longer, especially when she lost interest in food. I can't afford vets for my chickens, so it was a question of euthanize or give it a go. I won't deny it, making that first incision was really scary and it bled a little more than I expected even though I did my best to avoid the blood vessels you could clearly see through her skin. I had my OH hold her on her side whilst I did it and I think this may have been a mistake as she struggled when I made the first incision and refluxed quite badly as a result and aspirated some of the vomit because of the recumbent position. She was very good through the rest of the surgery....too quiet at times and I thought perhaps she had died, but once it was complete, she was straight up onto her feet and was eating a little within an hour.
Quote:I used regular super glue to close the crop up and it seems to have worked brilliantly. It was a bit fiddly getting hold of the edges to be stuck separate of the skin and blotting them dry(ish) before applying the glue and preventing my gloved fingers from also being adhered, but definitely a lot easier than trying to stitch it. I left the skin open so that if there was any leakage from the crop it could drain and just packed the wound with Germolene which is an antiseptic cream. I tried putting a dressing on it and using a leg cut off some tights(pantyhose to you) to keep it in place but she managed to wriggle out of it every time and her breathing was raspy with aspirating and I didn't want to agitate her any more than was necessary so gave up trying to cover it. The first night I convinced myself that she would die from respiratory infection from aspirating as she was very snotty sounding and ruttly. I did the surgery Sunday afternoon and up until yesterday there was no real improvement with her breathing but the wound was healing and she was eating a scrambled egg and slice of soggy bread each day. Yesterday, there was a notable improvement in her breathing and I even put her back in the pen with her palls for a short supervised visit. The wound is dry and scabbed. I haven't done any wound management on it since the surgery as her breathing was so bad I didn't want to put any stress on her. She has been alert and keen to escape and explore my house and poop on my carpetwhenever possible, so I really feel the surgery itself did not knock her back at all. The only thing I would have changed about it is perhaps having her held in an upright position whilst I did the surgery rather than recumbent, to avoid that reflux problem.
Here is a photo of what I removed from her crop.....clearly it was not going to come up via vomiting or go down into her gizzard, and if it had, it would almost certainly have impacted there, so I really felt vindicated in doing the surgery....I did not undertake it lightly. Interestingly it did not smell bad at all which is surprising considering that it is wet vegetation. I do feed a little fermented feed daily so perhaps this helped to keep things healthy. She was less than half the weight she was before surgery, once I removed it.
And a couple of photos of her and her wound from yesterday...3 days post surgery.
I did a search on You Tube and watched quite a few videos before I started and that helped a lot.
The only thing that is concerning me at the moment is that her poop is very liquid ie watery with some soft solids. What perplexes me is that she is hardly drinking anything and whilst I am feeding sloppy feeds they are really not sloppy enough to account for all the fluid that is coming out. I did irrigate her crop with saline during the surgery so maybe some of that went down into her system though. She has refused to drink at all whilst recuperating in the house but she did go straight to the drinker in the pen yesterday and drink which was a huge relief. Will be happier if/when(hopefully) I start to see some normal poops but she is alert and active, so I'm counting my blessings for now.
I would definitely encourage anyone who has a chicken with crop issues that has tried everything else and feels that there is no hope, to give it a go. The great thing about the crop is that it is not near any vital organs, so not a lot to go wrong.
Regards
Barbara
Nice job Barbara, please keep us posted on her progress.