Lathargic Hen UPDATE: Good update on Page 2!

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Morgan7782

Morgan7782

Dense Egg Goo
9 Years
Mar 22, 2010
2,013
126
201
Sacramento CA
I have a crop impaction I believe..

1) What type of bird , age and weight.
Easter Egger pullet, 17 weeks, weight unknown

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Lathargic, hard crop, liquid poop

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
Since this morning, she was fine yesterday

4) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No

5) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
I have no idea what causes impacted crop. She is outside, and has plenty of food and water

6) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Grower/finisher, drinking water. I have seen her NIBBLE at the food but not eat or drink like normal

7) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
Runny, no solid

8) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
Olive Oil bread, had to pry her beak open to get it in. Can you OD on this? Is there a certain amount of oil I should give?

9 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
Treat myself as best I can

10) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
No picture

11) Describe the housing/bedding in use
2x4 coop with one other pullet. Bedding is pine shavings.


Munk is lathargic, crop area is hard, she isn't really eating and definately is not herself.. If anybody has any tips on how much oil to give, or what else I can do, please post. I am not sure I can do a crop surgery mostly because I do not have a sharp knife readily available.. Any other tips please let me know. How long does this take to pass/OR kill the bird??
 
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Before I attempted ANY surgery, I would isolate her for the night to better observe her, and I would put her food away over night so that you can see her crop first thing in the morning to see whether it's gone down. If she was behaving fine yesterday, one day isn't going to make or break her. You can also lightly massage her crop area (most birds like this) to help break things down, move things around. Let me look for a moment. Someone on here did a good job of describing crop surgery...let me try to find it.

Here it is... https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=352152
 
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Thank you for the information. She just started acting funny when I let them out this morning. She has access to a grape vine, along with corn. She loves the long leaves on the corn but I always took it away when I saw her trying to eat one. I wonder if that could have caused it.. I have been massaging it all morning and will continue to. She has no interest in food right now either, and when I put them away for the night I won't put the food in the coop to see if she feels better tomorrow. I really feel bad for her and want her to be comfortable no matter what happens. I really don't want to lose her, she is my baby just about, and she is so sweet.

Does anybody know how long a crop impaction takes to kill a bird? Is there a certain amount of oil I should give her? Or is it just a waiting game now? I keep going out and holding her, and she is way more docile then normal which isn't a good thing. Haven't seen any discharge from nostrils or mouth. I also have not seen her try to adjust her crop (yawning). Can a bird make it through crop impaction or is it a death sentence..?
 
I would agree that waiting and extra day and monitoring the situation is best. I have done one of those crop impaction surgeries, in the end it really wasn't that big of deal but it did take planning, making sure that you have everything you would need, and some help. If it looks like that is the only option I would continue to review what others have done on this site, that is how I learned. The bird is usually pretty docile during the whole thing and let me do what I needed to. I would acquire a good sharp knife and good set of long tweezers and some sort of clamps to help you close things up, in addition to the rest of what they suggest.

Hope that it doesn't come to that but if it does, I wouldn't be afraid of it.
 
Sounds llike you are doing the right things already. I would isolate her, give a solution of water with vitamins/electrolites ( iron-free kids liquid vitamins are ok in small doses) or the powdered kind they sell in feed stores.

My chick had the same problem, heres what I did- Gave her 3 CC's (out of a syringe w/no needle) of Garlic infused Olive Oil, and massaged her crop for about 15 minutes. I think the oil and garlic helps. She was fine after a few days. I only gave her the oil once, but massaged her 3 days in a row. If she is having crop issues, you may not want to add more food in the form of bread. Be careful when giving the oil that it goes into her throat/crop, not her windpipe.

Give her a few days to get better and digest what ever is in her crop. Has she had access to grit or small rocks? If not, she needs it to help grind up her food, or she could keep having crop issues.

I hope she is feeling better today.
 
Thank you for the tips, I will look into the garlic thing. She is not drinking water willingly, at least that I have seen. I tried to get her to drink but she won't on her own. In an hour or so I will go out and see if she will drink again. I only gave her a little bread because I figured MORE solids wouldn't help. She is preening occasionally, but is pretty sedate and in her favorite chair with a silk pillow.

My whole yard is small pebbles and rocks, I am sure she has access to natural grit. I stopped giving them grit around 8 weeks old when they were outside full time. She shares a small coop with her best buddy named Joon. They were raised together and Joon won't leave her side. Tonight I will not put food in the coop like normal, and she doesn't have food at this time. She pooped recently and it was liquid but there WAS a little bit of more solid poop mixed in.

I am not even positive I am feeling her crop, but the area seems right and it is a hard lump. Not completely hard, but pretty firm. Thank you for the tips, I will definately look into the garlic/oil combo.

I am trying to go through my day as normal, but it's hard.. I know I need to give her a day and see what is happening tomorrow, but it's real difficult to sit back and let things flow as they will. I keep holding her in my lap and will continue to massage the area.

Am I pretty right on to assume it's an impacted crop? The only symptoms are: Lathargic, hard lump near the front of her breastbone, not eating/drinking. There is no discharge from nose, eyes, mouth. Vent appears fine, no smell. She doesn't feel like she has a temp, or like she has lost weight or anything. The biggest worry I have is how sedate she is, because that is so abnormal for her. She is my flightiest chicken, and usually wouldn't put up with being held and touched so often.
 
I tried seperating Munk from the flock.. To keep her seperate so I could keep an eye on her water intake (which I have seen none), and poop, which I have seen and they are more solid now. How long does it take food to be passed from the crop to out of the chicken in poop?

Anyway, so I go out to get Munk and put her in the house in a clean brooder tub. Well, Joon, my BR who is Munk's hatchmate just about, is NOT having me touch Munk. She goes to bite, not peck, BITE me, all the time doing this weird low growl (yes chickens growl). I just assumed it was because Joon is the alpha hen. So after 15 minutes of trying to get past Joon to get Munk, I finally have her in the tub.

I bring her into the living room, and before I even set the tub down I hear Joon SCREAMING her head off. Loud enough so my back neighbor came outside wondering what was happening. She is running up and down the back path, screaming and flapping her wings. Munk started freaking out then. So I gave up, brought her back outside and put the tub down. Well Joon promptly hops into the brooder tub and settles down, very much talking s*** about me with growls and giving me definate stink eye. If looks could kill...

So I gave up. Munk is back on her silk pillow that she loves so much, and Joon is taking her wracked nerves out on the rest of the flock. I figure I have done the oil, done all I can, and she is comfortable where she is so I am gunna leave her be. Tonight I will get some vitamins from another BYC member and try that, just to give her some energy at least.

Anybody have any tips for forcing water into a chicken without drowning them??
 
For the water you can drip it on her beak and it will run in, be careful not to shoot it in her beak or it can go down the wrong way. Just a little at a time. Check it first thing in the morning to see of it is still the same size. If everything is working like it should then it should be empty. I will check back in the morning, I hope all is well.
 
You'll have a much better idea in the morning as to whether or not it is an impacted crop.

An idea....This is my first flock of chickens and I don't know much but we have an EE Lulu that seemed somewhat "off" right before she started laying. Stayed in the coop all the time, didn't really see her eat or drink, although she would eat if I put crumbles up on the roost with her. She also seemed to have very watery stools. She started laying at about 17 weeks. They are only 18 weeks now.

She still stays closer to the coop that the others with her buddy Nan and doesn't free range as much. When she was getting ready to lay her first egg she was very agitated and seemed nervous. I don't know about these chickens! Hopefully Monk just has a lot on her mind and ate too much. We all know how that goes! Good luck to you both!
 
Well...did you put their food up for the night??? Was there ample poop below her roosting spot??? Was her crop noticeably smaller???
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