11 Month Old RIR Found Sitting In Run

[staceyj]

This is from the BYC learning center.
Read through. It has excellent directions for dealing with all kinds of crop and digestive issues.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...d-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments.67194/

 

[azygous]

It sounds like things are beginning to move. Ruby is drinking lots of water because that's what an impaction makes a chicken feel like doing.

Keep up your treatments. Whatever works to get oil inside Ruby is fine. As for your question about the crop "drain", you can see on the diagram @staceyj helpfully provided a link to, where the "drain" is and why we massage upward from the lower part of the crop.

 

[Eggcessive]

I have not had good luck whne treating impacted or sour crop in the past since they seemed to be associated with hens who were dying from reproductive disorders or cancer. Recently though, I have had a hen who had balance issues for about a month. She had spent much of that time sitting in a basket, standing some, but losing balance.

Her crop eventually became impacted about the same time she regained balance and was able to go outside again. I treated once with a tsp of mineral oil and a lot of water via a feeding tube, and crop massage. Each day I gave small pieces of coconut oil and cooked egg plus wet chicken feed. For some reason, she won’t drink water. About the third day after muching on grasses in the yard, her crop finally emptied. It may have been due to the oils, the grasses, and the exercise, who knows.

 

[Mimi13]

This is from the BYC learning center.
Read through. It has excellent directions for dealing with all kinds of crop and digestive issues.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...d-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments.67194/

Excellent. I will read this in a bit. Thank you. I have been reading what I can and found a decent diagram showing the crop in “The Chicken Health Handbook,” by Gail Damerow. And it looked like the tube leading to the stomach was actually midway up the crop’s sidewall. Thank you.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here is a good diagram of anatomy:

 

[Eggcessive]

And another:

 

[Mimi13]

It sounds like things are beginning to move. Ruby is drinking lots of water because that's what an impaction makes a chicken feel like doing.

Keep up your treatments. Whatever works to get oil inside Ruby is fine. As for your question about the crop "drain", you can see on the diagram @staceyj helpfully provided a link to, where the "drain" is and why we massage upward from the lower part of the crop.

I tried while ago to get Ruby to eat some more oil soaked biscuit. She wanted no part of it this morning, even though she scarfed it down last night. I wasn’t successful in getting her to “wick” the oil either.

*Note to self: don’t try giving liquid oil to a chicken when you have your glasses on!

Even still, I sat there and massaged her crop about 15 minutes. She really just wanted down. So that’s what I did. She immediately went out to the run, jumped up on a roost and began preening. And luckily for me, if you stick around long enough, a chicken will poop. She did - I heard it and saw it.

I guess she is slowly working it out. I will keep an eye on her as the day progresses.

*Another note to self: buy some solid coconut oil and Dulcolax today.

 

[Mimi13]

I have not had good luck whne treating impacted or sour crop in the past since they seemed to be associated with hens who were dying from reproductive disorders or cancer. Recently though, I have had a hen who had balance issues for about a month. She had spent much of that time sitting in a basket, standing some, but losing balance.

Her crop eventually became impacted about the same time she regained balance and was able to go outside again. I treated once with a tsp of mineral oil and a lot of water via a feeding tube, and crop massage. Each day I gave small pieces of coconut oil and cooked egg plus wet chicken feed. For some reason, she won’t drink water. About the third day after muching on grasses in the yard, her crop finally emptied. It may have been due to the oils, the grasses, and the exercise, who knows.

You know, yesterday early on she appeared to have a bit of balance trouble, but I haven’t seen that at all since I first noticed her. Hopefully she is on the mend. She is one of my really outgoing pullets. She’s less than a month away from becoming a hen. Happy Birthday to her. She has always been as healthy as a horse, really all my birds are. Thanks to good nutritional feed and a plentiful foraging area.

Thank you.

 

[Eggcessive]

Do not buy Dulcolax, but doccusate sodium or Colace. Dulcolax brand does make stool softener, but they also make a strong laxative call bisacodyl. Don’t make the mistake by accidentally getting the laxative. For some reason everyone recommends Dulcolax stool softener instead of Colase, the better know brand name.

 

[Mimi13]

And another:

View attachment 1709078

Good picture. This shows what I was imagining.