Advice? Can’t get rid of her sour crop. Clay like lump

[colette peters]

Green poops may mean she’s not eating enough.

I would carefully massage that lump and try to break it up, in addition to the treatment. I’m not totally sure about the double treatment. I think I’d do one or the other.

Did you read the crop article I linked?

Yes read the whole link.
She’s not eating anything but scrambled egg. I’ve made mush out of crumbles and she never touches it. I’ve done a yogurt mixture with wheat germ.
Her crop is definitely not hanging low and you can’t really see anything unless you feel her crop and there’s the small hard lump.
I’m always trying to massage her crop and I’m not seeing any sign of progress. It’s just this golfball sized lump.
She’s still in good spirit and I let her hang around the house with me.

 

[colette peters]

@micstrachan Current poop situation.
Any ideas if this is ok?!!! She still has a lump in her crop not doughy or liquidy
Just a hard ball now.
I’m syringing the copper water now to make sure she’s not dehydrated. She’s in super good spirits and doing a faux dust bath on a towel in the sun in the kitchen.

 

[chickengoggles]

Fingers crossed for your hen!

 

[micstrachan]

Hi Colette,

If it is quite hard, sounds like it could be an impaction. You can feed her chunks of frozen coconut oil to help with that. Let’s see if @azygous can help, too. She also has a great article on crop problems, but I’m having trouble finding it from my phone.

~Michelle

 

[micstrachan]

I forgot to mention, I don’t like her poop. Seems she’s not eating enough and are the urates yellow?

 

[colette peters]

I forgot to mention, I don’t like her poop. Seems she’s not eating enough and are the urates yellow?

I’m looking up urates and it looks like all her poops have that yellow stuff in it!
She won’t eat wet crumble she’ll only eat scrambled eggs. What else solid can I feed her?

 

[colette peters]

Hi Colette,

If it is quite hard, sounds like it could be an impaction. You can feed her chunks of frozen coconut oil to help with that. Let’s see if @azygous can help, too. She also has a great article on crop problems, but I’m having trouble finding it from my phone.

~Michelle

@micstrachan I just bought the coconut oil
Is this what I should freeze?

 

[micstrachan]

Yep! Freezing just makes it easier to cut into bits and feed her.

 

[colette peters]

Yep! Freezing just makes it easier to cut into bits and feed her.

Great. Thank you.
With your pic on how to syring feed, Ive gotten really good at it. Could I liquify the oil and syring it? She’s so picky
And I found that post from @azygous
I’m starting to read it.
Also I did change their feed, and reading that could cause crop problem?! Ugh I didnt realize this could be so complicated! I’ve got 13 hens and she’s the only one with problems, next to my 2 silkies who are always brooding

 

[azygous]

It does sound like impacted crop. I urge you to keep trying to treat it because an impaction can start to ferment, and then you'll be dealing with sour crop as well.

As @micstrachan points out, coconut oil is a lot easier to get into a chicken beak when it's in solid form. Try to get at least a teaspoon down her. When you massage, use two fingers and work the hard lump as you would a tight muscle cramping.

You can give more coconut oil after the first dose doesn't seem to break up the lump. If the second dose of oil fails to do the job, get a stool softener capsule and pop it into her beak along with more oil. This time let her rest for about thirty minutes to an hour. Then massage. This time you should be able to feel the lump begin to dissolve. Keep massaging until you no longer feel the lump.