Balloon like mass in crop,,normal?

[family4]

I had a Lavender Orpington about 4months old (bought from a different backyard breeder, we didn't raise it) in mid Aug. Very healthy up until last Sunday when I noticed him quite lathargic. Not eating and just hanging out by himself closing his eyes. I did some reading on byc and it looked like it could have been a blockage in his crop. I continued to look for what to do with him and it looked like some mineral oil or olive oil along with a massage in the crop area could break up whatever was blocking it. I saw a video with a farmer holding his bird by its feet and massaging the crop to help him get rid of what was in there. I did that and it seemed to work. He seemed much better in the next few days he was back to himself running around and pecking the ground. Went to let the chickens out this morning and he was dead. I checked for any trauma thinking that one of the roosters may have killed him through the night (which would have been odd as they have been housed together for about 6 weeks) Could what I have done with him been the cause of his death? Now my other Orpington is showing the same signs since yesterday. We now have her in the house away from the others so she won't get pecked at. Honey and water is what we are offering and her crop is like a water balloon. What should I do for her?

 

[janinepeters]

The risk of inducing vomiting as you did, is that the bird could aspirate some of that material into its lungs, resulting in aspiration pneumonia, which does kill it. However, if yours was fine and running around for several days after, then I doubt it was caused by the induced vomiting. It's possible, however, that sometime after the procedure, his crop became re-impacted. If that happened, he might have then aspirated food that could not pass down to the crop.

I'm not an expert by any stretch, but I have been reading about crop impaction. I see that inducing vomiting has become a standard practice, but I can't see how it could really help. It doesn't remove the wad of solid material that's stuck in the crop. Only the loose material and fluid that could not pass through the crop comes out. So it might alleviate some symptoms temporarily, but would not resolve the underlying problem. That's why you read so many threads saying the bird was better for awhile, but the problem came back.

Some people surgically remove the impacted material, but I'd rather euthanize a bird rather than subject it to that...but that's just me. I think for your other bird, you can try feeding her olive oil and gently massaging, to help her pass the solid material down the GI tract, not up through the mouth. And for the longer term, try to determine if there is anything they are eating that puts them at higher risk for crop impaction: perhaps hay (long pieces of grass are thought to get stuck in the crop), or treats that are cut into large pieces. Those are just guesses; I don't think anyone knows for sure why some birds develop this problem. Maybe some birds just have poor neurotone in the muscular walls of their crop. People will recommend apple cider vinegar, yogurt, and other remedies, but I don't think there is real evidence for effectiveness of any of those.

 

[family4]

Thanks so much for your input. I will give her the olive oil and massage and hope for the best. I noticed she is pooping and it seems normal so we'll see how things go.