Chicken had crop surgery, now has pendulous crop. Any advice on after care?

[goldfishes]

My chicken developed an enlarged crop over the weekend. Long story short after a few days of trying to help her, she had to have an ingluviotomy (crop surgery) on Tuesday. They found what appears to be a cigarette wrapper blocking her and said she should make a recovery quickly.

She's back home, was given meds and we followed the doctor's orders on feeding a wet diet with probiotics. Her crop was emptying some, but in the mornings, it's not completely empty and by the end of the day it swings quite low almost back to the size when it was blocked. We took her in for a checkup this morning and the vet said she likely now has a pendulous crop and they could try another surgery to tuck in the crop, but she passed out just examining her and she thinks she is way too stressed to survive more treatment at this point and there would be no guarantees. She gave her an antibiotic injection and said to let her be a chicken and see if she recovers.

Since the surgery, she is consistently laying eggs and using the bathroom okay. Has anyone else dealt with a pendulous crop after a surgery and their bird pulled through? Is there anything I can do to make her more comfortable?

Before:


After surgery


In the mornings:

 

[rebrascora]

You could try a crop bra. They can be bought or home made. If you do a search on "crop bra" I'm sure you will find threads on how to make them or where to buy one.
The fact that she is continuing to lay eggs is promising. Did the vet leave a drain in after the surgery or fully close her up. Just wondering if there is some leakage from the crop that is trapped under the skin rather than it being pendulous but would imagine the vet would have explored that during her post surgery check up.
I had to do surgery twice on the same bird. The first time was very successful but she had a predisposition to eat fibrous material and eventually developed another impaction. Sadly I was too late the second time and she was too weak to recover from the surgery.

Good luck with your girl.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

What and how much is she being fed during post op recovery? Surgery is a trauma to the crop so recovery can be slow, multiple feedings of small amounts of easily digested foods are key in preventing overwhelming the system

 

[goldfishes]

No tube put in and she said her incisions are healing nicely.

I'll research a crop bra. Perhaps in a few days, I can try that. She said to not handle her for a while since she was passed out and doesn't want to add stress to her.

She was being feed crumble wetted down and yogurt. They had me put her back with the other girls the same day and remove all the dry food. I was giving about 3 cups between all six birds. This was the past three days. Today, she said to go back to crumbles only free feeding. She's very freaked out just removing her from her flocks and she thinks it could do more harm than good at this point.

 

[lukiepookie]

No tube put in and she said her incisions are healing nicely.

I'll research a crop bra. Perhaps in a few days, I can try that. She said to not handle her for a while since she was passed out and doesn't want to add stress to her.

She was being feed crumble wetted down and yogurt. They had me put her back with the other girls the same day and remove all the dry food. I was giving about 3 cups between all six birds. This was the past three days. Today, she said to go back to crumbles only free feeding. She's very freaked out just removing her from her flocks and she thinks it could do more harm than good at this point.

I think i have a similar problem. I have a year old hen who has a very large crop that feels like water and I can feel the feed we give her. We have tried everything for sour crop, but it just doesnt seem to work. I have her in a dog kennel with no food, just water. I've tried to do the bra today, she had it on for a few hours then it got lose and she started squirming so I took it off and going to try again tommorrow. Also her comb is purplish. Any idea what to do?

 

[goldfishes]

I had to take my chicken to the vet as she had plastic inside her crop. They had to cut her open. All the other methods we tried didn't work. She still isn't doing very well.

Good luck with your hen. There are videos on youtube on how to empty a crop, but it's really dangerous. My vet did it first and warned me it is very risky.

 

[goldfishes]

My chicken took a turn for the worst as the crop was not tucked with the original surgery. I found a vet that offered to do a tuck on the stretched out crop with no guarantees (she wasn't going to make it much longer, so I thought why not try?) I'm happy to say it was a complete success and the chicken has made a full recovery for now.