Chicken's impacted/sour crop has burst - repair and recovery help needed!

sixchickadees

In the Brooder
8 Years
Jul 4, 2011
46
0
32
Our chicken had crop problems as a young pullet from eating hay. Her crop became incredibly large, miraculously emptied one day, and has been slowly refilling since. She ended up with a crop that was about the size of a large orange. We originally thought it was a tumor. It did not seem to be causing her distress.

Today it burst. We cleaned out the crop, which was completely filled with tightly packed hay, and smelled sour (it seemed like a combination of impacted and sour crop, from what I have read, although we do not have experience with crop issues, as we are new to chickens). Her crop is now cleaned out, and we mostly flushed it out with water and hydrogen peroxide. She did not seem to be distressed by the process.

The problem now is how to proceed: what is the best way to close up her crop? Stitches? If so, how far apart should they be? Are there specific bandages or other methods to close her? This wound is larger than the average one made for crop surgery, as it burst by itself (it is about 3.5 inches). Once she is closed up, what should we do to sterilize it, what food or meds should we give her? She seems stable right now, and can still walk around, but we need to know how to proceed from here! Thank you!
 
I have read super glue is best to close the wound site. Search for how to surgically remove impacted crop and you will see the steps, although you obviously don't need all of them since your hen's crop burst. I think you do not feed them for 18 hours and then start on very small, easy to digest items like scrambled egg, yogurt, apple sauce, baby food. Feed her in very small amounts spaced throughout the day and avoid any grains or sugar since it can cause her crop to ferment.
I was just researching how to deal with a sour crop since I think my pullet may be suffering from that and have been reading up on how to deal with an impacted crop.
I saw you should also keep her separated from the flock and quiet.
Good luck and I hope she pulls through okay.
 
If you use super glue make sure the spot your gluing is super dry otherwise it wont stay close. I wonder if you do use super glue if you could also put some steri strips on it to help?
 
Thank you!
She is separated and inside the house. She is cleaned out, but just needs to be closed up.
Does anyone know just how clean her crop needs to be before closing her?
Good luck to you too! I hope your pullet feels better!
 
Just flush it out with salt water then plain water. I seen in your post that you used peroxide. It not a good thing to use because it kills the good cells too.
 
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Okay, we will not use peroxide for rinsing any more. Yikes.
Are there any other options besides superglue, or is that the best choice? I have read that it is sort of toxic and not the best for closing deep wounds...
 
Yes, that is helpful, thank you!

I found this thing online that is an alternative to superglue called Dermabond. It is supposedly less toxic and serves the same purpose. It seems like an option, or else stitches.
 
Yes my doc used Dermabond on my head when I cut it open. It's pretty spendy stuff. Looks like $23.00 for one .5ml on Amazon.com but you would have to order it. Not sure if walmart or walgreens would carry it. I also see a product called Vetbond same thing but for pets and it has a blue dye in it so you can see what you gluing. I think on the outside of the crop on the skin area you could use steri strips. (Just make sure she dont eat them.) but they should stay on there for a few days then you could always add more if needed but chickens heal quickly.
 

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