Correlation between molting and extremely slow crop?

[JulieHei]

Hi! This is the THIRD time THIS YEAR I am experiencing slow crop in molting chickens. The poop consists of 95% clear water and 5% green/turquoise strings of food/slime. I am concerned that they will loose a lot of weight and become sick. It is like the crop is barely functioning. When they eat, the food uses two days to get out of the crop. When I dealth with this earlier this year I gave the chicken a lot of crop massages and foods like water melon and papaya. And in addition lots of probiotics. The crop slowly started functioning again, I dont think it was impacted or sour, only slow. I am dealing with this again now, with two molting chickens. I don’t understand, is there a reason why this happens to the molting chickens? Do I have to do all this extra stuff for them like keeping them isolated, give extra probiotics/enzymes and so on? Or will the crop start working again on it’s own after the molt? Would be interesting to read other experiences regarding this issue!

 

[Shadrach]

Good observation but possibly wrong conclusion and remedy.
A significant number of chickens go off their regular feed when moulting. For most, it's not that they don't eat given the opportunity to forage for what they believe they need, they just don't eat as much and tend to drink more. This would seem to suggest that something is lacking in commercial feed for a moulting chicken.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...off-their-usual-feed-when-they-moult.1498056/

With ranging and free ranging chickens this is rarely a health problem. They return to normal feeding behaviour once the worst of the moult is over.

Offering alternative foodstuffs is a partial solution for contained chickens.
More important is one shouldn't handle moulting chickens. They fend contact extremely uncomfortable due to pin feather sticking out at odd angles and there is a risk of breaking an early pin feather which will bleed if left unattended.

 

[Winchikn]

I am also noticing this right now with my flock. Seven out of 9 are molting and as of this morning I have 2 molters with slow/doughy/partially impacted crops. There are several threads on this topic so it seems to be a correlation others have observed.

I'm curious about the food connection - my flock is on 18% layer pellet - maybe there are supplements that might help ease digestion during molting.

I am hoping that things will resolve as they move through their molt. The interventions definitely seem to cause a lot of stress when even my cuddliest hen does not want to be held!

 

[JulieHei]

I am also noticing this right now with my flock. Seven out of 9 are molting and as of this morning I have 2 molters with slow/doughy/partially impacted crops. There are several threads on this topic so it seems to be a correlation others have observed.

I'm curious about the food connection - my flock is on 18% layer pellet - maybe there are supplements that might help ease digestion during molting.

I am hoping that things will resolve as they move through their molt. The interventions definitely seem to cause a lot of stress when even my cuddliest hen does not want to be held!

Interesting! I guess there are some kind of correlation - not for every chicken but maybe some of them are more prone to getting it than others?

 

[moglet]

Hi! This is the THIRD time THIS YEAR I am experiencing slow crop in molting chickens. The poop consists of 95% clear water and 5% green/turquoise strings of food/slime. I am concerned that they will loose a lot of weight and become sick. It is like the crop is barely functioning. When they eat, the food uses two days to get out of the crop. When I dealth with this earlier this year I gave the chicken a lot of crop massages and foods like water melon and papaya. And in addition lots of probiotics. The crop slowly started functioning again, I dont think it was impacted or sour, only slow. I am dealing with this again now, with two molting chickens. I don’t understand, is there a reason why this happens to the molting chickens? Do I have to do all this extra stuff for them like keeping them isolated, give extra probiotics/enzymes and so on? Or will the crop start working again on it’s own after the molt? Would be interesting to read other experiences regarding this issue!

Hi Yes I have Exactly!! the same with my Brahma, and previously my old aracauna and prior to that a salmon faverolle who sadly died. This has happend at moulting time 3 years on the bounce! Yesterday she had a crop operation (2nd time!) at a cost of £320 the vet showed me the contents of her crop and it was mostly undigested wheat and seeds, hardly any grass which I thought would be the problem, she will not eat layers pellets and flicks through the bowl trying to find seeds or sunflower hearts, of which I only put a few in, her poo is the same as your chickens watery splatty and bits of slimy green/turquoise pieces. I really don't know what to do going forward, other than keep her indoors and just give her pellets and porridge oats, a few grapes and hope she can digest these, she will of course pick the best bits out and leave the pellets but I can only hope if she gets hungry enough she will eat the pellets. I put avipro probiotics in her water and poultry spice in her food, last year after the crop operation I gave her the same and after about a week her poos firmed up and she was back to normal. Any advice from anyone who's had this would be appreciated. Thanks Carole

 

[guest226]

Hi! This is the THIRD time THIS YEAR I am experiencing slow crop in molting chickens. The poop consists of 95% clear water and 5% green/turquoise strings of food/slime. I am concerned that they will loose a lot of weight and become sick. It is like the crop is barely functioning. When they eat, the food uses two days to get out of the crop. When I dealth with this earlier this year I gave the chicken a lot of crop massages and foods like water melon and papaya. And in addition lots of probiotics. The crop slowly started functioning again, I dont think it was impacted or sour, only slow. I am dealing with this again now, with two molting chickens. I don’t understand, is there a reason why this happens to the molting chickens? Do I have to do all this extra stuff for them like keeping them isolated, give extra probiotics/enzymes and so on? Or will the crop start working again on it’s own after the molt? Would be interesting to read other experiences regarding this issue!

Hi Yes I have Exactly!! the same with my Brahma, and previously my old aracauna and prior to that a salmon faverolle who sadly died. This has happend at moulting time 3 years on the bounce! Yesterday she had a crop operation (2nd time!) at a cost of £320 the vet showed me the contents of her crop and it was mostly undigested wheat and seeds, hardly any grass which I thought would be the problem, she will not eat layers pellets and flicks through the bowl trying to find seeds or sunflower hearts, of which I only put a few in, her poo is the same as your chickens watery splatty and bits of slimy green/turquoise pieces. I really don't know what to do going forward, other than keep her indoors and just give her pellets and porridge oats, a few grapes and hope she can digest these, she will of course pick the best bits out and leave the pellets but I can only hope if she gets hungry enough she will eat the pellets. I put avipro probiotics in her water and poultry spice in her food, last year after the crop operation I gave her the same and after about a week her poos firmed up and she was back to normal. Any advice from anyone who's had this would be appreciated. Thanks Carole

hello! I have a hen with this same issue. It started 3 weeks ago and since then her crop has not been going down. Her poop is also splatty and watery and green. How long did your issues last and how did you fix it?

 

[moglet]

hello! I have a hen with this same issue. It started 3 weeks ago and since then her crop has not been going down. Her poop is also splatty and watery and green. How long did your issues last and how did you fix it?

Hi, last year it only took about a week or so for her poo to firm up. This time its taking longer for her to do normal poos, but I've kept her inside to monitor what she eats and drinks, I'm giving her layers pellets, with garvo mix (mixed seeds) and avipro in her water, I let her out yesterday in the garden as she was getting frustrated at being in, so I gave in & let her out, I watched her and she went straight for the grass, her favourite! I left the stable door open for her to go back in if she wanted a drink but she didn't go in, so this morning her poos were a lot less watery, not entirely firm but better than they have been for a week, I also started giving her Meloxidyl 1.5 strength (for dogs) again last Saturday, she was prescribed this by the vet after her surgery, its a pain killer and anti-inflammatory, so I don't know yet whether her poo was better this morning because of the meloxidyl or because she had drunk less water, but I'm constantly monitoring her numerous times during the day, so I'll update on here with her progress, I'm still giving her avipro probiotics in her water, I gave her 2ml of meloxidyl on granary bread which she ate every bit, trying to syringe it down her is a nightmare! it goes everywhere! its also less stressful for the bird if you can soak it into bread, this is the only time I give mine bread as that can cause crop issues if they have too much, as I've said this is the 3rd chicken thats had this problem during moult and the 8th! time I've had the crop operations done, hope this helps and hope your chicken gets over it soon. Carole