Crop big and hard

[6chickens in St. Charles]

What is the recommendation for impacted crop?

Our silkie hen looked broody, so we lured her off her nest spot with some cheese treats. But there's no egg there! Upon picking her up, we noticed her crop is big and hard.

She normally loves to chase squirrels and chipmunks. Its possible she swallowed a young chipmunk yesterday. But if its just a wad of grass and earthworms and lawn beetles, is there a remedy we could try? She grabbed the cheese. Then she went back to look broody on her nest spot.

Could her egg have gone the wrong direction? Could it be up front instead of going out her backend?

Any and all advice is GREATLY appreciated!

 

[mypicklebird]

6chickens in St. Charles :

What is the recommendation for impacted crop?

*first of all, you need to decide if she is impacted or not. If it is large and hard, all this tells you is that it is full of something- not how long it has been there. Pull her off the nest tonight, put her in a cat carrier or something like this with water, but NO food. Check her in the morning- if her crop is small or empty- she is not impacted. If it is the same as it was the night before- she is impacted. If she is impacted with food and is dehydrated from being too broody- she needs soft wet food, water & crop massage. If she has a grass matt- she needs surgery for the best chance and fastest recovery. Sometimes people have luck with syringing oil, cider, ect- but a grass matt is best physically removed. A vet can do it, or look up how people have done it on their own. *


She normally loves to chase squirrels and chipmunks. Its possible she swallowed a young chipmunk yesterday. But if its just a wad of grass and earthworms and lawn beetles, is there a remedy we could try? She grabbed the cheese. Then she went back to look broody on her nest spot.
* A chicken might eat a baby chipmunk/rat/mouse/gopher if it came across one, but they can't swallow these things whole like a snake. They fight over it until it is shredded...

Could her egg have gone the wrong direction? Could it be up front instead of going out her backend?
*No way. The GI tract and reproductive tract are completely different except at the very end when they both empty into the cloacal pouch which exits at the vent. The only way an egg could get in her crop would be if she swallowed it. This is why egg binding is not helped by giving oral mineral oil...*

Any and all advice is GREATLY appreciated!​

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Thanks! We can bring her in tonite.

 

[Chicken Lady50]

Hi! My Mille Fluer Rooster has a hard crop, but it looks and feels like his bone is sticking out. I guess with a hard crop would push everything out of proportion. So I used the 2 tbsp. oil. So far he hasn't poop yet. This all started when he sprain his leg. Vet did a
x-ray to confirmed leg not broken. I had to put him in a small cage so he wouldn't move around to much so the leg will heal. I guess if the chicken is not moving around to much, maybe this is why he got a hard crop. My Mille Fluer Rooster name is LittleBoy with a great personality. He won first place at the fair. Sorry for all the chickens that are going through this terrible time. I hope all will get better soon. * K *

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Chloe the Silkie has been fine ever since then! She has done that a few times, and yes indeed one day a toad's leg was sticking out the corner of her beak. Chloe is a stalker. She can be seen quietly rounding the corner of our backyard, head low, quietly following a squirrel. she has also been witnessed swallowing giant earthworms longer than herself. After huge meals like that she will generally hole up in a nest box, quietly digesting. She is a gorgeous, healthy silkie hen. Velociraptors, says DH.

Yes, velociraptors.

Now, Chloe's neice is having crop trouble, but it's fluid filled and this new bird is not getting much nutrition, she's getting skinny. We have had her in the bird vet's office, to try to get it treated. She's pooping, and eating and drinking, with a big watery balloon shaped crop in her front. She had a hatch mate with its bowel on the outside of its belly who did not survive past a day after hatch, and this hen is very squatty, maybe dwarfish. She's possibly not completely normal inside.

So for this one, we have to decide the best right way to handle it, while she's still happy and content with her squishy crop hanging in front. She does eat and poop, she does get around with the other chickens, she does get up to the roosts at night. She has no sign of parasites (per stool and gastric contents sample) had infection and positive yeast growth in the fluid the vet got out with a gastric tube. The vet had done lavage (rinsing and suctioning with saline) last week, we did twice daily oral Baytril for a week and the big squishy crop is still there. Could be, that's the way she is.

Not only do I feel it would be inappropriate to spent $300 on surgery to look inside this chicken, I feel she is getting along with the way she is, and I don't want to cause her further harm by cutting into her. If I hadn't had several gastric surgery patients in my life as a nurse who were RUINED by the surgery, and suffered horribly afterward, I might feel differently. But the last thing I want to do is cause suffering so for now we'll wait n see with daily nystatin medicine.

How's your roo doing?

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

this photo taken one year and one month after I had posted about her big, hard crop. Chloe is the blue hen.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

this is Little Kitty on my shoulder, a few months ago. She hatched June 30 2011 so she's 7 onths old today, in this pic she's about 4 months old and I can see here her crop is a bit boggy. Maybe she's always had a little problem. She also has "lower tone", she's very sweet and soft and delicate.