Crop bra not working. Anything else to do for extremely pendulous crop?

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Chickens endure treatments and improve better when left with their flock. However, it's your call. If you would feel better keeping her crated to observe her and to make it easier to do these treatments, then by all means do it. She may have regular food and water between flushes. Let her drink and eat what she feels like.

I kept her crated today, but it was inside the coop so she was still with the flock. I gave her water and wet feed, and put her back up on the roost with the flock tonight. If she don’t need to be limited to just easy to digest foods, I’ll leave her out.

 

[azygous]

Regular chicken crumbles or pellets are fine for her to eat, but withhold any fibrous veggies or grass.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

Regular chicken crumbles or pellets are fine for her to eat, but withhold any fibrous veggies or grass.

Her crop was still really full this morning. She did have some stool overnight. She kept the 2 bras on overnight, but again they seem to provide very minimal support. She took them both off as soon as she got off the roost.

She is ranging in the yard with the flock at the moment. They do have access to just regular grass (not like grass clippings but just the grass & whatever greenery is growing in the yard.

Since her crop is so full, would it be okay to do 1tsp Epsom salt to 1/4 cup of water? I feel bad adding so much weight.

Today I held her crop up for a bit, and she seemed to be extremely comfortable, so I just sat with her and held it up for a while. I did the same thing after giving her the Epsom salt flush this morning. I think she was relieved to get the weight off.

I ordered another style of crop bra. It should arrive in 2-4 days. And I’m making more adjustments to mine to see if I can have better success and give her the support she needs.

 

[azygous]

Yes, reducing the liquid amount in the solution will be okay. Short tender grass is probably okay, but it can severely aggravate your hen's condition if she eats too much or there are tough longer stems being swallowed. That kind of material simply will not pass through a crop, normal or compromised as your hen's is.

I found that velcro straps crossing in a "X" over the back can be much more difficult for a chicken to unfasten. Cinching the bra up very tightly isn't necessary for it to do some good. Find a happy medium between comfort and support. It shouldn't be a miserable ordeal for your hen.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

I found that velcro straps crossing in a "X" over the back can be much more difficult for a chicken to unfasten. Cinching the bra up very tightly isn't necessary for it to do some good. Find a happy medium between comfort and support. It shouldn't be a miserable ordeal for your hen.

I made some updates to my current bra (the style that attaches on an X on her back). I added an additional piece in the front that also ties around her neck. So now it’s like a hybrid variation of the X over the back and the around the neck style. Unfortunately it still doesn’t seem to be helping. She wore it all night and still had a full crop.

Molé is really not doing well. We have not seen any change since beginning the salt flushes. Bras still don’t seem to be helping. She continues to have stools, but not a lot. She has lost a lot of weight. Today she seems genuinely unhappy. She didn’t come off the roost. When I brought her out she just hung around- no real interest in eating or doing things.

Today her crop has 2 bulges. It feels almost as if her crop is being constricted by something running vertically down the front of her body. She feels a little like she 2 crops now.

She was also walking funny this morning- slowly and stepping very high. I thought she was trying to avoid kicking or tripping over her crop, but now I’m not so sure. I’m wondering if the weight of the crop is straining other parts of her body.

I’m starting to think I may need to cull her. I don’t want to keep trying things and prolong this if she isn’t going to recover. And I’m out of ideas of what else to try. I’ve considered crop surgery, but I’m worried that it may not address the root of the problem and it could be a recurring issue. I’m also worried about how she’ll recover since she’s lost so much weight. Would you recommend trying crop surgery? Or can you think of anything else I can try with her?

However this ends up, I really appreciate your help and am glad that I now know how to tube feed for issues that may arise in the future.

 

[azygous]

All the omens are bad. It does not offer much encouragement for the hoped recovery. When we reach this stage in treating for a crop disorder, having tried everything without any sign of improvement, we have to assume there's an underlying cause for the crop issue that itself is progressively worsening. That could be reproductive tumors, a very common thing in layers.

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

All the omens are bad. It does not offer much encouragement for the hoped recovery. When we reach this stage in treating for a crop disorder, having tried everything without any sign of improvement, we have to assume there's an underlying cause for the crop issue that itself is progressively worsening. That could be reproductive tumors, a very common thing in layers.

Do you know if it’s possible for a crop to tear internally?

 

[Farmgirl283420]

I hope she gets better!

 

[Washoe Valley Collies NV]

My chocolate Orp, Molé, had an impacted crop that I believe then soured and became pendulous. We did coconut oil & Colase for the impaction, then Miconozole for the sour. I can’t get her crop to empty, and it’s been at least 3 weeks now.

I’ve tried 3 different crop bras, and none seem to provide the amount of lift she requires. She is good at taking them off, too. I have one bra that is really tight, but it wraps around her neck and the weight of the crop pulls her head/neck down.

Her crop is HUGE- full of liquid and gravel. She’s a solid C cup right now.

She kicks it when she walks. She’s lost feathers underneath from kicking it, laying on it, or being mated, I don’t know.

She eats and poops. The crop gets larger/smaller throughout the day & night so it is functioning to some degree. And by that I mean it goes from extremely engorged to still pretty full- it never empties. When it’s at its fullest she does the crop adjustment neck gyration maneuver regularly.

Is there anything else I can try for her besides keep buying / making more bras? I have a bra I purchased on Etsy (goes around the neck), a bra I made using the design recommended here at BYC (fastens/ties on her back, straps in front of and behind her wings) and the 3rd one is a face mask.

I initially wrote about her crop issues here

I covered this topic in my first message. I use human DIGESTIVE ENZYME to the bird and massage. See Washoe Valley Collies

 

[Fluster Cluck Acres]

All the omens are bad. It does not offer much encouragement for the hoped recovery. When we reach this stage in treating for a crop disorder, having tried everything without any sign of improvement, we have to assume there's an underlying cause for the crop issue that itself is progressively worsening.

I am in need of more crop advice, and hoping you can help.

First all, an update to the previous crop concerns: last weekend we culled two hens with crop issues, including Molé the extremely pendulous chocolate Orp. (The 2nd hen had other issues so we put her down as opposed to putting her through the stress of treatment). We discovered a lot of grass in both girls’ crops and gizzards. If you’re interested in pics, the post is here.

The latest issue is my 10 month old Buckeye hen, Nugget. For the past month her crop is sometimes empty in the morning and sometimes it's not. When it's not empty it's usually either a soft squishy ping pong ball size (makes squirty/squishy noises when pressed on) and other times it's mostly empty with a small (marble or BB size) hardness in it. In early March I gave her a 7-day treatment of Miconozole. Her crop was good for a few weeks after that, but has started acting up again. One morning earlier this week her crop was large and firm (clay-like, moldable texture). I thought she was impacted. Gave her coconut oil & massages and since the previous hen's crops had been full of grass, I kept her off grass. The impaction went away, but she's back to the sometimes squishy, sometimes feels like a tiny hard thing status.

I'm wondering if I should treat her with Miconozole again, since that seemed effective temporarily. Or since it didn't last maybe I should try something different like the epsom salt flush.

Some extra information since I like to provide way too much information... Nugget is having healthy stools. She is acting normally and her comb is red. She did stop laying about 2 weeks ago but still sits in the nest box daily. Her abdomen feels normal and she doesn't appear to be egg bound. Before March, Nugget has always been a healthy, thriving hen. I've started monitoring her crop in the evening and I'm monitoring her eating more closely.

After the initial sour crop treatment in early March, a respiratory thing went through my flock (maybe IB?). Nugget was one of the first hens to be symptomatic. She recovered quickly, but since a few other birds presented with more severe symptoms, I went ahead and treated the flock with Tylosin. I started the Tylosin the day after her final Miconozole treatment.

Nugget loves food and is always excited to eat wet mash feed, but I'm worried she may be eating less dry feed and more grass. Her free-range time is being restricted to limit her exposure to grass (and she is fed wet mash to hopefully fill her up before being given access to the grass). I did notice her crop wasn't very full one afternoon while the flock was confined to the run. She's not being bullied away from the food, although there were a few stressful days this week due to a maturing cockerel, but he moved to his own pen last night so that's no longer an issue.