Crop filled with sand

[havingagreatflockingtime]

I posted a few days ago about my 8 month old Black Australorp chicken named Sprout. I noticed a few days ago that she had an impacted crop. Huge, size of a baseball. I moved her inside, gave her oil, and have been making sure she is drinking water (electrolytes and a little bit of ACV) and also have been massaging her crop several times a day. She is uninterested in yogurt, coconut oil, or scramble eggs. It's now been three days and the crop hasn't gone down with little to no food consumption.

I did notice that her poop went from pungent and very liquidy to solid when we finally gave her some Grubterra mixed with coconut oil as these mealworms are her favorite. Her poop was filled with coarse sand/grit. After feeling around her crop again, I think it might be filled with sand. It's not soft, and its not hard or filled with water. It literally feels like a bag of sand. I can feel each individual piece of grit. We use coarse sand for the chicken run to provide them grit. We've never had any problems with any of our other chickens over the last three years. However, given she is new to the flock (along with two others), she is pretty passive. For some reason, she may have stopped eating the pellets and began eating sand over the last week for whatever reason.

My question is - has anyone ever experienced this? Will they pass grit through their digestive system without food? Should I begin giving her pellets so she can move the sand along her system or does it not work like this?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would continue giving the coconut oil, light massage and offer her wet mushy feed. Make sure she's drinking well. Hopefully she'll be able to empty the sand in her crop.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[Lillith37]

I reckon you should offer a medium size shell grit in a special dish for your flock. Don’t rely on them eating from the substrate to get what they need. Otherwise yeah you end up with potential issues like this. Coarse sand may not be the right size for her digestion and so she may be feeling like she needs to eat more to grind up her food properly.

I’ve read about a chicken who died and they necropsied her and found her digestive system packed with sand.

My little bantam went through a phase of eating sand and thankfully grew out of it.

If your hen is passing the sand I would feed her as normal and hopefully it can all clear. Then keep a close eye on her when you put her back out to make sure she doesn’t just chow back down on the stuff.

 

[havingagreatflockingtime]

I am updating this thread for educational purposes for those who may experience something similar like this in the future.

After several days of all home remedies (e.g., withheld food for 24hrs, apple cider vinegar, soft foods after the first 24 hours, gave her lots of water including syringing it into her mouth, coconut oil, etc.) her crop remained the size of a softball and never went down. I was convinced what I was feeling was sand. We decided to give her pellet food again, which is typically not advised for something like this, to see if that would help move the sand out. As soon as she started eating, she began pooping out lots of sand, however she wasn't eating enough to move the amount of sand that was accumulated in her crop. Unfortunately, the crop still remained the same size.

Given that her crop was stretching, we didn't want to run the risk of her developing pendulous crop. So we brought her to a vet, and decided for surgical removal. She got the surgery the day we brought her in, and that night, she immediately began eating and drinking regularly.

By day three she wanted to be back outside with the flock. Since then, she made a complete recovery.

She is an anxious chicken and for whatever reason, she stopped eating pellet food in the coop and began eating the sand / grit that we have in the run. Every night we give her medication to help prevent an infection post-surgery and we feel her crop to make sure she is eating food and not just sand. We also placed food dispensers all around the run so she has access to several food options.

 

[Lillith37]

I am updating this thread for educational purposes for those who may experience something similar like this in the future.

After several days of all home remedies (e.g., withheld food for 24hrs, apple cider vinegar, soft foods after the first 24 hours, gave her lots of water including syringing it into her mouth, coconut oil, etc.) her crop remained the size of a softball and never went down. I was convinced what I was feeling was sand. We decided to give her pellet food again, which is typically not advised for something like this, to see if that would help move the sand out. As soon as she started eating, she began pooping out lots of sand, however she wasn't eating enough to move the amount of sand that was accumulated in her crop. Unfortunately, the crop still remained the same size.

Given that her crop was stretching, we didn't want to run the risk of her developing pendulous crop. So we brought her to a vet, and decided for surgical removal. She got the surgery the day we brought her in, and that night, she immediately began eating and drinking regularly.

By day three she wanted to be back outside with the flock. Since then, she made a complete recovery.

She is an anxious chicken and for whatever reason, she stopped eating pellet food in the coop and began eating the sand / grit that we have in the run. Every night we give her medication to help prevent an infection post-surgery and we feel her crop to make sure she is eating food and not just sand. We also placed food dispensers all around the run so she has access to several food options.

Thanks for updating! I hope she continues to do well and keeps away from the sand.

 

[Saaniya]

I posted a few days ago about my 8 month old Black Australorp chicken named Sprout. I noticed a few days ago that she had an impacted crop. Huge, size of a baseball. I moved her inside, gave her oil, and have been making sure she is drinking water (electrolytes and a little bit of ACV) and also have been massaging her crop several times a day. She is uninterested in yogurt, coconut oil, or scramble eggs. It's now been three days and the crop hasn't gone down with little to no food consumption.

I did notice that her poop went from pungent and very liquidy to solid when we finally gave her some Grubterra mixed with coconut oil as these mealworms are her favorite. Her poop was filled with coarse sand/grit. After feeling around her crop again, I think it might be filled with sand. It's not soft, and its not hard or filled with water. It literally feels like a bag of sand. I can feel each individual piece of grit. We use coarse sand for the chicken run to provide them grit. We've never had any problems with any of our other chickens over the last three years. However, given she is new to the flock (along with two others), she is pretty passive. For some reason, she may have stopped eating the pellets and began eating sand over the last week for whatever reason.

My question is - has anyone ever experienced this? Will they pass grit through their digestive system without food? Should I begin giving her pellets so she can move the sand along her system or does it not work like this?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Never give ACV during sour crop it cause Dehydration in the crop i face it recently discovered Lactulose Suspension works great

 

[lightm]

I am updating this thread for educational purposes for those who may experience something similar like this in the future.

After several days of all home remedies (e.g., withheld food for 24hrs, apple cider vinegar, soft foods after the first 24 hours, gave her lots of water including syringing it into her mouth, coconut oil, etc.) her crop remained the size of a softball and never went down. I was convinced what I was feeling was sand. We decided to give her pellet food again, which is typically not advised for something like this, to see if that would help move the sand out. As soon as she started eating, she began pooping out lots of sand, however she wasn't eating enough to move the amount of sand that was accumulated in her crop. Unfortunately, the crop still remained the same size.

Given that her crop was stretching, we didn't want to run the risk of her developing pendulous crop. So we brought her to a vet, and decided for surgical removal. She got the surgery the day we brought her in, and that night, she immediately began eating and drinking regularly.

By day three she wanted to be back outside with the flock. Since then, she made a complete recovery.

She is an anxious chicken and for whatever reason, she stopped eating pellet food in the coop and began eating the sand / grit that we have in the run. Every night we give her medication to help prevent an infection post-surgery and we feel her crop to make sure she is eating food and not just sand. We also placed food dispensers all around the run so she has access to several food options.

Thanks for the update. She was eating sand possibly because she was having a small crop issue and needs grits. She was trying to solve the problem but made it worse.