- Apr 22, 2013
- 255
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Earlier this week I had posted about a hen of mine having an impacted crop. It was about the size of a golf ball, & not rock hard, but not soft either. I could feel the hay inside. I had no clue if what I was doing was the right thing or not, & only 1 person had responded with any opinion on what was going on. So I did a lot of research online to try to avoid any surgery.
Luckily I went up to the barn this morning, & almost all of the hay was out of her crop. It took a few days (started treatment on Tuesday night & today's Friday) & a good amount of patience & time. I was giving her 3 CC of extra virigin olive oil once a day & REALLY working her crop afterwards, in a downward or side to side motion & lightly pinching it & working the mass. I never put anything down her throat, but instead took the extra time to put just enough olive oil in her mouth for her to be able to "lap" it up on her own. Granted, I often came out wearing about 1/4 of it, but I didn't want to get anything in her lungs - & being new to owning chickens, I thought the possibility for that was high. I had her in a seperate area with no food & no bedding so I could keep an eye on her poop, & put 1 TBSP of baking soda in a gallon of water, & only gave her grit for 2 days. The first day she didn't bother with it, but that night she started pecking at it a little. The morning of the third day I saw some hay that she had pooped out. Today I could feed just a very little bit of hay in her crop, not nearly as much as what there was.
I'm happy that I caught the impacted crop before it became larger & more serious. I don't know if this will work for anyone else, but it worth a shot at saving your chicken & not having surgery done! Hopefully my learning experience will help someone else.
Luckily I went up to the barn this morning, & almost all of the hay was out of her crop. It took a few days (started treatment on Tuesday night & today's Friday) & a good amount of patience & time. I was giving her 3 CC of extra virigin olive oil once a day & REALLY working her crop afterwards, in a downward or side to side motion & lightly pinching it & working the mass. I never put anything down her throat, but instead took the extra time to put just enough olive oil in her mouth for her to be able to "lap" it up on her own. Granted, I often came out wearing about 1/4 of it, but I didn't want to get anything in her lungs - & being new to owning chickens, I thought the possibility for that was high. I had her in a seperate area with no food & no bedding so I could keep an eye on her poop, & put 1 TBSP of baking soda in a gallon of water, & only gave her grit for 2 days. The first day she didn't bother with it, but that night she started pecking at it a little. The morning of the third day I saw some hay that she had pooped out. Today I could feed just a very little bit of hay in her crop, not nearly as much as what there was.
I'm happy that I caught the impacted crop before it became larger & more serious. I don't know if this will work for anyone else, but it worth a shot at saving your chicken & not having surgery done! Hopefully my learning experience will help someone else.
