Crop Issue Possible Surgery?

[seminolewind]

I have a hen who has a large crop, it's been getting impacted. I massage it down only for it to get impacted again. She's been sleeping in a nest rather than on a roost. Every morning there are some dried lumps of green fiber with a non offensive odor, sort of like a hospital odor. I don't know if it comes from her mouth or it's poop. Does not smell like poop whatsoever.

I just don't know if she has crop stasis, or stasis somewhere along her digestive system. She is skinny. I just don't know where to go from here.

 

[Erica]

Hi seminolewind,

I'm not anywhere near an expert on this type of thing, but does it smell at all yeasty or beery? That would mean it's likely to be fungal, and perhaps one of the antifungal oral medications might help (along with what you're doing already). Maybe a case for trying probiotics too? I would think if it was bacterial there would be a rotten smell rather than a beery one... Strange that there's no smell at all.

I've only had one bird with crop stasis, and that was from a physical blockage: she was a feather eater, and a bent shaft got permanently stuck in her proventriculus. She was really skinny and her crop wouldn't empty properly, but there was no smell, so in that way it was similar. But she didn't survive.

It's very hard when the issue might be a blockage or might be something totally different, a tumor, infection, systemic disease, etc...

Erica

 

[seminolewind]

Thanks, Erica. This has been going on for more than a month. The chunks I find smell like plant leaves or medicine. It's not a bad smell.
I've been thinking that maybe the blockage is down below the crop. Maybe I should fast her for a day and see if she poos and what it is.

 

[Erica]

Hi seminolewind,
that sounds like a good idea... At least it might help you rule things out. And if food is passing through even in small amounts she has a chance (also medications might be able to get through and be absorbed).
Fingers crossed for you and her,
Erica

 

[seminolewind]

Today I found a poop in the nest which was more poop than fiber. And it had a mild smell of poop. I hope she is getting over this thing, I've been massaging her crop every night. Maybe some olive oil tonight as well.

You would think natural foragers like chickens would know better.

 

[remuda1]

If you can massage during the day as well, it really seems to help things along. I don't give anything to eat until their crop is completely empty first thing in the morning. Once that happens, I start with only soft things like mashed up scrambled egg with maybe a little bit of the pasty kind of canned cat food in it, along with a bit of olive oil in it. If that works out well and the crop is empty the morning after that, I'll start adding some wet chicken feed so that it's all about the consistency of a loose oatmeal. Hope it works out for her soon, a month is a long time to have to deal with it. Sounds like it's reluctantly working it's way through and out of her system.

Edited for spelling

 

[seminolewind]

I went out to try to worm them all, and I didn't even notice her-she was up on the roost! Maybe she's feeling better. I'll have to corner her tomorrow and see.