Crop leaking

[Ss74]

One of my hens seems to have a leaking crop. The crop itself is hard and almost dried out feeling. We isolated her and kept her from food for a few days and it seemed to be better, but as soon as she started eating again it began to leak food and water. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do?

 

[Cryss]

@azygous

 

[azygous]

Your hen needs surgery, and if that is the inner crop sack that's blackened and necrotic, I don't know if even a poultry vet could help her.

Or did you try to put something on the crop that's black? If you didn't and if it's dried out and hard, it means the tissue is dying.

Was she injured somehow? Is the outer tissue torn completely away from the crop sack?

 

[Ss74]

As far as we know she wasn’t injured. She’s been acting normally. We only noticed that something was wrong because she had wet feathers down her front.

We have not put anything on it - that’s how it looked when we noticed the issue. It’s definitely dead/dying and dried out “skin”.

Should she be culled or just let it play out?

 

[azygous]

The necrotic tissue would have to be removed before she could be surgically repaired. If you try to close the crop tear and the outer skin (with the feathers) without removing all dead and infected inner crop tissue, infection would run rampant and she would die from it.

If you can't do this yourself or if you can't find a vet that treats chickens, then she would be better off euthanized now.