Crop problems- impacted? sour?**UPDATE**

[AZmama]

Well, as soon as she started eating again, her enlarged crop came back. And that is with us rationing her food.
The swab came back clean-no infection. The vet is now talking x-rays and surgery. We cannot do that. I don't see how effective surgery would be, as it is not impacted. If it was, it would not have emptied with the 24hr fast/crop bra, right?
Can a chicken live with this condition? I'm thinking, if we monitor it, use a crop bra, and when it gets bad do a 24 hr fast, she might be ok?

 

[pricem11]

I think the rationale is to perform a surgical 'rejuvenation' of the crop. When it's been enlarged and distended for a long time, it loses much of its tone/elasticity. So an avian vet tries to remove a portion and resect the crop to have a lower volume capacity. It's a pretty major thing and the success rate depends on a lot of factors, not the least of which is the vet's skill.

There's a horrible parrot disease called proventricular dilatation disease (PDD) that's pathogenic in nature that causes a degenerative loss of tone in the proventriculus:

http://fsc.fernbank.edu/birding/digestion.htm

PDD is the worst nightmare of parrot folks. I just mention as a passing interest and because some avian vets have tried resecting the proventriculus similar to a crop resection.

The main point I wanted to make is that vet skill varies widely in crop resection surgery. I will say it sounds like your vet seems knowledgeable and is taking things a step at a time. The flushing and crop bra were good ideas.

A lot of folks don't know that most vets go through their full education and formation without any avian preparation at all--unless they seek it out as electives. ABVP vets certified in avian medicine have to demonstrate a pretty rigorous preparation and experience in bird medicine and have to pass a stringent board exam. These vets are still fairly rare, and as you might expect, their prices often reflect that. That said, they are far more successful at treating bird illnesses than regular vets who try to treat, charge a lot of money, and never tell you that they are just looking up the problem in a book, making an educated guess, and then cutting a bird open and trying to fix things----basically winging it--pun intended.

Mark

 

[pricem11]

Just to clarify, I don't mean to imply that all vets who are not certified in avian medicine don't know anything about birds. Some are young and are spending the first few years of their career amassing bird expertise, some are busy and haven't had time to prepare for and sit for the exam, etc. I'm just saying that you can be assured that certified avian vets have a high level of bird expertise.

I'm trying to find the names of ABVP avian certified diplomates in AZ. What towns are relatively closeby to you?

Mark

 

[AZmama]

We are very lucky. Our vet's office has a certified avian specialist. She is the one we have been seeing. Thank you for offering to look one up for me!
I assumed the surgery she mentioned on the phone last night was the same surgery we talked about in the office on Tues. when we thought it may be impacted. The surgery you mentioned, makes more sense. That is probably what she was talking about.
Either way, I just don't see how we can do it. We have already spent a ridiculous amount of $$$ on vet bills lately. With major dental work in progress, and a baby on the way, we have other things to throw $$ at. Yet, we have gotten very attached to this bird. She is a sweetie, the only one who will just sit on your lap and let you pet her. This is really hard.
I guess I'm wondering if she can have a good life without the surgery. Something to ask the vet next week. I'm becoming quite a pest to her, I'm afraid.

 

[RioLindoAz]

are you from ARIZONA

 

[pricem11]

No worries, that's what she (the vet) does.

Just be honest with her and tell her that you guys love the bird, but funds are tight--especially given the experience with previous birds. Ask her if there's anything you can do short of a several hundred dollar surgery. Tell her that you're wondering what the prognosis would be if you keep doing what you're doing with the occasional fast and continued use of the crop bra. Since your bird is young, ask the vet whether there's the potential that she would tone up on her own. Ask about a special diet for her to see if that helps. And maybe the occasional course of antibiotics to keep down infection in her crop.

I'm sure your vet will understand. We all do what we can do, and no vet is going to pass judgment.

Best of luck and please keep us posted!

Mark

 

[AZmama]

Thanks for the encouragement.
She was outside all day yesterday for the first time in a week. This morning, I went out to feed them and checked her crop. It was small again. I could still feel it, but it felt like an empty sack. She didn't have a crop bra on all day yesterday, because she had shredded it and I didn't have time to make a new one.
I'm thinking that her crop is functioning, but still a little stretched out? I'm going to get another crop bra on her today to give her some support and see what happens.
Chicken_boy - Yes we are in Peoria, AZ.

 

[dlhunicorn]

keep using the bra...crop distention takes a long time to "repair" itself (inas much as that happens)...there is a medicine that is used that sometimes helps but I cannot recall the name at this moment...ask your doc about it...

 

[megshenhut]

Azmama, keep us updated. I have a bantam cochin that I put a crop bra on last week. Although her crop is still large, it is not as bad as before. Have no avian vets around here, so I'm on my own.

 

[redwa]

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, we just went through this with one of our hens. We did the surgery on her and to date it has been a success. She is back in the coop, on regular food and her crop is functioning normally again albeit a little "loose". Her crop also would get large then small but never completely going down to "normal". She had ingested feathers (which could not be felt manually or picked up on the xray nor did they come out in the crop flushing). But I think this is what kept her crop from completely emptying itself because they were not digesting. Long term you need to find out why her crop is not functioning properly. Good luck! I know it is hard not exactly knowing what is going on, espcially when you care so much about them. And of course, it's always the favorite...