Crop problems

[NewAtThis8]

I have a big olive egger that I adopted from a friend, she was bullied. She doesn’t lay since we got her in May 2024, we suspected stress from the bullying but then remembered she had an incident of bleeding quite profusely from her vent; the friend brought her to the vet who recommended X-rays etc, she declined and brought her home to see how she did and the bleeding stopped, but being isolated from the flock the bullying started when they tried to put her back in with the group so i don’t know whether the issue, again, was due to the bleeding (maybe ruptured oviduct or something?) or the bullying.

She does well with our flock, but she’s easily the largest girl. About two weeks ago I noticed her crop was full and swinging low, possibly pendulous crop? I got a bra and intended to use it to make sure we avoided issues but then yesterday noticed that her crop is now huge, and swollen. When I feel it, all I feel is air. She’s also high stepping when she walks like she’s trying to claw at it as she’s moving or something? I separated her today and provided just water, and have been massaging it for a few minutes. During that time I noticed she was either swallowing or moving her mouth and sticking her tongue out and sometimes the crop itself would gurgle.

I didn’t notice any bad smells or liquid coming out of her mouth but maybe she was swallowing it back down while i was massaging?

Not sure what I can do or what this is- the fact that it doesn’t feel like water or food but rather, air, has me a little confused.

Obviously can’t take her to a vet til Thursday or Friday due to the holiday but I’m worried about her. As of today, she is wanting to eat and is drinking but I don’t really want her eating for 24 hours to see what the crop does in case it’s impacted or sour crop; but the questions are-

Anything else I can do for her in the meantime outside of what I’ve been doing? (Withholding food for just 24 hours, giving just water and massaging the crop?) and could this possibly NOT be a crop issue but instead, related to the reproductive issues she may or may not have, and why would it feel like air and not water or food?

Thanks for reading!

 

[NewAtThis8]

UPDATE: after the first massage, I did another about 2 hours later. The crop felt smaller but she’s still high stepping around and uncomfy. I noticed a lot of their water was gone and wondering if it’s her drinking it all- they are on a high protein food through their molt (all are done now) so I’m wondering if that’s contributing to her thirst.

 

[alinas2010]

Sorry to hear about your hen, crop problems can be tough to figure out sometimes. Reproductive problems are even worse to figure out. Are you certain she has air in her crop and it isn’t liquid? I believe it’s okay to massage air out, but if it’s liquid, try to avoid that otherwise she may aspirate anything she spits up.

Drinking a lot can be indicative of a crop issue. It’s possible she may be developing a sour crop. The excessive drinking plus high stepping could point to her being uncomfortable in her crop area. See how her crop is first thing in the morning, it should be flat.

Often times crop issues go hand in hand with reproductive issues, how old is she?

When she was bleeding from her vent, do you know if it was something like a prolapse or just appeared that she passed blood?

 

[NewAtThis8]

Sorry to hear about your hen, crop problems can be tough to figure out sometimes. Reproductive problems are even worse to figure out. Are you certain she has air in her crop and it isn’t liquid? I believe it’s okay to massage air out, but if it’s liquid, try to avoid that otherwise she may aspirate anything she spits up.

Drinking a lot can be indicative of a crop issue. It’s possible she may be developing a sour crop. The excessive drinking plus high stepping could point to her being uncomfortable in her crop area. See how her crop is first thing in the morning, it should be flat.

Often times crop issues go hand in hand with reproductive issues, how old is she?

When she was bleeding from her vent, do you know if it was something like a prolapse or just appeared that she passed blood?

Thank you! I’m going to check her out in the am and hope that we can get her to the vet if it persists after Christmas; I’m thinking it’s sour crop, but it doesn’t smell so I’m at a loss. It definitely feels like air but based on the entire bucket of water being gone I’m now suspecting it was water…

I don’t know a ton about what happened but I do know it wasn’t a prolapse- they just said she was pouring blood from her vent and then it stopped :-/. They thought she ate something that tore her up as it passed through but I’d think she’d have had more damage if so- now that she’s comfortable with my crew but didn’t lay an egg all summer/fall that’s when I started to wonder if she passed part of her reproductive tract or had an egg break inside.

She is just over a year old.

 

[alinas2010]

Thank you! I’m going to check her out in the am and hope that we can get her to the vet if it persists after Christmas; I’m thinking it’s sour crop, but it doesn’t smell so I’m at a loss. It definitely feels like air but based on the entire bucket of water being gone I’m now suspecting it was water…

I don’t know a ton about what happened but I do know it wasn’t a prolapse- they just said she was pouring blood from her vent and then it stopped :-/. They thought she ate something that tore her up as it passed through but I’d think she’d have had more damage if so- now that she’s comfortable with my crew but didn’t lay an egg all summer/fall that’s when I started to wonder if she passed part of her reproductive tract or had an egg break inside.

She is just over a year old.

Ah okay, yea it sounds like it may be a little crop issue sneaking up possibly. Let us know how she is in the morning. If she is on the verge of developing a sour crop, she may not really be emitting a smell yet, it could just be that there is a yeast overgrowth beginning in her crop which could lead to a sour crop. Here is an article by @azygous that is very helpful in when it comes to crop issues:

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

I had a hen pass a very large amount of blood at one point this summer, also. I found it under her spot on the roost and I was horrified, but she acted just fine. I watched her all day and she never passed anymore. I posted about her here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/blood-in-poop-adult-hen-what-should-i-do.1639601/

I assumed the same, maybe she had eaten some glass or something else sharp, but I never got confirmation and there wasn’t any damage that I know of. My hen does have reproductive issues, though, and I had a suspicion that could have the reason why she passed blood, also, perhaps released something like a follicle? I have no idea. Anyways what I mean to point out is that you may be correct on thinking she has a reproductive issue of some sort. How is her abdomen? And does she act lethargic at all or have droppings that look like they have yolk in them?

 

[NewAtThis8]

Ah okay, yea it sounds like it may be a little crop issue sneaking up possibly. Let us know how she is in the morning. If she is on the verge of developing a sour crop, she may not really be emitting a smell yet, it could just be that there is a yeast overgrowth beginning in her crop which could lead to a sour crop. Here is an article by @azygous that is very helpful in when it comes to crop issues:

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

I had a hen pass a very large amount of blood at one point this summer, also. I found it under her spot on the roost and I was horrified, but she acted just fine. I watched her all day and she never passed anymore. I posted about her here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/blood-in-poop-adult-hen-what-should-i-do.1639601/

I assumed the same, maybe she had eaten some glass or something else sharp, but I never got confirmation and there wasn’t any damage that I know of. My hen does have reproductive issues, though, and I had a suspicion that could have the reason why she passed blood, also, perhaps released something like a follicle? I have no idea. Anyways what I mean to point out is that you may be correct on thinking she has a reproductive issue of some sort. How is her abdomen? And does she act lethargic at all or have droppings that look like they have yolk in them?

What you described is exactly what was described to me when they mentioned what happened! Her abdomen is normal, she’s active and curious and her droppings don’t look like they have egg yolk in them BUT sometimes, especially when we first got her, she’d have explosive watery and smelly poops. That’s resolved though and we only see it once in a while so assume that was stress related.

 

[alinas2010]

What you described is exactly what was described to me when they mentioned what happened! Her abdomen is normal, she’s active and curious and her droppings don’t look like they have egg yolk in them BUT sometimes, especially when we first got her, she’d have explosive watery and smelly poops. That’s resolved though and we only see it once in a while so assume that was stress related.

I’m glad to hear she is perky and alert, that’s a plus. Usually crop issues will make them feel pretty ill. Let us know how she is in the morning, I hope her crop is smaller.

 

[Grousesandgooses]

Any update on this? One of our girls passed a lot of blood several nights in a row about 3 weeks ago. Since then she’s had a lot of super watery poops and just seems to be digesting very slowly… I thought she had sour crop, but it doesn’t quite fit with her symptoms, then I was thinking it was impacted, but it’s not hard… just kind of feels like a sand bag. It doesn’t empty fully over night, but it’s also not huge.

 

[alinas2010]

Any update on this? One of our girls passed a lot of blood several nights in a row about 3 weeks ago. Since then she’s had a lot of super watery poops and just seems to be digesting very slowly… I thought she had sour crop, but it doesn’t quite fit with her symptoms, then I was thinking it was impacted, but it’s not hard… just kind of feels like a sand bag. It doesn’t empty fully over night, but it’s also not huge.

Welcome to the site! Sorry to hear your girl is feeling ill. How old is she? Passing blood can be a sign of coccidiosis, but it’s usually found in relatively young chicks.

 

[NewAtThis8]

Any update on this? One of our girls passed a lot of blood several nights in a row about 3 weeks ago. Since then she’s had a lot of super watery poops and just seems to be digesting very slowly… I thought she had sour crop, but it doesn’t quite fit with her symptoms, then I was thinking it was impacted, but it’s not hard… just kind of feels like a sand bag. It doesn’t empty fully over night, but it’s also not huge.

So the blood and the crop impacting happened almost a year apart. She’s been totally fine since passing so much blood (she wasn’t in our care when it happened but what I was told was it was a significant amount for 1.5 days and then never happened again). She’s been normal poops though when we first got her, which was a couple of months after that incident, her poops were huge amounts of watery grossness.

After the crop impacting and tearing herself literally to shreds, happy to report she’s doing great and her crop works as it should despite the trauma. We get her stitches out on the 22nd.

What I will say is that this unintentional crop surgery likely is what resolved her impaction. Before stitching her up, the vet pulled many feathers, ROCKS, and debris as well as spoiled food and sour liquid from her crop and irrigated it to try to prevent infection.

Many vets can perform crop surgery that isn’t as extreme as what we had to go through- visually two incisions staggered from each other, one through skin one through the crop and then they do the same thing, pull all the junk out.

We were treating with mineral oil (vet said 5ml) and crop massage to see if we could get things to pass however, I think when it gets as bad as mine did that won’t work.