Crop Surgery Performed - More pics & How To Steps posted - Pg 10

[jessejames]

how do i go about feeding her the olive oil?
she is still active and feeding and happy should i allow her to continue to free range or should i "hospitalize" her?

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Mine loved the olive oil and was greedily drinking it out of a small container. I also added it to diced up boiled egg and shredded cheese while I was trying to get enough olive oil in her as well as nutrients. If you can get some olive oil in her, you can try massaging the crop. You can place your fingers on either side and sort of "knead it like a ball of dough" - trying to break up the mass inside. Try and mash it into smaller pieces.

I would isolate her to see if the crop will go down overnight. Take all food out of her kennel (or whatever you confine her in) and check the crop in the morning.

I've had hens who just have huge pendulum crops that aren't impacted. Had one freeranging hen who just gorged herself all day and whose crop drug the ground by the end of the day and swung from side to side when she ran - we named her "Pammy" after Pamela Lee Anderson on Baywatch.

 

[andrea98]

SURE THIS IS HOW SHE FEELS ABOUT YOU!!! GREAT JOB

 

[journey11]

Truly fascinating thread. Glad I got to see it! I don't get ick'd out easily, so I think I could do it if I had to! The hard part would be worrying about causing the animal pain, so I'm glad to hear your hen didn't struggle. I will be looking to better stock my chicken first aid kit too...

 

[Sammimom]

Ruth, WAY TO GO! Excellent that you closed each layer seperately also.

In vet school a handy way to practice stiching different tissue types is on a pickled pig's foot. Also, I recently taught a little class on anatomy and physiology to some elementary students and since the school wouldn't let us use any cadavers with formaldehyde, we used all tissues/animal body parts from an Asian food market.

I think anyone interested in learning to suture would find it handy to use a curved needle with the attached suture material, and a hemostat to hold the needle (the pinchy scissor looking items) and forceps (tweezers with gentler teeth, for holding tissue). Vets often have expired material which would be great to use for practicing. Practice makes perfect....

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Thank you. I'll have to ask my vet about buying the other instruments. I know they would come in handy because it's always so hard to try and hold and suture at the same time - especially in this case. The crop was thick and muscular and kept pulling back into the body cavity and was as slippery as a piece of liver. The tissue on the outside of the crop was so very thin and fragile it was like stitching a piece of wet tissue paper. Then there's the skin on the chicken's body that is rather tough. I'm used to sewing that and with a regular needle, like I used to have to use, I couldn't get the needle to push through. The suture needles work great and glide right through but having forceps and the hemostat would make it all so much easier - especially since I'm always having to work alone and trust that the hen will lay quietly - which they normally do.

If someone had told me a few years ago that someday I would own a farm with a well stocked vet cabinet and be sewing up barnyard animals - I would have laughed and laughed and laughed some more.

Today I did a Bumble Foot surgery on a hen so it never ends.

 

[the Old Rebel]

All I can say is "WOW"!!

I'm sooooo glad I read this all the way through. I'm soooooooooooo glad Miss Patience is doing so incredibly well. I've been loving birds for 10 years now. I thank God I've never had to cut one open or sew one up, but I think I could now if I had to. (I have set a broken bone or two and seen some nasty wounds heal incredibly).

Thanks soooooo much for posting those pictures and telling us what you did. It gives us all hope.

WOW!!!!!

May you and Boaz and Patience have a God-filled, Jesus-filled, Spirit-filled day just FULL of God's love, His Joy, and His Peace.

WOW!!!!!!

 

[mema2003]

Wow, I can't believe what all I just read and saw!!!! I don't have the nerves, the know how, or nothing too do surgery on one of my chickens. I have a rooster that I am pretty sure its leg and possibly hip is messed up and the other roo in the cage with them still ties in on him all the time. I picked him up too try too get a better look at what is wrong and too see if I could help him but he fought me too much. He hobbles around and eats good but I can hardly bare too watch him get around. My hubby said well you hobble around like that. BUT I know he has too be in pain.

 

[NewHobbyForMe]

Ruth thank you thank you. I found this info a bit too late. Read about this somewhere else. I opened the crop just as you did, BUT I gave her olive oil which she loved, but also gave her Mineral Oil in a dropper the night before. If I have to do this again, I will only give her what they want to swallow. I put the olive oil on some cumbs of bread and she loved it. I think she asperated because last Friday when I decided to open her up she was really breathing and gurgling some what. I lost her when I was pulling out the mass of grass but she went instantly. I do not have a problem with ever doing this again. She was very quiet and no movement while making the incision. However, I did make the cut from top to bottom, where you made it side to side. Don't know if that made a difference?? If anyone tries this please use new razor blade and just barely cut the skin first, and then the skin on crop. That part was very easy. I only cut a place about an inch long. Her crop was the size of a tennis ball. Sorry this is so long but trying to explain without forgetting what I have learned from Ruth and what I did. She had the impaction for about a week total. She was eating, walking and pooping but the poop was more watery and only the size of a dime. So, she was getting some nutrition but not much.
Ruth your pictures and documention is better than any book and I truely appreciate your time, vet would do this for one hundred dollars. Not an option for me and she said the chicken probably would not make through it. OK I'll shut up now and I wish everyone the best if trying this.
Melinda Fento, Missouri

 

[newchickmom09]

That is amazing. Great job I am going to show my hubby this when he gets home. I hope none of my girls ever need this but you never know.

Great Job!!!