Crop surgery post OP questions. . . .

[Mimi13]

Thanks for all the advice and encouraging words all have provided. I regret to report that Flower is no longer with us. Her crop continued to remain extremely full in spite of my effort to help her. I believe it just stopped working. When she aspirated crop contents in spite of me trying to keep her crop emptied I made the decision to cull her. She was no longer enjoying high quality of life.

I did perform a cursory necropsy and discovered nothing glaring except her gizzard was completely empty. Her body condition was consistent with what a laying hen's should be. Regarding the comment I made about suturing her crop - I checked her crop thoroughly to be sure I hadn't obviously made things worse. What I found was it wasn't leaking anywhere that I could see and it was almost healed completely. There was a tiny rough area on the outside of her crop where I started to close with surgical glue but didn't like how it was closing and decided to suture. It was difficult to tell besides that where the suture line had been. And where I thought I had possibly sutured her skin to the crop it was scarring that easily broke free when i examined it.

I am so sorry that you had to euthanize Flower. I know that was difficult, but something we chicken keepers face.

I was interested in your journey because I was on one of my own. Thankfully my hen has turned around with me using the wonderful advice I received here.

Once again I’m very sorry for your loss. Hopefully you were able to learn from this. That’s the promising part.