Crop Surgery?

[Leo1]

Good Morning all!
I have a girl with an impacted crop I'm not sure how long it's been impacted and it's not terribly huge. She's in the middle of molt, so I just chalked up the not really eating the last couple of days to that. I did some massage yesterday with no results and I did the oil thing this morning. A couple, probably 3 tbsp down the gullet with a weak kid feeder and massaged. She has lost quite a bit of weigh. She down from 8.25- 7 (she was on the thin side of normal to begin with), not sure how much of that is from the molt and how much from the crop. She's still acting mostly OK. She was out looking for bugs last night, but didn't eat any solid food, except for some peanuts I put through the food processor, so they were little pieces. I don't want to let it go to long. I'm nervous about surgery because I don't want to kill her, but not terribly squeamish about it. What I'm wondering is how long I should keep trying other things before I do the surgery. She doing that soft green poo thing, which is never a good sign in my experience. I also don't want to do too much oil in fear that I kill her that way. A body can only process so much of that.
Anybody have any suggestions? Should I go in? How long should I wait?
Thanks!!!

 

[casportpony]

Is the impaction grass or grain? If it's grain, try tubing water and breaking it up that way.

-Kathy

 

[Leo1]

There is some grain in there, but I think I feel a clump of grass, which I'm pretty sure is the culprit.

 

[Leo1]

I don't want to do too much oil either because I had a hen take a turn after doing that. She starting pooping oil and then died a couple days later. I have always thought that I killed her liver with too much oil.

 

[casportpony]

Aspiration of oil is dangerous and very likely to kill an animal - look up lipoid pneumonia. Do you know how to tube feed?
.
-Kathy

 

[Leo1]

That's how I did it. Put a week kid feeder down into her crop. The other girl died a couple of days later. She never had any respiratory symptoms and I did her oil the same way.

 

[casportpony]

Crop problems are *often* seen right before death... I just did a necropsy on one that most would have thought the cause of death was an impacted crop, but it was just full because her organs had shut down and had stopped processing food. Try tubing small amount of water to see if that helps clear her crop, it's much safer than oil and it's a great way to keep her hydrated. If you can, go get some Kaytee Exact Baby Bird Food and try giving her some of that if her crop clears the water.

Tubing is much safer than crop surgery!

-Kathy

 

[Leo1]

Well, she's not acting like her organs have shut down. I wouldn't rule out an obstruction further down, but it seems like there is a clump of grass in her crop. Last night she was out searching for bugs. She's molting so her behavior isn't her normal, but she's also growing back her feathers pretty well which she wouldn't be doing if she had organ failure and were on death's door because of that. So, I'm fairly sure we don't have any other problem (knock on wood) going on here. The other bird most definitely had other problems, but was turning it around until I gave her the oil. How much water? And how long do you think before I would see her crop getting smaller? And how long do you think I should give her before I move on to surgery? I dont' want to jump to surgery, but I don't want to let it go too long either.
Thanks!

 

[casportpony]

What breed is she?

-Kathy

 

[Leo1]

Light Brahma. She's a BIG girl! 9- 9.25 lbs would probably be her ideal.