Doughy Crop – with hard stuff in it!

[mimaresca]

Hello everyone! This is my first time posting on this form, and I'm so thankful for all of your incredible wisdom wealth of knowledge.

We have a adult hen, her name is "Ethel". For about two weeks now she has been suffering from a "Doughy" crop, and it hasn't seem to get any better with any of the things we've done so far. Here's what we've done so far:
- we have given probiotics and lots of water.
– we have given stool softener and massaging.
- we have given the spice mixture and massaging
– we've also wormed her already
- and we've done water and oil mixture
- and of course we separated her from the Flock to keep an eye on her pooping habits.

We've done all these things based on the posts we've read here. It seems to get broken down, but then comes back in a few hours. By morning, it's back to its bigger doughy size. If this is a yeast infection should we give her some sort of yeast infection medication? Any ideas?

 

[coach723]

I'm not sure what you mean by "W" crop, not a term I'm familiar with?
When you say it's normal by morning, do you mean the crop is empty in the morning? That would be normal and their crops will fill again when they eat, and would fill and empty throughout the day as they eat.
With yeast, a sour crop, you usually will smell a bad smell from their mouth, and have a large squishy feeling crop.
If the crop is slow to empty, it can indicate a problem farther down the pipe, so to speak.
What do the droppings look like?

 

[mimaresca]

Coach 723 – thank you so much for your response! I apologies for the typos. LOL! I was literally falling asleep last night as I was typing this up. Had a couple long days.
I clarified my post and edit it at four for the readers.

She has an "doughy" crop. By morning the doughy crop is back to its normal size. Her crop has not emptied in over two weeks. Her mouth does not seem to smell or have a bad odor. Also to answer your question, her poop is very watery and sometimes has a little bit of debris in it.

 

[coach723]

I've had good results with the spice mix myself, except when there was an issue farther down the digestive tract.
I did it 3 x daily, well massaged and gave the entire amount, took up to 3 days.
It's possible she has a blockage or impaction. It's also possible that she's just slow for some reason, there are illnesses that can cause everything to slow down. And if it continues to be doughy there's a good chance it may sour at some point.
Everything you have done up to now is what I'd have done.

This was bumped up today, and I found it interesting...https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ble-please-read-this-and-consider-this-option

Did she free-range before illness? What are you feeding? You mentioned 'hard stuff" in her crop, is that grit do you think or something foreign, and is that staying in?

I would only feed water soluble foods, mix feed with water and plain yogurt with live cultures to make a mash. No treats. Make sure she stays hydrated.
If you suspect she has an impaction then an xray might show it. An impacted crop can be treated or have surgery to clear. If the impaction is farther down, like in the gizzard, then there isn't much to be done unless it passes on it's own.

That is probably not much help, I wish you luck with her.
Maybe someone else will have ideas.

 

[mimaresca]

Coach - thank you for all of your help!
I had started to think about possible food allergies that could be the culprit... we had baby chicks and had to work hard to try and keep the big girls from eating the little girls food, but I'm sure they got some. We also recently changed to a different organic feed, but went to the store and bought the old one we had to see if that does the trick.

I think the hard stuff may be grit. Can't really tell. I don't think she has an impaction or slow crop because all the liquids pass through pretty quickly.
We'll try the same stuff and see if she improves.

I'll post back with updates. Trying yeast stuff tonight.

 

[lutherpug]

I just finished typing a lengthy post about the exact same issue with my Australorp hen. I also just got home from the avian vet where I left her so they can perform surgery tomorrow to clear out her crop.

In the case of my hen, she was eating the sand in her coop and had ingested a heroic amount of it. Are you using sand? I don't think sand is any better or worse than any other bedding-hens can eat anything-but you mentioned grit which caught my attention.

Just food for thought, in many ways your situation sounds almost exactly like what we've experienced. Hopefully you don't have to explore the surgical route.

Good luck!

 

[mimaresca]

Thanks Lutherpug. Sorry to hear that you're having to go the surgical route. I hope your girl recovers quickly.

To answer your question, no we do not use sand, but we do have dirt and rocks around as their flooring in their run.

Side note: she was not looking great tonight. Not a lot of energy, but the crop was far less doughy. Interesting... we we planned to do last night was to give her "clotrimazole" an over-the-counter vaginal yeast product. We have it to her and massaged her crop and put her back to bed... we are really hoping she makes it.

Thanks all for your information and fast replies. I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

 

[mimaresca]

Well... sad news. We tried everything aside from surgery. This was two and half weeks of her barely making it. Her body started going downhill last night, and her body was shutting down tonight.
We decided that we weren't going to let her suffer through starvation any longer. My wife and I made the decision and I culled her... not a fun experience. I had to kill one of my little friends today, and I hated it. But, I do feel better knowing she's not suffering any more.
Gonna take her ashes and bury them next to some blueberry bushes we have next to the coop. Cheers to "Ethel".

Thank you all for your concern and help.

 

[coach723]

Very sorry for your loss.

 

[lutherpug]

Sorry to hear that :/