Doughy crop, cocci

[CoffeeKat]

Experts: does the fact that her crop is malleable and the size of a ping pong ball away you one way or the other?

Treatments:
Stool softener, oils, massages, rooster booster and watered down chick feed, previous Corid/ antibiotic from vet.

Mass is malleable. Will flatten to the point of thinking it may be gone. But reforms into oblong shape or ball in the morning. I suspect maybe grass/twigs.

1) she’s deathly skinny from cocci and her crop problem. (Hence the urgency in trying to fix this by whatever means) I don’t want to stress her into death with surgery, and I don’t want to starve her by withholding it.

2) the mass in her crop is squishy like clay, but not really going anywhere.

I have everything on hand to do surgery. I just don’t want to have to if the consensus is that this may break down since it’s not rock hard.

Thoughts. I’m sorry if I’m beating a dead horse over here. Not trying to waste anyones time. What would you do if it was your hen?

 

[CoffeeKat]

Adding: in her stool she passed one of these. It’s like a little bead or something. I can feel several in her crop. Just adding this to consideration.

 

[Eggcessive]

It may be smoothed grit. Have you tried offering chilled coconut oil cut into small pieces up to 2 tsp per day? It sounds like it is still impacted, not sour yet. I hope that you can get her crop working. Gizzard impaction could be a possibility. There are many good videos of crop surgeries online by vets and others. I would prefer a vet perform it though.

 

[CoffeeKat]

It may be smoothed grit. Have you tried offering chilled coconut oil cut into small pieces up to 2 tsp per day? It sounds like it is still impacted, not sour yet. I hope that you can get her crop working. Gizzard impaction could be a possibility. There are many good videos of crop surgeries online by vets and others. I would prefer a vet perform it though.

Yes. We’ve been doing that a few days now.

I would
Prefer that too. My vet is 4 weeks booked and really expensive. It’s a bit of a struggle there.

 

[Eggcessive]

Here are a couple of videos on crop surgery:

 

[CoffeeKat]

Thank you. I will look at these. I have watched about 15 of them and then another member had detailed instructions for me earlier in the thread with supplies needed.

I’ve been practicing on a chicken tender today. It sounds silly but I want to know the sharpness of the scalpel and pressure needed so I get two clean cuts.

 

[CoffeeKat]

K) alright. For the sake of updating the journey here we are:

I got ready this evening to do surgery to get this out of her. I laid her down to remove the blockage and it kind of disappeared. The crop was flat.

I sat her up and felt around. The blockage was now oblong and able to be molded back into a ball. Even at that, it’s the size of a ping pong ball. There was no way I felt good about surgery seeing how freely it could move around, especially seeing how bad off other hens were at the time of surgery. It changed over the course of the day and became less palpable.

So for now, I will continue with supportive care, extra nutrients, oils, massages, and maybe treat her with antibiotics. Soupy foods. We have to get her to gain some weight.

 

[CoffeeKat]

Spectacular news. Her blockage is gone!

 

[Eggcessive]

That is great news.

 

[CoffeeKat]

So, this morning it decided not to empty again and was a hard softball. Does this mean her crop is just slow, or what?