Dying chicken!! Possible crop issue.

[tifaus]

I don’t think treating her for sour crop would hurt. It’s squishy, not hard, right? There are lots of threads on this.

If it’s hard, it is impacted, which is very different.

No, it's not hard. It's squishy and of course it's a hot day in Florida so she's hot

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

Hello, I have a 2.5 yrs. old New Hampshire recovering from crop impaction right now. Her crop was hard like a golf ball. I gave her olive oil and massaged her crop to get things moving. But 24 hrs later nothing had changed. She wasn't eating or drinking, lethargic and closing her eyes a lot. Decided to take her to my vet, his diagnosis was indeed an impacted crop. An x-ray supported it was severe. He massaged her crop a bit more vigorous than I did. This is a serious condition, treatment is as follows:
* .3 mL Baytril antibiotic, once a day
* .5 mL Oznystatin antifungal, twice a day
* 1.5 mL Lactalose, twice daily, to help digest organic material
Her crop emptied 2 hours after treatment was started, appetite started to return later that evening. She is on her third day of treatment and still not 100%. But, is doing very well. She has more energy and is eating small amounts of food in her hospital crate.

You can give your little girl, 1 ml of olive oil and then massage the crop to see if it will move down into the gut. Gotta get her digestive system moving again.

Offer diced watermelon or grapes, wet mash, only soft food if and when she starts eating. Small frequent meals through out the day, till she gets back to normal.
This is really hard on their digestive system, so monitor her progress.
Hope she heals soon!

 

[tifaus]

I don’t think treating her for sour crop would hurt. It’s squishy, not hard, right? There are lots of threads on this.

If it’s hard, it is impacted, which is very different.

I wanted to let you know she is fine. I got all that yucky crap from her crop and gave her some antibiotics and she's back to normal. Thank you for all your help!

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

Awesome!
God Bless!

 

[micstrachan]

Yay!

 

[rebrascora]

If it’s hard, it is impacted, which is very different.

If it's impacted the crop will be hard as a rock and will still be full after 24 hours of not eating.

Just for the record, an impaction can be soft and squishy too. All the ones I have dealt with have been caused by grass/hay/straw which knots up in the crop and forms a soggy plug preventing food and sometimes also fluids passing. They were not sour either, so it is not as clear cut as "hard it's impaction" and "soft it's sour" Whatever the issue regular massage is an important starting point and perhaps emptying some of the contents out of the crop by carefully vomiting before massaging, if the crop is very full and the bird is refluxing just by being handled.

@tifaus Pleased you managed to get your girl's crop working again. Keep an eye on her as some hens are more prone to it than others, so it may reoccur.

 

[micstrachan]

Ooh, is that right? So good to know. Thank you!