Enlarged Crop - Please Help

[aveca]

I think they had a discussion in here on this this subject last summer, In the Chicken RX book it is known as SOURCROP someone posted tip leaning chicken forward head downward very softly massage crop area but for breif period they literally throw up junk in crop. There might be some good reading you can look up right away especially if the chickens breath smells bad the crop needs to be emptied. The book says it happens when there is some heavy rouhage in diet and not enough good grits to chop it all up.can become infected and eventually systemic infection. Your lucky if its soft , if hard they put eye droppers of mineral oil to loosen up hardness for up 2 24 hrs then try to empty crop.

 

[Country4ever]

2-4 handfuls of scratch for 12 chickens is alot. I think its the corn that causes the problems. I think some chickens can handle it and some can't.
I totally understand your not wanting to isolate her. I always consider it alot before isolating a hen, since some of them have a real hard time going back into the flock without problems. As long as you think she's not finding food dropped on the ground after their feedings, she should be fine left in with them.
I hope she heals soon.

 

[LampreyGirls]

Country4ever, can you give more info on the stretched out crop issue? We think our hen has that problem. We've treated her for sour crop but we can't get the crop to shrink and are feeding her again (applesauce and fine mash). This has been going on for a few weeks and she's very thin but still moving around well. We let her range yesterday with her mates (they weren't very kind to her after her separation) so she got grit then for sure. We were thinking we'd let her go back to the henhouse tonight. Bad idea? Your help would be very appreciated since we've tried many things.

 

[Country4ever]

Hi LampreyGirls,

Does her crop feel at all like a hard mass in there, or is it all soft and squishy? Have you ever separated her and not given her any food for a day or 2?
Does her abdomen feel swollen at all?
I had a hen who had a squishy crop and I tried just about everything. But once it stretches out too far, it seems to never go back. Then, they just can't get food to go past the crop. I've heard of people who actually have their chicken's crop surgically reduced, but that's expensive.
We tried wrapping bandages around her to hold her crop in, but that never seemed to work.
Its hard to know what to do. If you feel like you've done all you can already (including not feed her for a couple days, antibiotics, etc.), then I would just let her live with the flock and let nature take its course. Just know that chickens don't like having sick/weaker chickens around and they may pick on her and even kill her.
I have another hen who had a slightly stretched out crop and I was able to get it down, but it always seems to easily get big again, so I'm very careful not to let her have much black-oil sunflower seed. (I quit giving any scratch at all, as it seems to encourage crop problems).
I hope I haven't been too confusing. Sometimes, its hard to know what to do.
Have you tried any antibiotics? Yogurt?

 

[LampreyGirls]

Thanks for the quick reply, Country4ever. We have had her separated and withheld food for 24 hours (last weekend) and we've massaged and induced vomiting a number of times. We also did 5 days of biotin from a vet. And we gave her yogurt also. We can't feel anything hard in her crop - it's soft and squishy. Her abdomen is skinny. We just let her drink some diluted red wine and hope that will move things along. We'll not feed her for the rest of today. At this point we're considering culling her in the near future since this doesn't seem to be getting any better. The other three we have didn't treat her well yesterday when she rejoined them. She's a beauty and my favorite but I guess I'll have to be strong. If you know of anything else we can try let us know. Thanks.

 

[Country4ever]

Sounds like you've tried alot of different things.
My hens, for the most part, always are hard on previously sick hens that I put back in with them. If she seems like they've accepted her back, even if it took a little while, I would just let her be. Maybe she will heal on her own, given a little time. Sometimes I think that we think they should get well immediately, and don't give their own bodies time to heal themselves.
good luck with her, and I hope she feels better soon.
You could google "crop bra" and see if you could make something like this to help her get her crop muscles back in shape.