Feed while treating for doughy crop?

[oneandacrumb]

Hello! I have a 6 month old Cream Legbar that I started to treat this morning for doughy crop, with directions from the article here on BYC. It doesn’t mention anything about feeding while treating for doughy crop. Can someone provide some advice? I’ve included a photo of her yesterday as well as her poop (not sure if that’s helpful info). She looks the same today and her crop was small and doughy first thing this morning. She seems to be drinking a lot of water. The water has added vitamins and medication (GERME-ZONE).
Thanks in advance!

 

[oneandacrumb]

Updating to add that after giving her a dose of the cinnamon/ginger/cayenne/lemon this morning and doing a few massages, her crop is a bit softer but she just pooped and it was ALL water. No solids at all. I also gave her about half of a scrambled egg (no butter or oil) which she ate. Offered her hydrated crumble with some water and ACV and she’s not really interested in that.

 

[alinas2010]

Hi sorry about your hen. My hen had a doughy crop after taking an antibiotic and her droppings were also not solid. She was not willing to eat anything. I was able to solve the issue with a women’s yeast infection medication after trying the same remedy you tried with no results. I hallowed out blueberries and filled them with the medication - for some reason she still would eat those.

Is your hen still eating anything? If my hen would have been willing to eat, I would’ve let her eat just about anything she wanted just because after her illness she was so skinny and sick. I don’t think I would restrict too many things, although I wouldn’t promote her eating anything with yeast and sugar in it such as bread.

 

[oneandacrumb]

Hi sorry about your hen. My hen had a doughy crop after taking an antibiotic and her droppings were also not solid. She was not willing to eat anything. I was able to solve the issue with a women’s yeast infection medication after trying the same remedy you tried with no results. I hallowed out blueberries and filled them with the medication - for some reason she still would eat those.

Is your hen still eating anything? If my hen would have been willing to eat, I would’ve let her eat just about anything she wanted just because after her illness she was so skinny and sick. I don’t think I would restrict too many things, although I wouldn’t promote her eating anything with yeast and sugar in it such as bread.

Thank you so much for your reply - I really appreciate it! This morning her crop was about the same size but we massaged it a few times and now it’s softening up again. She’s still only passing small amounts of actual poop with clear or white/yellow liquid so she’s definitely still impacted. We started giving her some non-stimulant laxative this morning with a tablespoon of scrambled egg and a tiny bit of hard coconut oil, and just gave her a second dose at noon. Her crop seems softer with massaging but I think you’re right about the yeast needing to be addressed so I’m going to go out and get some yeast infection medication. My girls are absolutely crazy for blueberries too but we unfortunately don’t have them fresh right now so I’ll have to figure something else out! Thank you again for sharing your experience and your moral support!

 

[alinas2010]

Thank you so much for your reply - I really appreciate it! This morning her crop was about the same size but we massaged it a few times and now it’s softening up again. She’s still only passing small amounts of actual poop with clear or white/yellow liquid so she’s definitely still impacted. We started giving her some non-stimulant laxative this morning with a tablespoon of scrambled egg and a tiny bit of hard coconut oil, and just gave her a second dose at noon. Her crop seems softer with massaging but I think you’re right about the yeast needing to be addressed so I’m going to go out and get some yeast infection medication. My girls are absolutely crazy for blueberries too but we unfortunately don’t have them fresh right now so I’ll have to figure something else out! Thank you again for sharing your experience and your moral support!

You’re very welcome. I hope she begins to empty that crop. For us, it was a struggle to figure out how to treat her, honestly. I probably read all of the same articles you did and just couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was going on. She had just been treated for a reproductive infection with antibiotics, but she had been getting yogurt and probiotics the whole treatment, so I wasn’t worried about a yeast overgrowth in her crop. But afterwards, it was clear that her crop wasn’t emptying. So I figured impacted or just a very slow crop. We did coconut oil, and massaged and did acv a day or so and saw no improvement. I think I tried a few more days of massaging and olive oil, too. We tried the lemon concoction eventually and then I even considered trying to puke her as a last resort. But something didn’t seem right because her breath wasn’t sour. As a last ditch effort I tried the yeast infection medication and it shrank her crop by the next day. Over the course of the treatment her crop shrank and she got back to feeling great.

For your girl, do you think she initially had something clogging her up? Or do you think she just got a little unbalanced?

 

[oneandacrumb]

You’re very welcome. I hope she begins to empty that crop. For us, it was a struggle to figure out how to treat her, honestly. I probably read all of the same articles you did and just couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was going on. She had just been treated for a reproductive infection with antibiotics, but she had been getting yogurt and probiotics the whole treatment, so I wasn’t worried about a yeast overgrowth in her crop. But afterwards, it was clear that her crop wasn’t emptying. So I figured impacted or just a very slow crop. We did coconut oil, and massaged and did acv a day or so and saw no improvement. I think I tried a few more days of massaging and olive oil, too. We tried the lemon concoction eventually and then I even considered trying to puke her as a last resort. But something didn’t seem right because her breath wasn’t sour. As a last ditch effort I tried the yeast infection medication and it shrank her crop by the next day. Over the course of the treatment her crop shrank and she got back to feeling great.

For your girl, do you think she initially had something clogging her up? Or do you think she just got a little unbalanced?

I honestly don't know how she got like this. They freerange in the back yard but we don't have long grass or anything obvious that would be binding. They have grit (sand), oyster shell (which I've seen her eating), pellets and crumble. We've also given them electrolytes on a regular basis and have been giving them added vitamins over the last week.

She seemed to be improving today but then I let her outside for an hour (separate from the other hens) and she acted almost like a normal chicken other than being a bit wobbly. She then seemed to get really tired so I brought her back inside and now she is in terrible condition. She can't walk at all, she's mouth breathing and can barely lift her head.

In a last ditch attempt, I've broken down a capsule of amoxicillin and gave her about 125mg with some pureed prune. She's only 1.4 kg so that was the recommended dosage. I'll give her another dose at 6pm, if she's still with us. I hate seeing her suffer like this.

 

[alinas2010]

I honestly don't know how she got like this. They freerange in the back yard but we don't have long grass or anything obvious that would be binding. They have grit (sand), oyster shell (which I've seen her eating), pellets and crumble. We've also given them electrolytes on a regular basis and have been giving them added vitamins over the last week.

She seemed to be improving today but then I let her outside for an hour (separate from the other hens) and she acted almost like a normal chicken other than being a bit wobbly. She then seemed to get really tired so I brought her back inside and now she is in terrible condition. She can't walk at all, she's mouth breathing and can barely lift her head.

In a last ditch attempt, I've broken down a capsule of amoxicillin and gave her about 125mg with some pureed prune. She's only 1.4 kg so that was the recommended dosage. I'll give her another dose at 6pm, if she's still with us. I hate seeing her suffer like this.

Let me call in some help, I’m really not sure what direction you should go. I’m so sorry to hear she is turning in the wrong direction. Was her crop shrinking? I know you suspected a doughy crop, but she doesn’t need to lay an egg by chance does she? When did she last lay? Can you get her to take some sugar water or egg yolk? Have you checked her for lice and mites?

@Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive @azygous

 

[oneandacrumb]

Let me call in some help, I’m really not sure what direction you should go. I’m so sorry to hear she is turning in the wrong direction. Was her crop shrinking? I know you suspected a doughy crop, but she doesn’t need to lay an egg by chance does she? When did she last lay? Can you get her to take some sugar water or egg yolk? Have you checked her for lice and mites?

@Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive @azygous

Yes, I think it was shrinking. It was still there and firm this morning but it softened up with a little massage. I then gave her some scrambled egg with anti-fungal cream (Canestin) and more of the laxative. She seemed really hungry at first but then stopped eating when she realized it had meds in it. I tried giving her straight up scrambled egg a little later and she wouldn't eat it.

As for the laying - she's only 6 months old so she's not fully laying yet. We've gotten 2 cream legbar eggs but that was about 2 weeks ago. We have 2 cream legbar hens so it could have been either of them but we suspect 1 from each because they were slightly different in colour and sheen. The second egg did have a little blood on it. I just felt her abdomen and she's so small - I don't feel anything in there. When she was walking, she wasn't waddling at all. It could perhaps be EYP. As of this afternoon, she's only passing liquid through her vent - it's almost clear.

 

[Eggcessive]

I’m sorry about your sick pullet. I would give her a human calcium with vitamin D tablet orally right into her beak to swallow. Also give her some sips of electrolyte water before the tablet, incase the tablet upsets her. What laxative did you give? Are you talking about coconut oil? If you can get a picture of her droppings that might help.

 

[oneandacrumb]

I’m sorry about your sick pullet. I would give her a human calcium with vitamin D tablet orally right into her beak to swallow. Also give her some sips of electrolyte water before the tablet, incase the tablet upsets her. What laxative did you give? Are you talking about coconut oil? If you can get a picture of her droppings that might help.

Thank you so much for your help. I have D drops so I can give her those and a tums for the calcium and poultry electrolytes. For the laxative, I gave her Colace which is Docusate Sodium (stimulant free stool softener). I've attached a photo of her poop from the 18th and today. It's getting thinner with less solids.