Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

Oh my, that sounds horrible. Sorry you're going through that. It definitely isn't an easy experience but I hope you recover.
By the way, everyone, here's Parm.
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So

 

[BY Bob]

Hey U have such beutiful bird wowowowowoow has it been a while since u posted?

I started this thread a very long time ago.

 

[BY Bob]

We lost Dana last night. She was 8-1/2 & fell asleep in DH's arms. She was eating & drinking right to the last day. She jumped off her perch at roost & DH kept checking on her every hour & finally at about 1:00 a.m, brought her in. DH was Dana's human so it was a bittersweet end. DH is really missing her. We'll miss how good she & all the other Dom's were w/ our littles over the years. We were preparing ourselves to eventually lose an older hen but it's still so sad when they're gone

We are now officially an all-Silkies flock remaining. This will be our last flock as we are no longer spring chickens ourselves any more!

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Im so very sorry for your loss. Special hugs for your DH.

 

[bgmathteach]

Mine too, but it's all rooted. I think its the cut and long stuff. I've got some hayed stuff I haven't set out for them yet. I think I'm going to chop it up first.

There is someone who makes silage for their chickens:

I can't find it now, but someone else did pretty much what the second video did, but they manually cut it into smaller pieces, and used gallon zip-loc bags.

do be sure you eliminate all of the air, so it doesn't spoil. I do want to do this - but with the f/t job and part-time teaching on top of my farm, I haven't implemented it yet. My goal the first year I try it is to have lots of small bags, and put them into a metal covered garbage can ( to keep vermin out) and try feeding a bag a day in the winter to give them greens/supplement. Hopefully I can do this next year!!!!

 

[bgmathteach]

Ok so I can’t remember who has Crop Girl? Wanted to ask some questions about the procedure you did.

I have Crop Girl. I didn't do any flushing, but did clean out a bit MORE stuff than you did total. Also - I don't know if you did this or not, but they suggest skin incision and crop incision are offset (I did that). I didn't have absorbable thread - I super-glued the crop incision, and stitched the skin incision. I fed her liquid food for the first 3-4 days or so, then went to soft foods (i.e. mash, scrambled eggs, etc.

For the 'liquid' food, scrambled raw egg, and very diluted baby bird food - so it was very runny, not paste-like. You can also add in honey or something similar for additional calories. From what I have read, introducing more solid food too soon can create pendulous crop - which can cause more crop issues later on.

I don't have access to a vet, so couldn't get anti-biotics for HER, so I ended up giving her my amoxicillin premeds. I also used a mix of essential oils, including clove for numbing, at the surgery site.

Note sure if you have any additional questions beyond what I've posted here?

 

[RoyalChick]

I have Crop Girl. I didn't do any flushing, but did clean out a bit MORE stuff than you did total. Also - I don't know if you did this or not, but they suggest skin incision and crop incision are offset (I did that). I didn't have absorbable thread - I super-glued the crop incision, and stitched the skin incision. I fed her liquid food for the first 3-4 days or so, then went to soft foods (i.e. mash, scrambled eggs, etc.

For the 'liquid' food, scrambled raw egg, and very diluted baby bird food - so it was very runny, not paste-like. You can also add in honey or something similar for additional calories. From what I have read, introducing more solid food too soon can create pendulous crop - which can cause more crop issues later on.

I don't have access to a vet, so couldn't get anti-biotics for HER, so I ended up giving her my amoxicillin premeds. I also used a mix of essential oils, including clove for numbing, at the surgery site.

Note sure if you have any additional questions beyond what I've posted here?

@Ponypoor
Here are the links to the various threads on feeding post crop surgery.
My speed reading summary is wait for some indeterminant amount of time up to 24 hours and then feed very soft food - as @bgmathteach describes, runny, for about a week. Here are the posts:

In this first one, azygous weighs in and she usually knows what she is talking about.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-problems-advice-needed.1678922/post-28883930

This one relays what the vet told them.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...cken-after-crop-surgery.1679440/post-28902947

Another one.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...cken-after-crop-surgery.1679440/post-28896695

 

[BY Bob]

I am so sorry to hear this - I know you loved her and she was a very sweet girl.

Would you mind if I named a chicken in her honor?
I have a Dominique that I got in a mixed group of chicks last year, and while she isn't super friendly like yours, she is sweet (note, I also don't spend the kind of time you and DH had with each chicken )- I am very confident she would become a 'human lover' if I had more time to spend with her.....she already looks for a quick snack at bedtime now when I have to get her down from her high outside roost....you can see her checking out each hand, looking for my treat container....I evidently trained her to this when I gave her scratch at bedtime when she was molting and not eating well...so she went to bed with something in her crop.....I have created a monster, LOL

What a sweet sentiment!

 

[BY Bob]

Jaffarra and her crop surgery

Today I opened up her crop and hauled out a bunch of smelly nasty stuff.

I first put out my supplies
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Then I trimmed plucked and cleaned her skin over the crop.
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I hauled all this crud out, I must have spent an hr digging stuff out. I would irrigate and loosen up things and the haul more out, just when o thougj I was done, there was more in there! But I think I got it all. The smell was grim, and it was impossible to keep the site clean.
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When done I use a running suture on her crop incision which about 1/2” and three single sutures on her skin. I slathered antibiotic ointment on the crop incision and the skin, then a spray of Blu-Kote, and the Amoxicillin.
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If she survives the night I’ll give her some Tylenol tomorrow morning. As I wasn’t sure how her crop was working I didn’t want to give her Tylenol. The trauma of working on the crop will have it sore and likely not working too well. I tried to put a bandage on her crop but she was agitated so I removed it. There are no shavings in her crate she is on an old sheet. I have Betty in with her.

I hauled about 10cc of putrid fluid from Betty’s crop and treated her with canestin. If her crop isn’t better by Saturday I will do her crop also and see what’s in there.

You are amazing. So brave to take this on. I stand in awe of you.

 

[BY Bob]

Looks like that is the problem with having horses AND chickens, it appears they got into some of the horse hay...and that then plugged it up so nothing else went through.

I'm so sorry you (and she) are having to deal with this!

Have you thought of giving them cellulase? With a number of them having this issue, maybe putting it in the mash for a few days might be a good idea for everyone??? Won't hurt them, and may help any with a partial blockage! And give direct to those that seem to be having serious crop issues?

I like this idea. There may be many subclinical cases out there as well.

 

[BY Bob]

Still busy in hospital. More tests, drugs and oxygen treatments. Big test tomorrow. Great that you’re thinking of me

We are all thinking of you Alex.