Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ChicoryBlue]

She is much improved this morning. I still think she has something in her crop. She pooped 7 times and it actually has a little substance to it. She was also very hungry. Gave her some mash and grapes.

Yesterday I gave her a Docusate Sodium 100mg tablet. I massaged her crop for a count of 30 about every 30 minutes. I also have her some scrambled egg with anti fungal cream and baytril in it. She didn't touch it.

I still need to study up on how to flush her crop out, in case we need to do that. Worst case scenario, I've seen where they do surgery to clean it out. I really hope we won't have to do that.

I will put her back out with the flock today, but will keep a close eye on her as I think she still has a problem. I feel like I have bought her some time.

Thank you for all of the help.

A least she made it onto the paper 6 out of 7 times...lol

Edit: make that 8 times.
View attachment 4242020

Frequent crop massage will help, & those poops are a good sign, the last one looks great. If she has a problem further down her digestive tract it’s too soon to tell, so just go with the flow. @bgmathteach did successful crop surgery on one of her hens, Crop Girl, if you want to consult with her.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Poops looking good!
Another thing you can consider if you think stuff is blocking her crop is cellulase. It is a digestive enzyme that will break up tough plant stems.
I would not give Baytril. You don’t have good evidence of infection and you risk creating resistance as well as being tough in her.
Antifungal cream is good to stop the crop fermenting but getting it moving is the critical thing. Lots of massage has worked at least once for me.

 

[drstratton]

Poops looking good!
Another thing you can consider if you think stuff is blocking her crop is cellulase. It is a digestive enzyme that will break up tough plant stems.
I would not give Baytril. You don’t have good evidence of infection and you risk creating resistance as well as being tough in her.
Antifungal cream is good to stop the crop fermenting but getting it moving is the critical thing. Lots of massage has worked at least once for me.

That's what I was thinking too. You can see the grass in there. I was so happy to see that it was starting to break down. I was afraid that's what was causing the problem. But just didn't know.

I will see if I can find the cellulase. How do you administer that, does it come in pill form? I was thinking of giving her another dose of Docusate tomorrow, I'm not sure 2 days in a row would be a good idea. I will also go out peri today and massage her crop, if I can catch her...lol

I also need to figure out how administer the antifungal. I might see if I can find it in pill form when I'm in town tomorrow.

Thank you RC!

 

[drstratton]

Frequent crop massage will help, & those poops are a good sign, the last one looks great. If she has a problem further down her digestive tract it’s too soon to tell, so just go with the flow. @bgmathteach did successful crop surgery on one of her hens, Crop Girl, if you want to consult with her.

Yes, I was excited to see what the last one looked like. You can see the plant matter breaking down. I will continue massaging throughout the day.

I hope I won't have to do surgery, but told my husband this morning that it could come down to that. It's amazing what we can do for our flocks, but the thought of that one makes me a little nervous. I will do it if I have to. He's also very good at helping with things like this. We've done a few bumblefoot surgeries together.

Thank you so much!

 

[BY Bob]

 

[BY Bob]

Is there a basic ‘strength’ for Baytril? I.E.: 80mg/ml is in that infant Tylenol I use. Chicken dose is 10mg/kg, and then there would be 20mg in 0.25ml which would dose a 2kg bird.

Just so I know what ask my Vet for (I’ll get some before he heads south).

The Baytril we all have sourced is a 10% oral solution. 1 ml has 100mg.

 

[Candiru09]

So happy to see Niamh is doing better!

No one is really thirsty this Thursday after the amount of rain we've been getting. A neighbour brought over some giant, slightly slug-chewed cucumbers that'd been growing out of sight but no one was all that interested after a quick peck. They would've gone down a treat in what passes for summer here.
View attachment 4241952

Those are some nice looking little raptors.

 

[Labsandchickens8]

In my opinion, both would be good. More roost options: lowish tree branches/sturdy bushes(that double as places to hide under), higher "branches"(semi- ladder "stepping stones"), tree stumps, bricks, points to see above, places to go under (and sit on top of) are ALWAYS good. Even a semi-solid curtain modeled after those bead door curtains can be great. I've noticed that favorite hang outs allow birds to see out but not be seen (dappled leaf canopies). Duplicating synthetically is difficult, but you (and @ChicoryBlue ) have lots of ingenuity and plenty of minds to help spark ideas.

Another "roost" idea I've toyed with (and will probably implement if I'm ever able to build a bigger coop/coop-run combo) is a "tree stand": modeled after a coat stand, set in a solid base and fastened to the ceiling, with 2-3 foot "branches" extending out at most 4 feet at assorted heights in all directions. A 4x4 would be sturdy enough for the vertical, with the branches being 2 x 4 fastened flat side to the vertical or varying diameters found tree limbs, some entirely level and some more like natural branches coming off a tree. If there's a natural more level area bending off the end or a sturdy split at one end for the end perch, even better. Given the right branch, it could even be centered on the vertical. Change the face the next "branch" up is mounted to and you've built yourself an indoor (or in run) roosting "tree", taking up only the area of the length of the branches. How to do the "leafy" curtain....still mulling that one.

We made something like this for the new run we had to build for my Polish when one got attacked by the bullies of my big girls. They roosted in it at night all summer and now I'm trying to convince them to sleep in the coop at night because it's gotten chilly.

 

[Ponypoor]

The Baytril we all have sourced is a 10% oral solution. 1 ml has 100mg.

Good to know! Thanks!

 

[Ponypoor]

She is much improved this morning. I still think she has something in her crop. She pooped 7 times and it actually has a little substance to it. She was also very hungry. Gave her some mash and grapes.

Yesterday I gave her a Docusate Sodium 100mg tablet. I massaged her crop for a count of 30 about every 30 minutes. I also have her some scrambled egg with anti fungal cream and baytril in it. She didn't touch it.

I still need to study up on how to flush her crop out, in case we need to do that. Worst case scenario, I've seen where they do surgery to clean it out. I really hope we won't have to do that.

I will put her back out with the flock today, but will keep a close eye on her as I think she still has a problem. I feel like I have bought her some time.

Thank you for all of the help.

A least she made it onto the paper 6 out of 7 times...lol

Edit: make that 8 times.
View attachment 4242020

I had a hen with a crop impaction, I had been giving Ducosate and massaging for a few weeks and finally decided I would do the surgery.

Gathered all the gear from my Vet, then told BIL he would be my OR Nurse. So we planned for the next night.

Next morning went to the barn to massage her crop as usual and no more crop

I think I scared it out of her! But it resolved so I was glad I didn’t have to remove anything.

Unfortunately she passed away about 5 months later. I am sure she had some serious health issues, she had been egg bound, laid egg in an egg…. Then the crop…. Then she was ‘sick’ nothing specific - and passed away suddenly over night one night.

I wonder if she had a heart issue.