Have your chickens ever eaten screws????

[llandry]

I passed my sons metal detector over my chickens. It only goes off over the one i know for sure ate the screw. It goes off when i'm near her crop so i'm assuming that's where it is sitting.

Is there any way to make a chicken vomit up what's in their crop and is it even worth trying?

 

[bird sitter]

That is exactly what I was about to recommend. It might be a little painful for her, but if you can squeeze her crop with your fingers to try and locate the screw. When you do keep squeezing under it and literally push it up her throat! If my birds eat something I make them drink a lot of water and once it's full you squeeze their crop and BLEH! Lol

 

[bird sitter]

Please keep us updated! Good luck!

 

[Acefit411]

llandry, how is she doing? Thinking about her (and you) Please update when you can!!!

My hen Bea, who ate a push-pin is not doing so well. She has not been right for over a week now!
she hasn't eaten much in the last few days, and seems like it's getting less ;(

I have been giving her all soft foods, she turns her nose up at most of them. I offered her fresh clover from our yard and she ate all of them! Otherwise, she has had some bread (with olive oil), spaghetti (with olive oil), cottage cheese, grapes. I have even given cat food drenched in olive oil...

I checked her crop today, a very small knot (less than a ping pong ball), I massaged it for about 20 minutes. When my BF comes home, I will have him help me give her a tsp of olive oil. I'm so WORRIED about her. She is still standing, red comb and wattles, bright eyed. I'm loosing my mind over this though. NO MORE CHICKENS FOR ME ;( this is just to **** stressful...

 

[bird sitter]

If you really REALLY want to save this chicken taking her to the vet might be your last resort. I'm sure the could do a quick surgery and take it out and she could make a quick recovery.

 

[Acefit411]

Should any vet work on a chicken? Most of the vets that are in my area, don't work on poultry ;(
I would attempt to do the surgery myself, but I do not have any cutting / and or suturing kits.
Do you think that I could walk the vet through this? I know I could ~lol

I gave her a tsp of olive oil and massaged her crop again. How long is the wait time to see results in her poop or if I'm even doing this correctly?

;0 Thank god for this site... I would be loosing my mind by now.

 

[cafarmgirl]

Should any vet work on a chicken? Most of the vets that are in my area, don't work on poultry ;(
I would attempt to do the surgery myself, but I do not have any cutting / and or suturing kits.
Do you think that I could walk the vet through this? I know I could ~lol

I gave her a tsp of olive oil and massaged her crop again. How long is the wait time to see results in her poop or if I'm even doing this correctly?

;0 Thank god for this site... I would be loosing my mind by now.

If she possibly has a push pin in her crop I don't think I'd be massaging it. It may have caused a perforation. Surgery is probably the only way to save this bird. Most avian or exotic animal vets can perform the surgery, if you have one anywhere near you.

 

[LedgeWoods]

Culled a few of my older free ranging hens last month and found one gizzard containing glass, zipper teeth, a spray can nozzle, and 2 .22 casings! What was she thinking!???! Who knows how long she had that in her. Aside from being old, she had no symptoms of it bothering her either.
If the sharp tip gets naturally ground down with the rocks in her crop, she may be just fine...I think it's anyone's guess.

 

[Acefit411]

Update:

I made a MISTAKE ....an hour after I gave Bea a teaspoon of olive oil, and massaged her crop a bit ~ I walked away and started dinner. I came back into the garage to find her eating (I forgot to pick her food up)... the most she has in 4 days!!!! I was so happy to see her eating that I didn't think it was a bad thing until I closed the lights and remembered some of the threads I have read here.

Have I set her back again?
I'm hoping to see a better poop first thing in the morning... what are the odds? And how should I handle this going forward? Soft foods and keep monitoring?

THANKS ALL!

 

[llandry]

That's crazy! Ok i feel a bit better now. Thank you so much for sharing this.

Acefit411- my knowledge base is cats and dogs but the fact that she's not eating as normal and is lethargic makes me worry that the pin is causing a problem. I don't think her intestines have perforated because once that occurs it's a very quick and rapid decline. I agree that i might not massage the crop any more. If she's eating bits here and there and the crop is not getting more distended and hard, things are passing out of it. At this point i think all you can do (which is what i'm doing too) is carry on as normal.

I brought my BO to the hospital i work in to do some radiographs just to see where the screw is. It was in her crop a few days ago but i think its moved out of it. I can squeeze the entire crop pretty easily and i don't feel it. I contemplated at that time to anesthetize her and clean out her crop but changed my mind. An exotics specialist said they would not recommend doing anything invasive until she's showing symptoms. Trying to treat her can be extremely stressful on her and you could be in the same situation as LedgeWoods. Hopefully both of us will have nothing to worry about.

Keep me posted!