Help..cannot find answer on internet. Long grass coming out of vent, chicken cannot pass it

[AmandaMae]

The past few days one of our chickens has been acting ill/different. We separated her and began examining her. Egg bound, sour crop, etc. No clear answer. I did let the chickens out after fresh cut lawn a couple days before and the next day gave fresh hay after I cleaned the coop and I had a feeling maybe she had either hay or grass possibly impacted in crop or something along those lines. Though he crop didn't seem full, she hadn't been eating... so I went with that. Treated for impacted/sour crop. Yogurt, probiotic powder, Apple cider vinegar, oregano oil, olive oil. I tried a little of everything. She seemed to get better, gain appetite.


Here's my problem now....Today I noticed a large clump of grass hanging from her vent. About 10 to 15 blades of grass binded together in a goopy clump. We tried to gently coax it but it won't come easily and we're afraid of prolapsing the vent. We soaked her in warm water twice this evening, applied hemorrhoid cream, and I gave her some more olive oil to drink. The baths are stimulating poops and the grass may have come out a bit further but she is retracting it in and out. Not constantly.. only when she is pooping. Then it goes back in.
I'm hoping you can help. I have no idea what else to do and we cannot find anything online about this.

 

[AmandaMae]

Sorry for the unpleasant picture. A couple hours after posting she passed the grass. Thank goodness. The photo above is the huge chunk of grass. About 5 inches long and just impacted together so tightly. I know this did not feel good going through the poor girl. The red lighting is a heat lamp to keep her warm from her warm.soaking this evening. Just wanted to share this for anyone out there that comes across this issue and needs help. Not sure if what we did really helped or if she would have naturally passed the grass eventually. Her vent looks a bit swollen maybe but not prolapsed hat so ever. I'm not sure if we're in the clear quite yet but you can tell she feels much better already. Is now vet relaxed and sleeping in our mudroom under close observation.

Going continue with apple cider vinegar an oil treatments a bit longer as.precaution.

Now we just need to figure out how to help her gain some weight back and make sure her eggs begin coming out safely again. She hasn't laid in two days but also hasn't ate in about 4.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Glad you were able to get that out.

Offer her some higher protein food like egg, tuna or mackerel or you can giver her some chick starter or an all flock/flock raiser feed.
Make sure she has oyster shell and poultry grit available. If she lost the weight because she was impacted, she should gain it back fairly easily. Just give her a little time.
If you have poultry vitamins, add that to her water.

Let us know how she is doing.

 

[AmandaMae]

Glad you were able to get that out.

Offer her some higher protein food like egg, tuna or mackerel or you can giver her some chick starter or an all flock/flock raiser feed.
Make sure she has oyster shell and poultry grit available. If she lost the weight because she was impacted, she should gain it back fairly easily. Just give her a little time.
If you have poultry vitamins, add that to her water.

Let us know how she is doing.

Thanks so much. Checked on her first thing this morning and she had pooped a lot more. No grass that i can see. I'm assuming just a bunch of waste her body had been producing the past few days. I assumed she hadn't been producing poop because she wasn't eating... Gave her a bit of some boiled egg, grower food and grit. She happily ate then drank. We're going to take it slow today then up her food over the next few days.

Still going to treat for sour crop and avoid other treats not easily ground in crop as I noticed a "yawn" last night then again this morning. Not excessive just once or twice. Her breath is fine... just taking precaution.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Quote:
Sounds good.

Let us know how she's doing.