Help! Chicken crop turning black!

[Jaxolotl]

Hi folks, this is my first time really talking here, but I’ve seen that a lot of good advice can be found for helping chickens in need.

One of my hens was displaying symptoms of sour crop, I massaged her crop a few nights ago, and she regurgitated quite a bit of solids and liquids, and towards the end, blood.
Her behavior was better the next day, but has declined once again. She’s pooped a few times but there has occasionally been what looks to be blood or intestinal lining in it. Very watery as she’s not been eating a lot.
Her crop is getting somewhat darker, and I’ve seen this with a previous hen who passed away with an entirely black crop. The vet gave her an autopsy for free, but then retired and never followed up.
What could the “black crop” that I saw then and again now be caused by? Is there any good way to help?
Any advice is appreciated!!!
Thanks!

 

[TheWasp]

Hi folks, this is my first time really talking here, but I’ve seen that a lot of good advice can be found for helping chickens in need.

One of my hens was displaying symptoms of sour crop, I massaged her crop a few nights ago, and she regurgitated quite a bit of solids and liquids, and towards the end, blood.
Her behavior was better the next day, but has declined once again. She’s pooped a few times but there has occasionally been what looks to be blood or intestinal lining in it. Very watery as she’s not been eating a lot.
Her crop is getting somewhat darker, and I’ve seen this with a previous hen who passed away with an entirely black crop. The vet gave her an autopsy for free, but then retired and never followed up.
What could the “black crop” that I saw then and again now be caused by? Is there any good way to help?
Any advice is appreciated!!!
Thanks!

Can you post pictures? It'll help us, help you.

 

[coach723]

Definitely pictures.
Even if the vet retired, the practice likely still has records, I would call and ask if they do.
Initial thought, ingesting something that was hard/sharp which stuck in the crop or just below that may have caused a puncture, blocking digestion, and becoming necrotic from the injury and resulting infection, ie: hardware disease.

 

[Jaxolotl]

@coach723 @TheWasp here’s some pictures of my current chickens crop:
I do also hope I wasn’t massaging her crop too hard and that’s what did this. Let me know what you think.

 

[Jaxolotl]

Here’s some photos of my previous hen, Willow’s, crop which had turned completely black, she passed away earlier this year unfortunately

 

[coach723]

The bird that passed, that looks like necrotic tissue. Other bird, looks like it's going that way. I would call the vet, see if there is a report from the bird that was necropsied. Vet care is probably your best option at this point. If metal was ingested, that would show up on xray. If that's the case, and it's in an operable spot, then that might be the only way to resolve it, followed by antibiotics, if it's not too far advanced. A cancer/tumor also occured to me, but it would seem odd to have two with exactly the same thing. If you lose this one, then I would highly recommend sending her off for a necropsy, some of the state labs are not terribly expensive. With two birds having the same issues, I would definitely want to know what's going on.
Necropsy resources, by state:
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/nahln/downloads/all_nahln_lab_list.pdf

https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

 

[Jaxolotl]

Unfortunately, I don’t think there are any avian vets available on the area, especially on short notice. I can contact the vet office about the previous case, but I’m not sure how much that would help right now. Is there anything you think I can do at home to help her? Or would an x ray and surgery be the only way?

Also, what would be other symptoms of a cancer, how would it display itself? I cant find anything about cancers in chickens online. :/

 

[coach723]

Chickens get all kinds of cancers. Reproductive cancers, and tumors caused by Marek's disease and Lymphoid leukosis being probably the most common. If you google "cancers in chickens" you will get some links. I think imaging at least, would be helpful, to know what you are dealing with. I'm not saying it IS cancer, just another possibility. I think it's more likely that it's necrosis caused by infection of some kind, possibly from swallowing a foreign object. But those are just guesses based on where it is, and could be very off base. Without imaging, or opening her up to look, that's really all anyone can do.