Help Please, Chickie cant swallow

[Lobzi]

Can you please give me some advice on how to help my Chickie. She normally had a great appetite but last night when I let her out of the pen and tried to feed her, she was producing a lot of saliva and didnt seem able to swallow. She acts like she want to eat though. I did give her a mealworm or two successfully. Same thing this morning.
Her crop seemed hard and very distended last night and is still that way this morning.
Is there anything I can do for her? How do I best handle this? Should I offer her food or not? She also keeps scratching at her beak area.
I will appreciate any advice you can offer. Thanks in advance.

 

[Lobzi]

She also doesnt seem to be comfortable laying down. She isnt moving much but wanted to stand and that is not normal for her.

 

[arlee453]

Sounds like an impacted crop.

1) Isolate her - bring her in the house or garage, etc in a small crate or pen where you can monitor her intake/output.

2) Remove all feed and just give water for 24 hours and see what happens with the crop. Hopefully that will give whatever is in there time to break up and move on through.

3) You can also try giving small pieces of bread SOAKED in olive oil before the fast to try to lubricate up the crop and help things breakup and move along. Feed her the oily bread and then use your hand to massage the crop externally to help break things up.

4) Last resort is to open the crop and remove the impaction. There's a sticky at the top of the emergency/diseases section that has more information on doing that surgery on your chicken yourself.

Hope she pulls through for you!

here's another good webpage on crop problems too:

http://wiki.thepoultrykeeper.co.uk/index.php/Crop_Problems

 

[Lobzi]

Thank you so much. That is my plan. She stays in the house today. I put only water with Apple Cider Vinegar and some peanut oil soaked bread out for her to eat. She is eating mealworms the best of anything though.

 

[Lobzi]

Oh yes, I did spend some time massaging her crop. She seems to have perked up a bit but I am still sticking to my plan for today.
Could this be due to too much corn kernels? She loves it and I think she might have over eaten what I put out for her and Roo.

 

[arlee453]

I would take the mealworms out until the crisis has passed.

Getting the crop down is more important than getting calories in her at this point, and mealworms are a bit crunchy for a hen already having crop problems.

Until the crop goes down, it doesn't matter how much you get in her, it's not going to be used for nutrition anyway as it can't pass through her digestive tract.

I'd stick to the bread/oil and massage only with the water for 24 hours and then see where you are.

 

[Lobzi]

OK no more for her... I just knew I could get her to eat them if she could get anything down it would be a mealworm. THey are the live kind if that matters. I figured moisture. She is not drinking anything.