Hen eating feathers - impacted crop/gizzard

[mama23]

Hi, last year during a bad moult, my now 7 yo buff orpington ended up in a horrible crop yeast infection. Crop surgery got rid of all the blockages and then she was on meds for the yeast. She didn't have much debris in her crop last year during surgery, but opening it up and cleaning her out allowed the roughage stuck in her colon to move on out somehow.

She is on the schedule for crop surgery again in two days. Moulting makes her sick. I've seen it in a few of my hens that they just can't handle a moult well. Stop eating, crop impacts, they try to eat roughage etc. I have seen her eating her feathers (she is not eating the new feathers coming in .... she's eating the old feathers being shed!) and I've got her crop down to the size of a large marble. This has been going on for a month. Two weeks ago I got her completely emptied out but she filled back up on me bc I released her too soon. She was about the size of two golf balls at that point. I have worked with her over the last two weeks to get it to shrink.

Only large marble size remains and I think it's possibly bundled feathers, although it's very firm in the mornings. I think some of them already passed went through bc she's desperate to eat anything such as pine shavings, etc. She has only pooped out one feather so far. I'm concerned there are some trapped in her gizzard unable to exit. Probably why she's eating feathers. So she's in this vicious circle right now. Eating the very thing that's making her worse.

She eats feed but stays inside my house with me all day. It's very stressful having to watch for her to groom and when the feathers fall on the table I have to grab them before she does. I'm concerned even if I proceed with surgery on Friday that she will just eat more feathers and fill back up again post-surgery. But I'm afraid if I don't get it then her already affected gizzard could be all the way blocked.

I have searched the forums as I normally do before I post and I can't find any info on hens eating feathers. Anyone have experience how to deal with this?

Thanks.

ETA: I am unable to delete this thread, but she is now pooping out feathers. So hopefully with time this will resolve.

 

[NatJ]

ETA: I am unable to delete this thread, but she is now pooping out feathers. So hopefully with time this will resolve.

I am glad she is improving!

If you really want the thread deleted, you can click the "report" button at the bottom of your post. Type an explanation in the popup box, and it goes to one of the moderators. They are able to delete threads.

Or you can just leave the thread where it is, and anyone searching in the future may find it and learn something from your hen's experience.

 

[nuthatched]

Hens eating feathers is often a sign of low protein. What food do they eat?

 

[Saaniya]

Hi, last year during a bad moult, my now 7 yo buff orpington ended up in a horrible crop yeast infection. Crop surgery got rid of all the blockages and then she was on meds for the yeast. She didn't have much debris in her crop last year during surgery, but opening it up and cleaning her out allowed the roughage stuck in her colon to move on out somehow.

She is on the schedule for crop surgery again in two days. Moulting makes her sick. I've seen it in a few of my hens that they just can't handle a moult well. Stop eating, crop impacts, they try to eat roughage etc. I have seen her eating her feathers (she is not eating the new feathers coming in .... she's eating the old feathers being shed!) and I've got her crop down to the size of a large marble. This has been going on for a month. Two weeks ago I got her completely emptied out but she filled back up on me bc I released her too soon. She was about the size of two golf balls at that point. I have worked with her over the last two weeks to get it to shrink.

Only large marble size remains and I think it's possibly bundled feathers, although it's very firm in the mornings. I think some of them already passed went through bc she's desperate to eat anything such as pine shavings, etc. She has only pooped out one feather so far. I'm concerned there are some trapped in her gizzard unable to exit. Probably why she's eating feathers. So she's in this vicious circle right now. Eating the very thing that's making her worse.

She eats feed but stays inside my house with me all day. It's very stressful having to watch for her to groom and when the feathers fall on the table I have to grab them before she does. I'm concerned even if I proceed with surgery on Friday that she will just eat more feathers and fill back up again post-surgery. But I'm afraid if I don't get it then her already affected gizzard could be all the way blocked.

I have searched the forums as I normally do before I post and I can't find any info on hens eating feathers. Anyone have experience how to deal with this?

Thanks.

ETA: I am unable to delete this thread, but she is now pooping out feathers. So hopefully with time this will resolve.

how many feathers she ate ?
it’s a bad bad habit but if she’s pooping them then it’s all good to know that things get better

my roosters twice swallowed stuff like Labradorite crystal bead and plastic bead after 24h i see it in their poop shining

 

[Lillith37]

I suspect one of my hens ate a feather (either that or a nail — eek) and it caused blockages and she had slowed crop for a week/ten days. This hen has recurrent crop issues most likely because she eats things she shouldn’t.

I agree that her protein could be an issue. Especially if she’s moulting.

Feeding egg white can help wrap around sharp things and allow for smoother passing. Another remedy is fennel tea (boiled fennel or fennel seeds in water) which helps improve gastric motility. And of course coconut oil to break up any masses present in her crop.

Sometimes things hens eat end up forming part of their gizzard. Upon necropsy all sorts of things can be found in the gizzard.

Best of luck to you and your girl

 

[mama23]

Hi, in Greta's case, she was eating them because she's desperate for some sort of roughage bc of this junk being in her gizzard. She has been getting supplemental cat food for extra protein. She eats Nature's Best organic. She had surgery today and she had a massive feather impaction as expected. It's disgusting and suspicious for yeast as well, so she's been started on treatment for that. Feathers were all knotted together. She's on strict watch until she begins to function properly. No grit was getting through because it was tangled in the feather wad, so she would be desperate to eat any large grass or pine shavings, and unfortunately feathers which are freely flowing at the moment. Hoping I can keep her clear.

 

[mama23]

Just updating for anyone in the future. It's been a week since my last post and it's becoming more and more obvious that she had stuffed her gizzard. She has an x-ray coming up on the 25th if she is still having issues, but I gave her a molasses flush (did not have any luck with epsom salt flushes) and the molasses helped her pass out more feathers, and lots of grit. Yesterday alone she pooped out 16 normal size red grit (dumor brand TSC) and one small grit. The previous day she pooped out 3 normal size and 5 small. Today she has pooped out one so far. So that's 20 normal size grit and 6 small grit since two days ago. She doesn't have access to anything bc she's in my house and completely restricted. I know she ate three pieces of gravel (one was size of large pea, too big IMO). That was about 3 days prior to her surgery and he didn't find it when he emptied her crop so it's in her gizzard still. I'm hoping for those to come out. I started another little dose of molasses to see if more can be flushed out. She is getting frozen coconut oil balls every few hours (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 tsp a few times a day) to help lubricate her gizzard. Will update when I know more. Doubt there's too many out there with a feather eating, gizzard packed chicken, but if there is, I hope this helps.

Also, in looking back through these posts, it's very obvious to me that so many of the gizzard and crop issues are buff orpingtons. I've had this same experience with this breed. Wonder if it's genetic with this breed.

 

[mama23]

One more update. Just in case someone needs this as badly as I did. I ended up getting Greta Kaytee Exact. It has pretty good nutritional info. Protein is 22% and she needed that so bad. It also has a lot of other things her body needed. She's been on it a few weeks. I noticed her intense desperate need to get outside stopped after being on it a few days. It's easy to tube if you need to. I tubed her the first time but didn't have to after because she loved it so much. Number one ingredient is corn unfortunately, but so is my feed so I'm just watching her. She is gaining weight nicely on it. She began another moult. This is the third round this season. So far she isn't eating the feathers. I assumed she was eating them last time because of a mechanical reason, to alleviate the gizzard issues. I think ultimately she was lacking a lot in her body nutritionally because she had stopped eating a month prior. If she recovers from her grit impacted gizzard and has another moult next fall, I will start her on the Kaytee immediately. Highly recommend keeping this stuff around. It can be tubed or fed as mash, any consistency.

 

[Chicken_Bureaucrat]

@mama23 Just want to say, please don't delete this thread! I'm having a very similar issue with my BCM and this is super helpful.

I've had her on higher protein chick feed with high methionine (precursor to cysteine, major component of keratin for feathers) hoping getting her the nutrition she needed to make feathers would discourage her from eating her feathers but it doesn't seem to have.

I will try to get her on the Kaytee Extract. Is this the one you got? https://www.kaytee.com/all-products/pet-bird/exact-hand-feeding

I noticed you mentioned your hen wanted to eat wood shavings as well? Mine is doing that to every time I let her out to see if she will behave so I have to keep her isolated which is sad for her! You seem to understand why this is? I'm not super familiar, could you explain? Do they need roughage in their diet and that's why they go for fiber-y things?

And one last question! How are you keeping her from eating feathers Do you just have her inside and you grab them when you can?