Hen has swollen crop and is falling forward

[McGoo]

My son has a New Hampshire Red 6 - 7 mos, laying. It has a swollen crop - quite large and the poor gal is falling forward and sideways and favoring one leg. Don't know of anything that's caused it. It's been raining and recently got a frost, but the coop is partially insulated. She's one of 15 hens and no others are showing signs of sickness. This is their first experience with chickens... and the first to get sick.

What could this be??? I read about Crop stasis? Could it be? What's the best 1st step? separate? Liquids? Nystanin? What should they do? Massage with oil? yogurt?

Appreciate any help!

Thanks so much,
Colleen

 

[eggzettera]

I have been watching to see how this turns out, I can not help (new to this) just wondering how they are doing - do they have access to grit - thats all I can think of.....impacted crop...has she eaten something the other have not or MORE of something the others also had.....

 

[GloriaH]

Check some of the past postings. I seem to remember this happening not to long ago. If you with hold feed for a day does the crop go down. I seem to remember something about giving olive oil.

 

[dlhunicorn]

your bird sounds very ill with an impacted crop... you can try massaging it ... not giving any grains and such ... but I suspect she will need a vets intervention to empty it.

 

[McGoo]

Actuallly it's my son's hen. His wife asked me to post to see what suggestions you had. The hen is still not well, but better than initially. The crop seems to go down a bit, but not better. She gets around okay, but when eating she sits and eats and then has trouble.

They have been massaging, but the crop has not totally emptied. I read about flushing the crop with saline. Problem is that it sounds like the chicken needs a vet to clean out the crop and I don't think that that is an option.

As for the olive oil - what do you do - drop it down the chicken's throat? Not sure what to do there.

Sincerely appreciate the help. And I'll keep you posted.
Colleen

 

[dlhunicorn]

you can also add a bit of AppCider Vinegar to the waterer... anything going into the crop and stays there for any length of time will ferment so to speak.
Have your son and daughter look at the articles at Alan Stanfords site on Impacted crop there are three... very informative:
http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article.html
((link menu to the different articles is on the left hand side)

 

[McGoo]

Thanks for the link to the articles. They are very good. It almost sounds like the only way to resolve an impacted crop is to perform surgery. Yikes. I'll definitely send them the information.

Colleen