Hen recovering from sour/impacted crop - trying to get her better and gain weight

[pbrenneraz]

I apologize in advance that this is a long post. I have an approximately 3 year old australorp that developed an impacted and/or sour crop about 3 weeks ago. We brought her inside and put her in a large dog crate. I read a lot on what to do for her, and we ended up massaging her crop to get the crud out of it. On the third day a large ball of seeds/scratch/pellets came up. I treated her with generic monistat for 7 days and the crop seems to be working, and there is no more bad smell. The problem is that she is barely interested in eating. We use dog kennels for our coop, so on warmer afternoons (temps about 65 and sunny), we put her in a separate kennel where she could see the flock and that seemed to help a little - she would drink water and peck at things, but not very much. I tried all kinds of treats, but nothing tempts her. So I've been hand feeding her a softened mash of layer crumble mixed with ground up meal worms, but I don't think I've given her enough. Her crop does seem to go down normally with the hand feeding. I don't have poop pictures, but I'll try - it's mostly been on her butt (so I bathe her rear and blow dry her) - no obvious blood, lots of white. I travel between Arizona and Texas and my flock comes with me in 2 large dog crates. I have food and cup waterers in the crates, and give them watermelon (just fyi, they have always done fine on the trips, with no change in egg-laying during or after). This little girl attacked the watermelon like crazy, even eating some pellets I dropped on it: I hoped that meant we turned a corner. But now we're back in Texas and once again she's not very interested in food. After doing even more reading here, I increased the water and amount of food I hand feed and weighed her this morning: she is 1750 g, which I realize is very underweight. This picture is just a few minutes ago after our morning feeding, she always seems a little sleepy after getting the food. She does move around and peck half heartedly, and seems to really want to live, so I want to try harder to get her well. I ordered tube feeding equipment and Kaytee exact bird formula which will arrive today, and hope that will work. I welcome any advice. Thanks in advance

 

[azygous]

Have you checked her crop in the morning before she eats or drinks anything to be sure her crop is emptying overnight?

Usually, if the crop issue has resolved, that in itself triggers the appetite to return. I'm suspecting the crop disorder may have not fully resolved. Do the morning crop inspection so we know.

 

[pbrenneraz]

Have you checked her crop in the morning before she eats or drinks anything to be sure her crop is emptying overnight?

Usually, if the crop issue has resolved, that in itself triggers the appetite to return. I'm suspecting the crop disorder may have not fully resolved. Do the morning crop inspection so we know.

Thank you - yes her crop seems pretty empty in the morning. I fed her far more today than I've been able to up to this point and her crop is very full tonight. I'll definitely check it in the morning. Each night I worry that this will be the night she passes, and then get hope back when I see her moving around in the mornings (albeit very slowly).

 

[azygous]

Try giving probiotics to restore good microbes in her digestive system. Tempt her with cooked egg and boiled rice with yogurt or keifer mixed in. These are the things that get my sick chickens going again. They need to get some strength back in order to feel like eating.

 

[pbrenneraz]

Have you checked her crop in the morning before she eats or drinks anything to be sure her crop is emptying overnight?

Usually, if the crop issue has resolved, that in itself triggers the appetite to return. I'm suspecting the crop disorder may have not fully resolved. Do the morning crop inspection so we know.

Well this morning her crop was still full. I brought her inside to clean her butt and took some pictures to show her poop. While blow drying her, she started to regurgitate. I helped her and took a picture of what came out, and it smells bad again. I pulled out the monistat and gave her a dose. While returning her to her crate, she suddenly let loose with diarrhea and regurgitating. I thought she was dying, since her head was lolling to one side and her eyes were closed. I put her upside down and massaged her crop and shook her -and a LOT more stuff came out from the crop. I thought she was in the process of dying but she's still alive for the moment. The stuff she regurgitated has what looks like scratch seeds in it, and she hasn't had access to scratch for 3 weeks now, so I'm guessing there was/is still some kind of blockage. Something is getting through since she does have some poop coming out. I was wrong on her weight yesterday, I must not have hit the tare button. She was 1413 g this morning before all the regurgitation. The pictures below show the poop on the towel she slept on, as well as on her butt. The 3rd poop picture is of the clump that I pulled off her butt. The crop pic is the first stuff that came out, she regurgitated about that much or more when I thought she was dying in my arms. Poor thing really wants to live, and I feel helpless at this point.

 

[azygous]

Impacted crop with yeast is difficult to adequately treat. Here's my article on treating crop issues. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

The first thing to do is to treat the impaction with coconut oil. It will require some real work for much of the day. The idea is to bombard the crop with the oil, do massage, then more oil, and by the afternoon, you may need a stool softener. Once you clear the crop, then miconazole twice a day for another seven days. But read the article for details.

Offer grit and plenty of water today. It will help the process.

 

[pbrenneraz]

Impacted crop with yeast is difficult to adequately treat. Here's my article on treating crop issues. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

The first thing to do is to treat the impaction with coconut oil. It will require some real work for much of the day. The idea is to bombard the crop with the oil, do massage, then more oil, and by the afternoon, you may need a stool softener. Once you clear the crop, then miconazole twice a day for another seven days. But read the article for details.

Offer grit and plenty of water today. It will help the process.

Thank you - she won't drink on her own at this point, so I assume I should give it to her via syringe? And put the grit in her mouth? I'm thankful I work from home so I can work with her. Thank you for your help.

 

[pbrenneraz]

Impacted crop with yeast is difficult to adequately treat. Here's my article on treating crop issues. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

The first thing to do is to treat the impaction with coconut oil. It will require some real work for much of the day. The idea is to bombard the crop with the oil, do massage, then more oil, and by the afternoon, you may need a stool softener. Once you clear the crop, then miconazole twice a day for another seven days. But read the article for details.

Offer grit and plenty of water today. It will help the process.

Well unfortunately, she died in my arms while I was massaging the oil. I hope I didn't hurt her, but she was quite weak at this point. When I quit crying, I'm going to try to open her up and see what's going on.

 

[azygous]

I was just going to make the observation that she may be getting too weak to recover. I'm sorry we couldn't do more for her. Do read the article on crop issues when you have time. Getting to the problem early and knowing what you're dealing with helps.

It's almost always something like cancer or other chronic issue that causes the crop issue. So, you may find tumors are behind this.