- Apr 21, 2016
- 3
- 3
- 62
Hey there, I have a little bit of a problem going on with one of my hens that has me concerned enough to dig up my old BYC account and make a post asking for some help, since I can't seem to find a similar situation already posted!
The short version is that my little pet hen ate a long strip of apple skin and it's been sitting in her crop for a few days and I'm freaking out over it, possibly unnecessarily but also possibly not unnecessarily, so I here I am to ask a million questions because I've not encountered this before!
The long version is that I have a two-year-old Red Sex Link hen who, on Friday night, decided to swallow a long, thin strip of apple skin. At the time of this post, it is nearing noon on Sunday and the skin is still in there. Her crop isn't impacted, really - she can still eat and drink and everything is passing right by the apple skin - but the skin itself is just not going anywhere and I am a little concerned about her going sour. I have been trying to gently move it around and break it up, but it is fairly hard and doing so clearly causes her discomfort. I've added apple cider vinegar to her water and she has access to clean water as well, but she isn't drinking as much as I would like. I'm sure her crop muscles are hurting from this thing. I am still letting her eat Dumor chicken crumble just to have something in there to grind against the apple skin alongside her regular grit, and skinless apple bits to keep up her hydration, since her crop is still emptying out and her poo appears pretty normal; this does concern me because I don't want to be feeding a sour crop with all those grains and sugars, but going a day with just water didn't seem to do much for the issue at hand yesterday, and even though she is a house hen, it's still pretty hot where I live.
She's also getting baby grit alongside her regular grit, and I have olive oil ready to go but I'll be honest and say I'm a little afraid of this big lump catching somewhere in her intestines and causing further issues so I haven't used it yet.
She doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot of suffering, and is preening and moving around. She certainly seems uncomfortable and a touch on the lethargic side (more napping than usual, but not deep or long napping, and she is getting up fairly often to stretch and preen and make angry noises at the loud songbirds outside the window). She is a pampered little house chicken who doesn't hide many of her symptoms of pain (she's actually quite dramatic about every little ouchie and hurt tumtum, so I do believe her when she acts like she's not wildly bothered). She isn't panting, squinting, or gritting her beak. Seeing as she is a pet, I will absolutely drag her to an avian vet if things get out of hand - she's been before and she'll certainly go again - but I'd rather avoid the two-hour-long drive because it is quite stressful for her and I don't want to cause more problems by sticking her in a loud vehicle when the issue might be solvable at home. She did just recently have an issue with some uncut, new-growth grass clogging up her intestines, which is why I'm responding to this apple skin with a lot of anxiety because I feel like we just did this song and dance (it cleared out with a ton of olive oil and some patience, but this time around is different and I'm naturally kind of a Nervous Nelly anyways).
Some possibly unrelated facts about this girl: she is also partially blind, which I believe is the reason why she thought she could tackle such an unwieldy amount of apple skin without just pecking it up first. It's also why she gets baby grit and oyster shell grit, because sometimes she just doesn't recognize oyster shell as a viable grit option and I have concerns of her not getting enough grit. She doesn't lay eggs anymore because of some lash egg issues she had back in January (and that still pop up from time to time, but this issue isn't related to her crop issues, so I won't go into it too much). She's kind of a hot little mess all around, so this apple thing is really just like, the cherry on top.
So, here's all the little panic questions currently going through my brain!
The short version is that my little pet hen ate a long strip of apple skin and it's been sitting in her crop for a few days and I'm freaking out over it, possibly unnecessarily but also possibly not unnecessarily, so I here I am to ask a million questions because I've not encountered this before!
The long version is that I have a two-year-old Red Sex Link hen who, on Friday night, decided to swallow a long, thin strip of apple skin. At the time of this post, it is nearing noon on Sunday and the skin is still in there. Her crop isn't impacted, really - she can still eat and drink and everything is passing right by the apple skin - but the skin itself is just not going anywhere and I am a little concerned about her going sour. I have been trying to gently move it around and break it up, but it is fairly hard and doing so clearly causes her discomfort. I've added apple cider vinegar to her water and she has access to clean water as well, but she isn't drinking as much as I would like. I'm sure her crop muscles are hurting from this thing. I am still letting her eat Dumor chicken crumble just to have something in there to grind against the apple skin alongside her regular grit, and skinless apple bits to keep up her hydration, since her crop is still emptying out and her poo appears pretty normal; this does concern me because I don't want to be feeding a sour crop with all those grains and sugars, but going a day with just water didn't seem to do much for the issue at hand yesterday, and even though she is a house hen, it's still pretty hot where I live.
She's also getting baby grit alongside her regular grit, and I have olive oil ready to go but I'll be honest and say I'm a little afraid of this big lump catching somewhere in her intestines and causing further issues so I haven't used it yet.
She doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot of suffering, and is preening and moving around. She certainly seems uncomfortable and a touch on the lethargic side (more napping than usual, but not deep or long napping, and she is getting up fairly often to stretch and preen and make angry noises at the loud songbirds outside the window). She is a pampered little house chicken who doesn't hide many of her symptoms of pain (she's actually quite dramatic about every little ouchie and hurt tumtum, so I do believe her when she acts like she's not wildly bothered). She isn't panting, squinting, or gritting her beak. Seeing as she is a pet, I will absolutely drag her to an avian vet if things get out of hand - she's been before and she'll certainly go again - but I'd rather avoid the two-hour-long drive because it is quite stressful for her and I don't want to cause more problems by sticking her in a loud vehicle when the issue might be solvable at home. She did just recently have an issue with some uncut, new-growth grass clogging up her intestines, which is why I'm responding to this apple skin with a lot of anxiety because I feel like we just did this song and dance (it cleared out with a ton of olive oil and some patience, but this time around is different and I'm naturally kind of a Nervous Nelly anyways).
Some possibly unrelated facts about this girl: she is also partially blind, which I believe is the reason why she thought she could tackle such an unwieldy amount of apple skin without just pecking it up first. It's also why she gets baby grit and oyster shell grit, because sometimes she just doesn't recognize oyster shell as a viable grit option and I have concerns of her not getting enough grit. She doesn't lay eggs anymore because of some lash egg issues she had back in January (and that still pop up from time to time, but this issue isn't related to her crop issues, so I won't go into it too much). She's kind of a hot little mess all around, so this apple thing is really just like, the cherry on top.
So, here's all the little panic questions currently going through my brain!
- Will this apple skin eventually break down and pass along? Do I just need to calm down a little and let time do its thing?
- If so, how long could that take? Or how long can I let it take without it becoming a clear issue?
- Does it pose any issues other than just sour crop to just leave it in there?
- Is olive oil a good idea or a bad idea at this stage?
- If she isn't drinking enough of the ACV water, will her crop go sour?
- Would ACV also help break down the apple skin? Is there something else I'm not thinking of that could help break it down?
- Can ACV be given directly (diluted, of course)? She's nearly impossible to get liquids into, what with all the flailing, but I can certainly give it a try.
- Should I give her something for pain management if her crop is hurting her and that's the reason she's not drinking as much? I have low-dose aspirin and have used half a pill in the past to take care of pain in chickens, but I also really don't want to be giving her aspirin if it isn't going to help because I don't want to cause any gastrointestinal issues on top of crop issues.
