missbeasty
Chirping
- Aug 1, 2022
- 17
- 21
- 54
Hello friends, I'm having some trouble with my girl Creamsicle. I've been working on her for a couple of weeks, reaching the end of my "troubleshooting" list and I'm at a loss. She has improved and is stable, but I'm starting to worry she won't survive if I discontinue aggressive interventions like forcing water via tube-feeding. I have kept a day-by-day chicken health journal detailing what I have observed and tried. I will paste this below the normal BYC info survey. It's a lot of text, I apologize, but I hope this will be helpful to anyone else experiencing the same symptoms in their flock. I will post updates as I can!
TL;DR: Her crop is draining liquids, but retaining solids. I think at one point she was impacted with grass clippings. It seems like she has cleared out the grass, but she is still not moving solid food normally. I just put her in a crop bra, though I'm skeptical it's pendulous crop... her crop is on the small side compared to my other chickens and has never felt very full. I'm more worried it's a problem downstream, in her gizzard or intestines.
1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
She is a backyard mutt bred by my neighbor, looks like a "golden comet" type to me. She is a few months shy of 2 years old. I don't have an exact weight of before/after illness, but she is very thin. She was skin and bones at one point but has put on noticeable weight through treatment.
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
At this point, looking behaviorally very normal: alert, bright-eyed and feisty, appetite for normal food, drinking water... but retaining a firm/doughy lump of food solids in her crop. I don't know if it's because she's not drinking enough water, or just that her crop is not fully emptying, and the solids are settling at the bottom and becoming compacted. She is pooping, but it's very loose/watery. I don't know when she last laid an egg. Her abdomen feels very thin. I have had girls with EYP, ascites, cancer, etc. and know that an abdomen that feels nice and full and meaty doesn't necessarily mean a bird is healthy, and it could actually be full of tumors or egg junk. All that to say -- the fact that she feels very thin makes me hopeful she doesn't have a terminal condition like cancer or EYP. I am not very familiar with chicken organs, but palpating her abdomen, I don't feel anything remarkable (to me) among her internal organs, nothing unusually hard, etc.. I've spent a lot of time feeling what I think is her gizzard, wondering if she has an impaction there. It feels maybe a bit larger than I would expect a gizzard to be, but not rock-hard, just meaty and firm like a muscle. My vet, while examining other birds of mine, commented that she could feel their gizzard contract (taken as a good sign) but I haven't noticed anything like a muscle contraction in Cream's abdomen. I can feel her crop muscles move occasionally when I massage her crop. I don't know, should I be able to feel some gizzard activity? Am I feeling the wrong organ, maybe? It doesn't seem like there's much else I can reach that isn't blocked by her ribs or pelvic bone.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
About 3 weeks, possibly longer. I noticed at bedtime, she consistently had a small, firm/doughy lump of food in her crop. I had been away for a while so I'm not sure when it started, and I did not observe her behavior leading up to it.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
Currently... no. But I have lost 3 other birds in the last couple of months, each with slightly different symptoms. Nobody has had respiratory symptoms, but there's a lot of loose poops lately. I do not suspect anything contagious. I'm not sure about environmental / husbandry issues. I rarely give treats or free-range this time of year when it's hot and stormy. We don't use any kind of poisons on our property (pesticides, herbicides, pest poison, etc.) and don't apply fertilizer to our grass. I use plastic bell-style waterers. A few months ago I put a copper disc in each waterer to keep down algae growth. The copper seems to work marvelously at that, but I'm not sure if it might have weird side effects for the chickens? Once a feed bag is opened, I store the pellets in closed plastic buckets. I worry about the feed in the coops going off with the heavy summer humidity, but I have not noticed anything different about it in appearance, consistency or smell. No new birds; Creamsicle is part of our latest batch from 2023. I did notice, looking through their feathers, that all of my birds have some teeny tiny white/light-colored mites. I am not sure what species they are, they don't look like any of the photos I've seen online.. they're extremely tiny, barely visible to my eye. But it doesn't seem to be a heavy infestation, I don't see anything that looks like nits or eggs, the girls aren't scratching or picking or anything to indicate discomfort. I was thinking to dust the girls and their nest boxes with Dust-On (permethrin) just in case? Otherwise, all of my surviving chickens are looking and acting like their scrappy normal selves.
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No signs of bleeding or broken bones. One of her eyes is sensitive and looks "off" (under a bright light, the pupil looks green with little bits of debris inside). I am fairly certain I injured her eye by accident as she struggled against tube-feeding, like she brushed it on my finger maybe? It has improved over time but it is not normal. I don't know what her vision is like in that eye.
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
I suspect that she over-indulged in long grass clippings, got impacted, and slowly starved until I noticed she was in dire straits and intervened. But I am concerned there is something else internally wrong with her GI system, since she is no longer pooping grass but still not moving solids properly. She does not have a history of health issues or reproductive issues, and has seemed very healthy and spry until this.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
At this point, she is eating her normal pellets (Nutrena NatureWise 16% layer feed) and drinking on her own (though I am not sure she is drinking enough water). I have been tube-feeding her water with some supplements (vitamins, digestive aids) mixed in to loosen up the solids in her crop and make sure she's hydrated. I have been withholding food frequently to monitor how her crop is moving solids. At her lowest point, she was skin and bones with no appetite, and I tube-fed her a mix of Kaytee Exact and Oxbow carnivore critical care. A few times I have offered her some egg (raw and cooked) but she doesn't seem to care for egg.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
At this point, her poop is mostly clear/brownish liquid with fine particulate solids in it. I don't know when she last had a normal-looking poop. It was approaching normal a few days ago when I was still tube-feeding, but it seems to be getting looser since she's eating normal feed on her own.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
I have thrown a lot at this bird... I have tube-fed, given antibiotics (sulfatrim), given coconut oil, molasses, epsom salt, Poly-Vi-Sol vitamin solution, papaya enzyme digestive aid tablets, and tons of crop/abdominal massage. (Full details in health journal below.) Today, I put her in a crop bra to see if that will empty her crop. About a month ago I treated the whole flock with fenbendazole (4 days, then 4 days again 10 days later) after one of my girls pooped a live roundworm in front of me -- hadn't noticed worm symptoms in anyone else before or since then. I also treated the flock with Corid/amprolium, a few days of oral drench via syringe (0.5 ml of solution: 1 part 20% powder to 4 parts water) followed by amprolium in water for a couple of weeks. I didn't have reason to suspect coccidia overload, but with everyone having diarrhea (probably mostly due to heat) and a couple of my birds dying randomly, I was scared and wanted to rule it out as a factor. I have miconazole but have not given it to Creamsicle.. her breath hasn't been whiffy at any point and I don't suspect sour crop. Her crop is slow but it is draining liquid.
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I am mostly trying to figure out whether what she's going through is temporary and treatable. I believe she would be dead of starvation by now if I hadn't aggressively intervened, but my concern is that she will not be able to survive long-term without regular aggressive intervention (namely tube hydration / crop massage). My priority is that my birds are comfortable and able to enjoy their natural daily routines. I don't want to torture a terminal animal with aggressive/invasive interventions, and I will euthanize as soon as it is clear they're suffering with no hope of improvement. I will take my chickens to the vet if they can be helped in some way beyond the scope of my abilities, but my chicken vet will not do certain procedures -- for example, abdominal surgery and hormone implants are not options. I don't think I'm willing to perform crop surgery. I'm not sure if my vet would do crop surgery, but if the situation called for it, I would ask her. I will take Cream to the vet if she stays on this plateau and doesn't get back to normal on her own. I would love to understand what is going on with her.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
(The coop setup. Her 3 sisters are on the left. Rightmost hen is Creamsicle, in a kennel with water bowl, wearing a crop bra.)
(Cream, bad eye side, looking a lot better but still wincing that eye. Wearing a crop bra.)
(Bad eye, flash photo. It looks pretty normal in ambient lighting, but with bright lighting like a flashlight or camera flash, you can see it's reflecting light strangely and has "debris", for lack of a better word, in the pupil. I can't tell how well she can see out of this eye. I get the impression she has at least some vision but it is probably impaired. This is after a 7-day round of oral sulfatrim. Early on I tried flushing her eye a couple times with saline. I looked under her eyelids but I couldn't see any physical debris or lesion. I have not used anything else like topical ointments. I think I'd need to take her to the vet for a prescription, assuming it's still treatable at this point and not permanently damaged. I kinda logged the eye issue away as a "deal with it later" problem secondary to her GI issues, because when it started, I feared she'd be dead within hours. I didn't want to torture a dying chicken or burn up what little strength she had left by messing with her eye.)
(Flash photo of good eye for comparison.)
(Poops from today. Kind of a slurry of solids in clear liquid. At the beginning of this month, she was just pooping clear mucusy liquid with yellowish urates, then for a few days she was pooping grass bits, and then she graduated to clear liquid with little bits of dark green solids, and then finally I started to see cecal material again. In the last several days it's been more normal in color and volume, just very liquid in consistency. I guess it makes sense if her body is moving mostly liquids and not much solid material.)
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Sand bedding, coop is an open-air setup, 8x16' combined coop/run with 3 solid walls and the rest hardware cloth. All food/water is kept under a roof. The covered coop run is connected to another uncovered run where I'll sometimes throw in grass clippings, raked leaves, or treats for enrichment. For most of her treatment, I've kept Creamsicle in a kennel/crate inside the coop run on top of a plastic board so I can monitor her poop more easily and make sure she's not eating things she shouldn't (like sand).
From my chicken health journal:
Whew! If you've made it this far, thank you so, so much for your time.
I greatly appreciate any thoughts, suggestions, or anecdotes y'all might have. I will do my best to post timely updates. This girl is a bit of a puzzle for me. I feel like we're going to end up at the vet.. the longer this goes on, the more curious I am as to what the heck is happening here.
Rooting for my feral lil girl Creamsicle!
TL;DR: Her crop is draining liquids, but retaining solids. I think at one point she was impacted with grass clippings. It seems like she has cleared out the grass, but she is still not moving solid food normally. I just put her in a crop bra, though I'm skeptical it's pendulous crop... her crop is on the small side compared to my other chickens and has never felt very full. I'm more worried it's a problem downstream, in her gizzard or intestines.
1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
She is a backyard mutt bred by my neighbor, looks like a "golden comet" type to me. She is a few months shy of 2 years old. I don't have an exact weight of before/after illness, but she is very thin. She was skin and bones at one point but has put on noticeable weight through treatment.
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
At this point, looking behaviorally very normal: alert, bright-eyed and feisty, appetite for normal food, drinking water... but retaining a firm/doughy lump of food solids in her crop. I don't know if it's because she's not drinking enough water, or just that her crop is not fully emptying, and the solids are settling at the bottom and becoming compacted. She is pooping, but it's very loose/watery. I don't know when she last laid an egg. Her abdomen feels very thin. I have had girls with EYP, ascites, cancer, etc. and know that an abdomen that feels nice and full and meaty doesn't necessarily mean a bird is healthy, and it could actually be full of tumors or egg junk. All that to say -- the fact that she feels very thin makes me hopeful she doesn't have a terminal condition like cancer or EYP. I am not very familiar with chicken organs, but palpating her abdomen, I don't feel anything remarkable (to me) among her internal organs, nothing unusually hard, etc.. I've spent a lot of time feeling what I think is her gizzard, wondering if she has an impaction there. It feels maybe a bit larger than I would expect a gizzard to be, but not rock-hard, just meaty and firm like a muscle. My vet, while examining other birds of mine, commented that she could feel their gizzard contract (taken as a good sign) but I haven't noticed anything like a muscle contraction in Cream's abdomen. I can feel her crop muscles move occasionally when I massage her crop. I don't know, should I be able to feel some gizzard activity? Am I feeling the wrong organ, maybe? It doesn't seem like there's much else I can reach that isn't blocked by her ribs or pelvic bone.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
About 3 weeks, possibly longer. I noticed at bedtime, she consistently had a small, firm/doughy lump of food in her crop. I had been away for a while so I'm not sure when it started, and I did not observe her behavior leading up to it.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
Currently... no. But I have lost 3 other birds in the last couple of months, each with slightly different symptoms. Nobody has had respiratory symptoms, but there's a lot of loose poops lately. I do not suspect anything contagious. I'm not sure about environmental / husbandry issues. I rarely give treats or free-range this time of year when it's hot and stormy. We don't use any kind of poisons on our property (pesticides, herbicides, pest poison, etc.) and don't apply fertilizer to our grass. I use plastic bell-style waterers. A few months ago I put a copper disc in each waterer to keep down algae growth. The copper seems to work marvelously at that, but I'm not sure if it might have weird side effects for the chickens? Once a feed bag is opened, I store the pellets in closed plastic buckets. I worry about the feed in the coops going off with the heavy summer humidity, but I have not noticed anything different about it in appearance, consistency or smell. No new birds; Creamsicle is part of our latest batch from 2023. I did notice, looking through their feathers, that all of my birds have some teeny tiny white/light-colored mites. I am not sure what species they are, they don't look like any of the photos I've seen online.. they're extremely tiny, barely visible to my eye. But it doesn't seem to be a heavy infestation, I don't see anything that looks like nits or eggs, the girls aren't scratching or picking or anything to indicate discomfort. I was thinking to dust the girls and their nest boxes with Dust-On (permethrin) just in case? Otherwise, all of my surviving chickens are looking and acting like their scrappy normal selves.
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No signs of bleeding or broken bones. One of her eyes is sensitive and looks "off" (under a bright light, the pupil looks green with little bits of debris inside). I am fairly certain I injured her eye by accident as she struggled against tube-feeding, like she brushed it on my finger maybe? It has improved over time but it is not normal. I don't know what her vision is like in that eye.
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
I suspect that she over-indulged in long grass clippings, got impacted, and slowly starved until I noticed she was in dire straits and intervened. But I am concerned there is something else internally wrong with her GI system, since she is no longer pooping grass but still not moving solids properly. She does not have a history of health issues or reproductive issues, and has seemed very healthy and spry until this.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
At this point, she is eating her normal pellets (Nutrena NatureWise 16% layer feed) and drinking on her own (though I am not sure she is drinking enough water). I have been tube-feeding her water with some supplements (vitamins, digestive aids) mixed in to loosen up the solids in her crop and make sure she's hydrated. I have been withholding food frequently to monitor how her crop is moving solids. At her lowest point, she was skin and bones with no appetite, and I tube-fed her a mix of Kaytee Exact and Oxbow carnivore critical care. A few times I have offered her some egg (raw and cooked) but she doesn't seem to care for egg.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
At this point, her poop is mostly clear/brownish liquid with fine particulate solids in it. I don't know when she last had a normal-looking poop. It was approaching normal a few days ago when I was still tube-feeding, but it seems to be getting looser since she's eating normal feed on her own.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
I have thrown a lot at this bird... I have tube-fed, given antibiotics (sulfatrim), given coconut oil, molasses, epsom salt, Poly-Vi-Sol vitamin solution, papaya enzyme digestive aid tablets, and tons of crop/abdominal massage. (Full details in health journal below.) Today, I put her in a crop bra to see if that will empty her crop. About a month ago I treated the whole flock with fenbendazole (4 days, then 4 days again 10 days later) after one of my girls pooped a live roundworm in front of me -- hadn't noticed worm symptoms in anyone else before or since then. I also treated the flock with Corid/amprolium, a few days of oral drench via syringe (0.5 ml of solution: 1 part 20% powder to 4 parts water) followed by amprolium in water for a couple of weeks. I didn't have reason to suspect coccidia overload, but with everyone having diarrhea (probably mostly due to heat) and a couple of my birds dying randomly, I was scared and wanted to rule it out as a factor. I have miconazole but have not given it to Creamsicle.. her breath hasn't been whiffy at any point and I don't suspect sour crop. Her crop is slow but it is draining liquid.
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I am mostly trying to figure out whether what she's going through is temporary and treatable. I believe she would be dead of starvation by now if I hadn't aggressively intervened, but my concern is that she will not be able to survive long-term without regular aggressive intervention (namely tube hydration / crop massage). My priority is that my birds are comfortable and able to enjoy their natural daily routines. I don't want to torture a terminal animal with aggressive/invasive interventions, and I will euthanize as soon as it is clear they're suffering with no hope of improvement. I will take my chickens to the vet if they can be helped in some way beyond the scope of my abilities, but my chicken vet will not do certain procedures -- for example, abdominal surgery and hormone implants are not options. I don't think I'm willing to perform crop surgery. I'm not sure if my vet would do crop surgery, but if the situation called for it, I would ask her. I will take Cream to the vet if she stays on this plateau and doesn't get back to normal on her own. I would love to understand what is going on with her.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
(The coop setup. Her 3 sisters are on the left. Rightmost hen is Creamsicle, in a kennel with water bowl, wearing a crop bra.)
(Cream, bad eye side, looking a lot better but still wincing that eye. Wearing a crop bra.)
(Bad eye, flash photo. It looks pretty normal in ambient lighting, but with bright lighting like a flashlight or camera flash, you can see it's reflecting light strangely and has "debris", for lack of a better word, in the pupil. I can't tell how well she can see out of this eye. I get the impression she has at least some vision but it is probably impaired. This is after a 7-day round of oral sulfatrim. Early on I tried flushing her eye a couple times with saline. I looked under her eyelids but I couldn't see any physical debris or lesion. I have not used anything else like topical ointments. I think I'd need to take her to the vet for a prescription, assuming it's still treatable at this point and not permanently damaged. I kinda logged the eye issue away as a "deal with it later" problem secondary to her GI issues, because when it started, I feared she'd be dead within hours. I didn't want to torture a dying chicken or burn up what little strength she had left by messing with her eye.)
(Flash photo of good eye for comparison.)
(Poops from today. Kind of a slurry of solids in clear liquid. At the beginning of this month, she was just pooping clear mucusy liquid with yellowish urates, then for a few days she was pooping grass bits, and then she graduated to clear liquid with little bits of dark green solids, and then finally I started to see cecal material again. In the last several days it's been more normal in color and volume, just very liquid in consistency. I guess it makes sense if her body is moving mostly liquids and not much solid material.)
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
Sand bedding, coop is an open-air setup, 8x16' combined coop/run with 3 solid walls and the rest hardware cloth. All food/water is kept under a roof. The covered coop run is connected to another uncovered run where I'll sometimes throw in grass clippings, raked leaves, or treats for enrichment. For most of her treatment, I've kept Creamsicle in a kennel/crate inside the coop run on top of a plastic board so I can monitor her poop more easily and make sure she's not eating things she shouldn't (like sand).
From my chicken health journal:
- July 1, 2025
- Possible crop impaction. For maybe a week, I’ve noticed Cream crammed into the back corner of the roost at bedtime with a small, hard crop. A few times I tube-fed her water and massaged the hard lump to try to break it up. But she was acting normal otherwise and very resistant to handling, so I mostly left her alone. Today, she was sitting on the ground, and let me approach and handle her (normally very feral). I’m concerned she is weak from malnutrition.
- I gave her some coconut oil, a weak molasses solution, and lots of crop massage. I think I was able to get the lump loosened up some but hard to tell. She is kenneled in the coop with just water so I can monitor her crop status. She is a bit weak and her tail is angled down, but still very alert and feisty enough to resist handling. Doesn’t seem to have appetite or thirst.
- I let her out and she mostly just stood in the run, alert but tail down. Tube fed about 40 ml Kaytee Exact slurry to keep her strength up. Not sure what’s wrong with this girl but I’m worried after losing Marina so quickly today. [Marina crashed that day and I ended up euthanizing her. She was hiding/self-isolating, had been having diarrhea, but everyone's poops have been loose from chugging water in this heat wave so I didn't think much of it. Her abdomen looked a bit swollen and seemed unusually hot. I couldn't feel an egg, but wondered about egg-binding or some other reproductive pain (like working out a shell-less egg) from her posture, which got worse over time. I brought her inside to cool off and gave her a calcium tablet. I did not give her a bath; I worried about stressing her too much as she deteriorated to laying down with her head dropped to the ground and eyes closed. Her breathing was faintly audible earlier in the day, and as the day went on her breathing problems became more pronounced until she seemed to be panicking, stretching her neck and open-mouth breathing. I have no idea what happened with her... she went down so fast. I wonder if she aspirated liquid from her crop from laying her head on the ground. I couldn't watch her suffer further and put her down. R.I.P. sweet Marina.
]
- July 2, 2025
- Crop wasn’t fully emptied this morning. Still alert with a bit of fight in her, but just standing still all day. She feels thin.
- Tube fed some molasses solution and coconut oil, gave her a papaya enzyme tablet and some Poly-Vi-Sol liquid vitamin, and massaged crop. A few hours later, tube fed some watery Oxbow carnivore critical care and massaged crop and abdomen. Her poops are just clear, mucusy liquid with yellowish urates. Hoping that a full crop will be more stimulated to empty / she will absorb something from it to give her some strength. Watching her on the camera, she is standing alone at the back of the coop, but moving her head around and periodically picking at things on the ground, which gives me some hope she hasn’t completely given up.
- July 3, 2025
- A Christmas miracle: during one of the abdomen massages, Cream suddenly pooped out some matted grass. Looks like there IS a GI blockage and it has started clearing!! Immediately afterward she walked over to the mineral feeder and considered eating some oyster shell. I am keeping her on liquids until the blockage is cleared but the improved behavior is encouraging. Tube feeding a mix of Kaytee Exact and Oxbow carnivore care. Her crop feels like it has sand (?) in it, not sure what that’s about but I kenneled her inside the coop on a plastic board to minimize her access to sand and other misc. solids.
- She is closing one eye, seems sensitive and starting to look a little cloudy. I think maybe I grazed it with my finger as she struggled during a tube feeding. I tried to flush it with saline wound wash spray.
- July 4, 2025
- Went to visit friends so I didn’t keep a close eye on her — but I did tube feed in the morning and late night, and she is (slowly) continuing to clear out grassy material. Low energy, understandably, but alert. Her eye is still closed. I gently pulled back her eyelid to look for foreign material or injury but I didn’t see anything unusual (to my untrained eye).
- July 5, 2025
- Pretty low energy, still clearing green liquid with bits of grass in it, crop is moving liquids decently but still feels “sandy”… she’s improving more slowly than I would hope but improving regardless. I tube fed some molasses solution, coconut oil, and Oxbow carnivore care breakfast to try to flush out the blockage and get her strength up. Continuing with occasional abdomen massages, which stimulate her to squat and strain out a poop. She is passing some grass bits, but it’s mostly mucusy clear liquid and urates. She’s opening her eye a little bit more, and it’s looking a bit less cloudy. The other girls jumped her when I left her out in the coop for a minute. I’m keeping her kenneled inside the coop for her safety as well as to restrict her diet.
- Late afternoon: very slow GI, very low energy. Her crop is barely moving and the grass bits she’s passing are small and infrequent. I massaged her crop and abdomen a ton but I’m not sure it’s helping. I forgot about the papaya enzyme! I think that might have been the game changer before. Also hitting her with some old leftover probiotic paste from the fridge. Just gave her two papaya enzyme tablets, will massage and wait some more and hope for the best.
- Her head movements are becoming concerning to me… she keeps craning her neck down and to the left, increasingly frequently and it’s starting to look involuntary. Maybe related to her having a blind side with her one eye closed, but I worry it’s the beginning of wry neck from malnutrition. I gave her a dropper (1 ml) of Poly-Vi-Sol. I offered her some raw egg yolk and she ate a bit, but lost interest pretty quickly.
- She is very weak and off-balance. Lots of that left-leaning head movement. It probably started a while ago and it just looked like alertness to me when she was strong enough to self-correct and look right as well. I have massaged her (mostly crop, some abdomen) for hours today and it probably wore her out more than it helped. I don’t feel confident she will make it through the night. What a roller coaster.
- July 6, 2025
- Made it through the night, pooping twice — one mostly liquid, one with some food solids. Still very weak and swaying on her feet, with a noticeable head/eye tic, but she is awake, standing, capable of walking. It feels like maybe a third of her crop emptied overnight. I have her kenneled with just water.
- Gave her a couple more papaya tablets and a dropper of Poly-Vi-Sol. I’m thinking to leave her alone as much as possible to conserve her energy, waiting to see if she clears any more grass.
- As of ~5:45 p.m., she had not pooped on her own at all since ~8 this morning. Very weak, some head/eye twitching. Her right eye is still firmly closed but I’m not messing with it, I figure that’s the least of her problems right now. I massaged her and stimulated her to have a liquid poop with some small, pebbly dark green solids. She hasn’t passed grassy material at all today — maybe she’s got some other internal obstruction and the grass just got caught up in it. I decided to tube feed her about 1:1 Oxbow carnivore care and Kaytee exact, with a bit of molasses and a little pinch of epsom salt. I also gave her another papaya enzyme tablet. Laying off the coconut oil to focus on hydrating her (not seeing obvious signs of heat stress but it is quite hot out). She had plenty of fight for the feeding tube but overall, I am not feeling optimistic.
- By ~9, it seemed that her crop had drained some. She had enough energy to scold me and preen her neck feathers when I put her on the perch in the kennel.
- July 7, 2025
- Seeing improvement! She passed some green liquid poop overnight, and did another big green liquid poop when massaged. Her crop is clearing liquids more quickly but never feels empty, always has some “sandy” material in it despite her access to sand being restricted for days. The head/eye tic seems to have resolved. She even opened her bad eye a bit. It looked wet and a bit cloudy, not sure how well she can see out of it. She seems interested in the concept of food, but I don’t want to test our luck with solid food yet. I parked her on the front porch while I prepped her liquid breakfast. When I got back, she had walked to the end of the porch, leaving behind the best-looking poop I’ve seen in weeks: well-formed actual solids, looked like some cecal material as well. I noticed a thin black worm crawling toward the poop… but I’m not sure it came from the poop?? I think it was a New Guinea flatworm. According to the internet, they taste nasty so birds are unlikely to eat them. *shrug!!*
- Tube fed Kaytee Exact with epsom salt, put back in kennel with just water on a plastic board to continue restricted diet and monitor poop. She frequently drinks, or at least dips her beak into water, and prefers to stand pressed up against the water bowl so her neck feathers get soaked. (Edit: she has been drinking occasionally, but I think a lot of the beak dipping was a neurological tic, having trouble keeping her head upright.)
- ~3:30 p.m. — it seems that her head twitch is coming back. I gave her a dropper of Poly-Vi-Sol and tube fed some Kaytee Exact with a raw egg yolk mixed in. It’s 91° out and she was starting to mouth breathe, so I took her inside to cool down in the A/C for a bit. She let out a big alarm call when I set her down and is examining her surroundings. She was a little weird inside (doing the closed-eye tremble thing I saw Daisy doing last year… idk if it’s some reaction to A/C or some sound of our house or something) so I took her back out after about 30 minutes.
- Back to “not sure she’ll make it through the night”. She’s very weak, crop/GI moving very slow. I’ve massaged her crop a few times this afternoon. I can feel her crop inflating and becoming firm, like the muscles are tensing, every 30 seconds or so while massaging.. I am taking this to be a good thing but I don’t really know, I’ve never noticed this sensation with my other chickens. She didn’t fight the feeding tube as hard tonight, but did fight some, and let out another alarm squeal as I took her back into the coop. I put her on the perch in the kennel and I can see on the camera her head keeps sinking down and to the left, that neurological tic. She keeps pulling her head back up. Not sure if she’ll get any sleep like this, poor girl.
- July 8, 2025
- Made it through… not sure about this girl. Her crop barely emptied overnight, despite her having a few dark green liquid poops… But she seems better neurologically and is pretty feisty and talkative today. She fought tube feeding and wanted out of the kennel. I actually let her out for a minute b/c I thought some walking would do her GI system good, but she seemed afraid of the other girls and I didn’t want her just hiding under a chair in the sun all day. I put her back in the kennel and she settled down eventually.
- Gave her antibiotics, 1.6 ml sulfatrim. Abx [abx = antibiotics] are the one thing I haven’t thrown at her yet – I hesitated to pair them with a slow crop because I worry they’ll turn it sour. I also tube fed epsom salt + molasses solution, gave her 1 ml of probiotic paste, and gently massaged her crop to encourage draining. I am not convinced at this point she has a GI obstruction… maybe just an infection, or something like a tumor pressing on / constricting her intestines. I’ll finish out the flush solution today and keep going with abx and tube feeding as long as she wants to keep fighting.
- ~5 pm - doing ok, standing, wanting to follow the flock, but having some involuntary head/eye movement. Has pooped a few times, the same liquid poop with a confetti of small green solids. I gave her a dropper of Poly-Vi-Sol, tube fed the rest of the molasses/epsom salt solution, and massaged her crop a bit.
- Doing ok by bedtime, about the same.
- July 9, 2025
- Doing ok still, crop is moving liquid but retaining that same tbsp-ish amount of sandy/doughy solid, poops about the same in appearance (liquid with small dark green solid confetti) but maybe becoming more frequent? I have not weighed her at all since she’s been sick, but I think she feels heavier than she did days ago. She was very light. She is a lot more energetic this morning, very talkative. The solid material in the crop is concerning, but I’ve tried lots of “flushing” measures to little avail, so I’m switching gears to assuming inflammation from infection– focusing on keeping her fed, hydrated, and strong to give abx and her own immune system time to work.
- Gave morning abx dose and tube fed 50/50 Oxbow carnivore care and Kaytee Exact. She fought the feeding tube SO vigorously, I think I’ll see if I can tempt her with solid food and cross my fingers she will drink enough water on her own. I let her out of the kennel for a bit. She’s strong enough to walk around and wants to be out, but she’s getting bullied by the others, so I kenneled her again. She is opening her bad eye sometimes, and I think maybe it is looking less cloudy.
- Afternoon: offered girlie a cooked (non-scrambled) egg. She was intrigued but didn’t eat any. She did pick at some dampened pellets. She is sitting in marshmallow peep position a lot. ~4:30 pm, gave her a dropper of Poly-Vi-Sol, 1 cc of probiotic paste, and tube fed a mix of Oxbow carnivore care and Kaytee Exact. Crop is about the same; massaged it a bit. I can’t feel significant solids, mostly just silty/sandy stuff, but I do wonder if I can feel something flat and papery, like a scrap of plastic wrap or something? Probably nothing.. I can’t imagine it would be enough to stop her up even if there was some little foreign object scrap in there.
- Very feisty and vocal at dinnertime; tube fed Kaytee Exact. She put herself on the roost in the kennel at bedtime.
- July 10, 2025
- Continuing to get stronger, heavier and sassier about handling.. but crop is about the same, draining liquids a bit slowly and holding onto sandy-feeling solids. I let her roam for a bit and she tried to eat grass and plants. Still being bullied by the other girls, so I’m continuing with kenneling.
- Gave abx, Poly-Vi-Sol, probiotic paste and a papaya enzyme tablet. Also tube fed a mix of coconut oil (I lied about stopping the flushing measures) and Kaytee Exact. Massaged crop for a bit.
- Early p.m. — tube fed a mixture of water, coconut oil, and molasses. Lots of crop massage, a little abdomen massage. I would love to get those solids out of her crop. I couldn’t feel that it was making a difference. She complained, loudly, the whole time.
- Tube fed thick Kaytee Exact for dinner, with abx and papaya enzyme.
- July 11, 2025
- Crop still very slow… Poops starting to look a bit more solid though, and she was feeling zesty enough to try to fight (!!) the girls from the other coop through the wire. I gave her a pinch of grit yesterday as a “throwing things at the wall” measure and this morning, I could feel some in her crop. She is still closing her bad eye a lot, but also using it more, and it’s looking less cloudy (probably thanks to abx). Gave abx and papaya enzyme tab, tube fed epsom salt solution.
- Early p.m. - offered pellets soaked in raw scrambled egg. Cream was very intrigued, and ate a little, but wasn’t crazy about it.
- Late afternoon - tube fed some epsom salt solution + Poly-Vi-Sol (to strong resistance). Left her with some water-soaked pellets and a pinch of grit, and it seemed like she was actually eating the pellets (albeit in tiny delicate nibbles). Encouraging?
- Night: gave abx, did not feed anything else since her crop was quite full. Felt like mostly liquid but also looked like she ate just about all the pellets I left her! I left her some more (dry) pellets in her bowl for morning.
- July 12, 2025
- Cream ate all of the pellets I left her overnight, and started chowing down as soon as I gave her more (dry) pellets. Great appetite, preening, and feisty. Gave morning abx dose. I might withhold food and water for a couple hours to see how her crop is moving. It felt very full (mostly liquid) this morning. She was fearful of / immediately attacked by the other girls when put into gen pop, so I’m keeping her kenneled at least for now, to make sure she has constant access to water in this heat.
- Afternoon - crop still fairly full (slow?), good appetite, looking and moving more like a normal chicken aside from tail angled down. Her poops are looking pretty normal! She’s opening her bad eye a lot more. The pupil looks cloudy and greenish — not sure what her vision is like on that side. I let her out for some physical activity and grass grazing.
- July 13, 2025
- Doing well behaviorally, pooped a lot overnight / this morning and it’s looking pretty normal, if loose. Her crop was full of doughy solids (maybe pellets consumed this morning). I gave abx and tube-fed a ghastly looking mixture of water, Poly-Vi-Sol, a crushed papaya enzyme tab, and a bit of Eckele Equine G.U.T. powder (probiotics and other digestive support supplements). Massaged her crop to loosen up the doughy solids and hopefully help with absorbing abx. I put her in the run by herself with food and water, and she immediately started picking through the sand, scratching, and dust bathing – nice to see.
- At bedtime, her crop still felt pretty full of doughy solids. Gave abx, tube-fed more of the digestive-water mixture, and massaged crop to loosen up solids. I put her in the kennel for the night with just water to see how her GI system is moving.
- July 14, 2025
- Gave morning abx. Her crop was full of rock-hard solids (felt like pellets), so I also tube-fed 40 ml of water with a crushed papaya enzyme tab and massaged to liquify crop contents. Left her kenneled with just water to monitor crop. It looks like she’s been preening a lot, from the feather fluff and keratin dust on the floor of the kennel.
- Afternoon - crop feels like it’s moving. Her poops right now are a lot of clear liquid with some fine particulate solids.
- Bedtime - same as this morning, very firm solids in crop, tube fed 40 ml water w/ crushed papaya enzyme tab and massaged crop. Gave last abx dose (7 days total). Left in kennel overnight with just water.
- July 15, 2025
- Crop was full with hard lump of solids this morning. She seems to be moving liquid, but not solids. Tube fed 40 ml solution of water + crushed papaya enzyme tab, Poly-Vi-Sol, and a pinch of epsom salt, massaged crop to liquify the solid lump. Kind of at a loss here. I put her in a crop bra (which she obviously hates and is obsessively grooming at the strap on her back) to see if that helps move the solids along. I put her outside in the run for a minute and watched her slurp down some dry dead grass… so back into the kennel on a plastic board it is. Not sure what to do if this chicken has pica and is blocking herself up eating weird things. I’ve been making sure to pick up any dropped feathers within her reach, just in case.
- Afternoon - I think her crop has gone down some. I’m leaving the crop bra on for now and keeping her kenneled with water to see if we can get it totally emptied out. I don’t think her crop has felt empty the entire time she’s been unwell.
Whew! If you've made it this far, thank you so, so much for your time.
I greatly appreciate any thoughts, suggestions, or anecdotes y'all might have. I will do my best to post timely updates. This girl is a bit of a puzzle for me. I feel like we're going to end up at the vet.. the longer this goes on, the more curious I am as to what the heck is happening here.Rooting for my feral lil girl Creamsicle!
