How long can I safely fast my hen?

[Lacy Duckwing]

Last night I noticed that my SS hen's crop was extremely overfilled. I immediately placed her in a crate with nothing but a few oyster shells and a perch inside. I'm planning on fasting her from both food and water till her crop goes down, but I'm wondering how long can I safely fast her.

 

[Swbertrand1]

She can go without food for a day or two, but not without water. She'll dehydrate and could possibly die. Don't withhold water...

Dealing with impacted crop issues can be found all over this forum and the web. A quick search on this site yielded this and contains posts from some of the most trusted folks on this forum:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/impacted-crop-please-help.1459845/

 

[Swbertrand1]

Ok. Thank you. Now as far as water, should I only give her a little at a time. She is known to drink way too much water often. She'll drink water till she's puking, then she'll still drink.

You're welcome. Since she drinks a lot of water, she may be used to that, or trying to break the jam herself. Mix about a 1/2 TBSP of room temperature water with about 1/4 TBSP of vegetable oil and mix it as best you can.

If she'll drink the water or water/oil on her own, give her about a 1/2 TSP to 1 TSP at a time, every hour or so. Let the water work for a few minutes to soften the crop contents, then massage the crop gently by rubbing in circles, gently squeezing from side to side and top to bottom, and moving it side to side. You can also gently "squeegie" the crop from top to bottom to help move the contents downward, but do this sparingly.

If you have a dosing syringe (or regular small syringe), fill it to 1/4 to 1/2ml (same as 1/4 to 1/2 cc), and feed her a few drops at a time. Here's a link that gives a good primer on how to feed chickens liquids: https://bitchinchickens.com/2020/02/06/how-to-safely-give-oral-medications/

Coconut Oil is good for Impacted Crop too, you can freeze a few little pea-sized pieces and feed them directly along with a little plain water. They help to "grease" the contents and help them start moving, much like Exlax. You're trying to soften the contents, so they'll empty into the digestive tract on their own. In our experience, the more you can massage the crop, the faster the blockage will break, but don't rub her so much you irritate her delicate chicken skin...

Good luck with her, and let us know who she's doing!

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

You're welcome. Since she drinks a lot of water, she may be used to that, or trying to break the jam herself. Mix about a 1/2 TBSP of room temperature water with about 1/4 TBSP of vegetable oil and mix it as best you can.

If she'll drink the water or water/oil on her own, give her about a 1/2 TSP to 1 TSP at a time, every hour or so. Let the water work for a few minutes to soften the crop contents, then massage the crop gently by rubbing in circles, gently squeezing from side to side and top to bottom, and moving it side to side. You can also gently "squeegie" the crop from top to bottom to help move the contents downward, but do this sparingly.

If you have a dosing syringe (or regular small syringe), fill it to 1/4 to 1/2ml (same as 1/4 to 1/2 cc), and feed her a few drops at a time. Here's a link that gives a good primer on how to feed chickens liquids: https://bitchinchickens.com/2020/02/06/how-to-safely-give-oral-medications/

Coconut Oil is good for Impacted Crop too, you can freeze a few little pea-sized pieces and feed them directly along with a little plain water. You're trying to soften the contents, so they'll empty into the digestive tract on their own. In our experience, the more you can massage the crop, the faster the blockage will break.

Ok. Thank you again for your help. I gave her some coconut oil earlier, and her crop has gone down, and got a little squishy. I've done some massaging to her crop. I got a small thing of water in her cage now, but I can mix some vegetable oil in it. I'm hoping that her crop will be emptied enough by tonight to get her crop bra back on. (Which I'll probably never dare to take off again if this is going to happen. )

 

[Swbertrand1]

Ok. Thank you again for your help. I gave her some coconut oil earlier, and her crop has gone down, and got a little squishy. I've done some massaging to her crop. I got a small thing of water in her cage now, but I can mix some vegetable oil in it. I'm hoping that her crop will be emptied enough by tonight to get her crop bra back on. (Which I'll probably never dare to take off again if this is going to happen. )

Crop bra? That's the first I've seen this mentioned, and it could be what's causing her Impacted Crop and thirst for water, i.e. it might be regularly blocking her system. Why is she wearing a crop bra?

 

[Swbertrand1]

I sometimes give them plantain, which is a thick type of grass/weed that grows around my property.

She's young; that's good.

I'm not an expert, but I really believe that the grass/weed is what's causing your hen to get an impacted crop. Thick grass/weed can become like a ball of twine in their crop that becomes a single twisted mass of mush. Nothing can drop down into the digestive tract because it's all bound together. Worse, nothing else can pass through either, even the amount of water she really needs to be healthy.

I believe this is why she drinks so much too, because water is not making it to her body, where she needs it most. She drinks and drinks, but only fills the portion of the crop above the mass. It mixes with some of the mush at the top of the crop, then she spits it up because it can't pass the grass mass and into her body. It even "spills" out because there is so much water on top of the grass.

If I were you, I'd cut out the grass/weed completely, and stick with just feed and treats that are easily digested. Get her through this Impacted Crop, cut out the grass/weed, and I believe you'll see her improve and not even need the crop bra...

 

[Jenessa_096]

I agree, long stuff can get stuck in chickens crops.

 

[Swbertrand1]

Really?! Do you think that this has always been the case? Her crop was often way too squishy, and what I felt with her large crop last night isn't like anything I've felt before. It'd awesome if my Jewels could actually be cured!

I don't know, and I'm no expert, but I've looked into the plant you mentioned. The leafy part doesn't look so bad, but the long, tall, thick shoots look like trouble to me.

Try taking her "off" that grass altogether, and stick to adult chicken feed (we use layer pellets for our adult hens and rooster), give her treats like tomatoes, watermelon, mealworms, and/or scratch grains, and see if she doesn't improve.

Like Jenessa said above, long stuff can get stuck in crops, and that plant has a very thick, long shoot that grows from it. It can't hurt, and what's going on now is not working. Give it a try.

What did her crop feel like tonight when she went up, still full??

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

She can go without food for a day or two, but not without water. She'll dehydrate and could possibly die. Don't withhold water...

Dealing with impacted crop issues can be found all over this forum and the web. A quick search on this site yielded this and contains posts from some of the most trusted folks on this forum:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/impacted-crop-please-help.1459845/

Ok. Thank you. Now as far as water, should I only give her a little at a time. She is known to drink way too much water often. She'll drink water till she's puking, then she'll still drink.

 

[Swbertrand1]

I got her the crop bra because of her issues. She was always spitting up and her crop was always way too squishy. I thought maybe she had sour crop, but she never had the white spots. Her crop was always giving her issues, so I'd often massage her crop till it felt better for her, and she often spitted up there. Finally, I got her a crop bra and she's been wearing it pretty steady since.
I've been noticing that she's been doing very well with her crop lately. So I thought that with the help of the crop bra, maybe her crop was cured, so I took it off. I've been feeling her crop every night to make certain that it's doing good, and it has been until last night. And that's when I discovered that it was way too large and it felt like she's been eating all day, but nothing digested.

This is a thread I started earlier this year looking for help with her sour crop if you wanted to check it out: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/sour-crop.1442922/

I just read through that thread and a few questions came to mind:

1) How old is this hen?

2) Is she laying currently?

3) What do you feed your flock?

4) What do you give for treats; how often; what amounts?

S