Huge crop/ slow crop problem! Please help!

[azygous]

All things considered, it's good progress. She likely still has some grass in the little crop wad. Keep working at it tomorrow with oil and massage. Then pop a stool softener into her beak and let it work. I bet that should get the rest. Be sure she has plenty of water to drink.

Good work. Getting an impacted crop to clear is very hard work. Most people aren't fully aware of that.

 

[applethechicken]

All things considered, it's good progress. She likely still has some grass in the little crop wad. Keep working at it tomorrow with oil and massage. Then pop a stool softener into her beak and let it work. I bet that should get the rest. Be sure she has plenty of water to drink.

Good work. Getting an impacted crop to clear is very hard work. Most people aren't fully aware of that.

thank you!
For the stool softner, is it docusate sodium 100mg? I would have to go get it tomorrow morning.

 

[azygous]

Yes. That's it. Just pop a pill.

And continue with the calcium citrate for a few more days.

 

[applethechicken]

Yes. That's it. Just pop a pill.

And continue with the calcium citrate for a few more days.

okay, thank you! If its a gel, I can pop it in as well? Once a day for 100 mg? Im going to get some today.

This morning, the crop feels harder than yesterday, but it loosened when I massaged. Its still pretty much the same size as last night, but I felt it got smaller after I massaged.
I popped a calcium supplement in this morning as well.

Also here is a picture of a poop from this morning. One picture is how it came out, the second is what the insides look like when I pried it open. there are a lot of short tough grass, some rocks/ grit, and a few eggshells.

She doesn't like the garlic water, so I gave her another water bowl with just water, and she drank some.

 

[azygous]

Plain water is always best when treating a chicken for anything. Plain, fresh water is essential for any recovery from any issue because water is so terribly essential to life, period.

Yes. Pop the gel cap. Those disappear even quicker than regular tablets.

It's very clear from her poop what has caused her impacted crop. It will probably clear eventually. Her health now is not at terrible risk. There is now room for regular food and it should be able to get through the crop to provide nourishment. Just continue oil and massage today, but perhaps not as intensely as you have had to do.

Whenever you check on her, do a little massage to try to soften the lump. The lump could persist for a few more days, but this is normal for impacted crop, even just sour crop. Try to be patient.

 

[applethechicken]

Plain water is always best when treating a chicken for anything. Plain, fresh water is essential for any recovery from any issue because water is so terribly essential to life, period.

Yes. Pop the gel cap. Those disappear even quicker than regular tablets.

It's very clear from her poop what has caused her impacted crop. It will probably clear eventually. Her health now is not at terrible risk. There is now room for regular food and it should be able to get through the crop to provide nourishment. Just continue oil and massage today, but perhaps not as intensely as you have had to do.

Whenever you check on her, do a little massage to try to soften the lump. The lump could persist for a few more days, but this is normal for impacted crop, even just sour crop. Try to be patient.

I popped a 50 mg of the stool softener around 10, and she ate a little bit of steamed egg with water (1:1) and coconut oil, she didn't finish it though. And I saw her drink some water on her own. I then gave her massages. I felt the mass get little bit smaller, and definitely easier to move around

Now at 11:30, I just checked on her and saw these two poops. There are solid parts to it, but there's also a lot of liquid, and yellow, with only little bit of the fibrous grass. (ignore the large water stain to the left on the second picture, that is water I spilled) Is this a concern? Or is it because she only ate a lot of liquids things this morning, along with the stool softener.

Should the stool softener be given without food, so that it works with the mass instead of the food? I was planning on giving another of the 50 mg this early afternoon.

 

[azygous]

This can be a slow process, but it appears she's moving the obstruction out. It's decent progress, and it's also encouraging.

I would wait until tomorrow to give a second dose of the stool softener. You can continue the oil and massage for now.

Offer plain chicken feed or cooked egg. She will eat what she needs. As long as she continues to eat and drink, no matter how little, it shows her energy is adequate, and that's a very good sign.

In a few more days, we may talk about a flush to clean her out the rest of the way, so keep in mind there is another option waiting in the wings.

 

[applethechicken]

day 2 of "treatment" update:

By dusk, when I returned her to the coop, the mass has gone down to less than a golf ball, around 2 to 3 tablespoons, and it is a lot more softer and pliable than yesterday.

Poops: after the 2 liquid poops from this morning after the stool softener, the rest were solid and dry. A little bit more dry than normal.
Analysis when I pried them open: The "bad" contents in the poop I found are: rocks/ grit, tough pieces of grass, oyster shells, and a little bit of egg shells. There is less dirt and egg shells than yesterday.
Also, her last poop was a cecal (and a normal next to it), and I think that is the only cecal she pooped from yesterday and today, since it was the only poop that smelled bad. She also pooped more often than yesterday, around every 45 minutes instead of over an hour.

Food: this afternoon, I offered her soaked pellets (soaked just enough that the pellets absorbed the water), and she didn't want them. I later tried giving her dry pellets, some steamed eggs (changes from this morning: no coconut oil in the eggs and less water), and also some yogurt. She ate the eggs and dried pellets, and took two bites out of the yogurt. She would always look at the yogurt, and then shake her head and then leave.
And later in the evening she ate all of the soaked pellets from earlier by herself.

Other notes from today: I took away almost all of her grit today, along with the oyster shells, since she's pooping them out whole. I also raised her cage (its only the perimeter, no top or bottom) higher so she has more space to stand taller, which I think is better for her since when she stands tall her crop is higher than her gizzard. Lastly, I let her walk around the garage between massages, since the space she's in is pretty small. She was very happy, and as usual, wanted to peck everything, so I kept a very very close eye on her to make sure she didn't eat anything she shouldn't now.

Speaking of massages, I did more today, and I think it really helped. She enjoys them a lot too.

(Keeping a detailed record of everything for myself, and also maybe it can help someone too.)

Tomorrow, ill be doing the same as today. Praying that her crop will get smaller tonight.

 

[azygous]

Excellent update. Enjoying the steady progress you and this hen are making. Cheers for you both!

 

[applethechicken]

Excellent update. Enjoying the steady progress you and this hen are making. Cheers for you both!

This morning, her crop size seemed bigger than yesterday night when I put her in. I'm not sure how, since I put her in after it was super dark, and took her from the roosts in the morning.

And the crop was pretty hard this morning, but it loosened a little when I gave some coconut oil and massaged. But its not as loose as it was last night.

I can feel a lot of rocks in there, and I think that's weighing her crop bag down, so its hard to move down to the gizzard.

She also had a cecal poop this morning. Looks like a normal cecal poop.

I let her walk around the garage, and she ate some dried pellets. She doesn't want the water though. How do I help her drink more water?

She's not very interested in food and water, and I feel like she seems pretty stressed. When I put her back in her set up, she sat down and closed her eyes. Is it because she's not with her friends? should I try to move the set up into the run?