Impacted and/or Sour crop treatment

[Winderdear]

Grasses are high in indigestible cellulose. So it might be better not to let her out on grass until you're sure she's got a crop that is working. But it sounds like she's definitely improving.

Molt can affect appetite. If a chicken doesn't eat enough, the crop can suffer stasis, slowing down from not enough material moving through the digestive system, kind of like a partial clog in a toilet can slow the flow and eventually require a plumber. Feeding egg is a good plan. Watch the poop. As the disorder is resolved, the poop will turn back to normal consistency.

Also, you are welcome, but a weekend for me is the same as weekdays. I rarely can tell you what day it is regardless.

Ok, we’ll keep her on egg only for now. Thanks again! I’ll update if anything changes with her.

 

[Winderdear]

She had a good day yesterday. There were watery poops on an hourly basis, and near the end of the day the poops got more solid. She had tons of energy, ate three scrambled eggs over the course of the day, spent an hour in the run dust bathing. She seemed close to normal. Her crop was still large but I was able to massage it and felt it shrink a bit when I did.

I was hopeful things would be even better today, but her poops just seem a little different. They’re smaller with more urates, and less frequent. She had several wet poops overnight in the coop, but since this morning she has not been having the large watery poops with a bit of solids like before, but rather smaller poops that looks like this:



I honestly can’t tell if that’s a good thing or not. Sometimes they are followed by a smaller poop that is just watery urates. Her poops are about 1-1.25 hours apart now.

She seems less energetic, but it’s a dark, cold day. She preens a lot. Her tail is high when she walks around, but she isn’t interested in exploring much. She eats her egg, but not necessarily with the gusto she typically has. She initially drank a lot of water after being brought up to the house from the coop, but she’s had enough now. Still, it seems like the amount of water she’s taking in isn’t coming out the other end like I would expect.

Her crop was big, but not as hard this morning. When I massage it, it seems to shrink a bit still. I haven’t smelled any sourness today.

I’m just concerned about the poops being smaller and less frequent, and the fact that she’s less energetic today. I know molting hens are often sluggish, so perhaps that’s all it is.

I’d love to hear that I’m worrying too much, and that her poops and frequency seem normal.