Impacted crop advice

[TurtletheCoturnix]

My 5 year old hen is back with another impacted crop, only this time it's worse than usual. She's molting, which probably changed her appetite, which made her eat a lot of long grass.
I thought this would last two or three days, but it's officially a week now with impacted crop. Hasn't turned sour yet. The crop has gone down about half the crop since we found out about it. But it's going down slow now.

I give her water, oil, and massage, and yesterday and today I've given her stool softener. I don't know if it's working, but yesterday she pooped out some grass. That's a good thing, but there's still half a crop to go, and she's tiring out. Her comb is shriveling and it's turning purple. She won't drink any water I put in her box, and I'm out of the house from 9 am to 3 pm.

I can't take her to the vet, and I definitely can't cut open her crop.

So to sum it up, I need advice on:

1. How to feed her stool softener (the liquid inside the pill), and how to give her oil efficiently. Right now my current method is putting the liquid on a spoon and putting the spoon to her beak, hoping she'll drink some.
2. Is there anything to give her that will give her energy? For example, anything that has protein and will squeeze past her crop?

Any advice is appreciated, and please reply soon!

 

[azygous]

When giving meds or vitamins, I pop the pill directly into the beak. That way I know the entire dose is going where it needs to. Chickens swallow much larger things than pills all the time with no problem.

Poultry Nutri-drench is the best thing you can give right now to boost her immune system and energy level. It is formulated to be absorbed directly into the blood stream rather than digested and processed by the liver.

Try another heaping teaspoon of coconut oil with another stool softener gel cap, wait an hour, then do a five minute massage, trying to break up the mass with your fingers.

Tomorrow, if the blockage remains and she hasn't pooped, I'll talk about a molasses flush as a last resort.

Meanwhile, try to get some water into her, even if you need to syringe it into her beak.

 

[Pennys Mama]

@Eggcessive @Wyorp Rock

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

When giving meds or vitamins, I pop the pill directly into the beak. That way I know the entire dose is going where it needs to. Chickens swallow much larger things than pills all the time with no problem.

Poultry Nutri-drench is the best thing you can give right now to boost her immune system and energy level. It is formulated to be absorbed directly into the blood stream rather than digested and processed by the liver.

Try another heaping teaspoon of coconut oil with another stool softener gel cap, wait an hour, then do a five minute massage, trying to break up the mass with your fingers.

Tomorrow, if the blockage remains and she hasn't pooped, I'll talk about a molasses flush as a last resort.

Meanwhile, try to get some water into her, even if you need to syringe it into her beak.

She drinks water from the usual water container outside, she just doesn't drink from the bowl. Does canola oil work as well?

 

[azygous]

Vegetable oils are really not recommended for crop disorders. Olive oil is an exception. You can use mineral oil or coconut oil or castor oil. I like the coconut oil because chilling it slightly makes it solid and easy to slip into the beak without danger of getting any oil in the airway by mistake.

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

Vegetable oils are really not recommended for crop disorders. Olive oil is an exception. You can use mineral oil or coconut oil or castor oil. I like the coconut oil because chilling it slightly makes it solid and easy to slip into the beak without danger of getting any oil in the airway by mistake.

So canola oil doesn't help?? I've been giving her that for this week.

 

[azygous]

I'm not sure why vegetable oil isn't the best thing to use for treating crop or constipation issues. I've always assumed it's because it's absorbed too quickly in the intestines to do the lubricating you need for it to do. There's a reason we humans use mineral oil and castor oil when we're constipated, and not canola oil.

 

[azygous]

There is a chance that the crop blockage hasn't cleared because there's also a blockage farther down in the gizzard and the lower intestine. This is why I am going to suggest a molasses flush tomorrow if her crop hasn't cleared by morning.

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

Oh, and please give me some advice on where to massage. Does massaging her stomach area/abdomen also help?

Also, could you tell me the molasses flush? I don't think there's another option.

 

[azygous]

The crop has a drain partway up from the bottom of the crop, so you need to place your fingers on the hard lump you're trying to break up and massage in a tight little circle and try to steer the contents toward the drain about a third of the way up from the bottom. You should be able to feel the hard lump break up. I keep massaging until I feel most of the contents have emptied.

If oil and a stool softener and massage fail to empty the crop, here's the molasses flush - one teaspoon of molasses mixed well into one-fourth cup of warm water. You need to get it all down her. Go ahead and do it tonight if you wish. But I warn you, when the dam bursts, it's gonna be messy - poop everywhere, so prepare.