Impacted crop advice

[azygous]

To justify surgery, the crop would need to be jammed solid with fibrous material. As long as you don't feel any significant solid mass, I would not do surgery.

For now, just treat the sour crop and forget surgery and any concern about impaction. I've a hunch that the yeast is now accounting for any fullness you detect.

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

I just bought Monistat 7. Does that work as well?

 

[azygous]

Monistat 7 is miconazole under a brand name. Notice the "7" in the name? That means it is meant to be given for seven days. Remember twice a day.

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

Update: She's pooping clumps now. I can see strips of grass and the birdseed in her poop. Bile too, but definitely improvement!

 

[azygous]

Is she behaving as if she's starting to feel better?

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

These past 3 days, her poop has stuff in it. Sometimes grass and seeds, but her crop hasn't gone down and she doesn't drink water anymore.

She thirsts herself, even if there is a container full of fresh, clean water right next to her, so I pour the water onto the ground and she drinks it.

She doesn't drink it from the container but from the ground. Is there any other way to make her drink water?

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

Is she behaving as if she's starting to feel better?

Update: her poop is declining. Yesterday night, when I massaged her crop, she pooped. Today, from 5 pm to now, she's only pooped twice. I fed her Biology Optimized for Birds, or BOB, which includes probiotic supplements. Yesterday night I fed her that too and she pooped a lot. Her crop is not mushy, it is like a "dough" sort of feeling (I can shape her crop and it'll stay).

 

[azygous]

It sounds like she's making good progress, but slow. If you're agreeable, I suggest trying oil with stool softener, wait a bit, and massage. It might be all that's needed now to clear the crop the rest of the way.

Finish the miconazole treatment if she still has a few to go.

 

[TurtletheCoturnix]

She just doesn't drink water. I bet if I locked her in a space and put food and water, I'd bet she'd thirst herself to death.
Is this some kind of hormone or is it just because her crop is still stuck. Is there any way to make her drink water without forcing it?

 

[azygous]

You're right to be concerned about getting enough fluids into her. Sometimes a hen is feeling too sick to even think about drinking, or eating for that matter. Then we need to encourage them.

Start by holding a little cup of water under her beak and dipping her beak as you would a new chicks. Many time this gets the patient to start drinking.

If she refuses altogether to drink or eat, it's time to tube feed. I bet you thought I was out of things to throw at you to try on your hen. Tube feeding is easier than you think. It's just one step beyond syringing water and food into a beak. With tube feeding, you insert seven to ten inch length of plastic tubing directly into the esophagus and into the crop.

It is super easy from there to stick the syringe with water or very liquid food into the tube and slowly push the contents into her crop. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-pics-for-visuals-very-detailed-post.805615/

You can find tubing at Walmart in the pet fish supplies or buy a kit from a vet. I got one for just $3, tube and syringe.