impacted crop and managing it

[Hennyhandler]

I realized yesterday that my chicken had a huge crop and was real low and when I felt it it was full, mushy and had a little ball in it. I felt little round objects also, like pebbles or seeds were piled in there. I let her finish the day and sleep on the roost to see this morning if I was right and it hadn't gone down or if she had just overate.
This morning it was still large but I don't think as large as it was yesterday and there was no ball in it. It was just mushy with the grainy feel. So I seperated her and put her in a cage. I also warmed up some butter and sopped it on top of a hald piece of bread. She ate almost all of it. I provided her with some water with electrolytes in her cage.
Just after a little while I went back and I massaged it again and I feel that it has either gotten smaller or it has been smaller since yesterday. It is hard to compare. There is still those grain like items in there so obviously they are going down slowly or not at all and it concerns me. Also, when I massaged her crop (?) stomach (?) it would rumble or growl.

I can honestly say that she has energy. Though almost everytime I massage especially when it is for a longer period of time her eyes will close as if it feels good or it starts to put her to sleep. Besides that she acts like her normal self. Oh, I almost forgot to mention she has had a bottom that keeps getting real dirty and awhile back I had cut the feathers back there. today, she went in the cage and it was a dark brown smear with water. It wasn't firm like usual. So I think maybe this was what was causing her bottom to be so dirty. (Sorry, for the visual there but I thought it would help.)

Any help or personal experience would be appreciated. (I didn't have and ACV so that is the reason for the butter.)

 

[bturbo87]

If you think it is impacted then keep her without food for 18-24 hours, after that you should feel a significant decrease in size. if it is still the same size, the i would recommend that you sop plain white bread in olive oil, and mash her food organic plain yogurt, the oil will help things slide through, and the mush consistency of the feed will make it easier to digest, plus the yogurt will boost the protein and give some good pro-bios. if your thinking along the lines of sour crop, again make a mush with her pellets and the organic yogurt, then mash up a few cloves of FRESH garlic (you want a paste) and mix that in as well, the garlic will act as an anti fungal and help kill off whatever is causing the rot. or if you would rather go medicinally, pick up some nystatin (sp?) at your local feed store (call first to see if they carry it) and that will definitely kill whatever bug is causing the rot in her crop. most importantly, when you are massaging her crop make sure your are squeezing in a downward motion, doing it upwards may cause her to aspirate whatever your squeezing out, either causing her to choke and suffocate, or end up with liquid in the lungs leading to pneumonia.

 

[mark1guy]

I think one of my pullets has an impacted crop as well. They are 11 weeks old. She is still feeding and has no lack of appitite. Pellets are available but when I dropped off a bunch of carrot peels and weeds she went savage for it. Can you provide any insight on what I should do?

She has the same energy and still looks forward for a smooth down. She is a beutiful little birds and I don;t want her to suffer or die.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Hennyhandler]

I have kept her seperate and given her bread with butter and cod liver oil. Every now and then I give yogurt. The bulge was down this morning but this evening seemed like a small ball. It reminds me of a chicken that ate awhile ago and has a normal bulge, nothing massive, just that slight roundness than many chickens have. The thing is I would think that it would go down since she hasn't ate a whole lot and I haven't seen a lot of poop. SO what to do now. she is not tired or sick looking. She looks like any other chicken.

 

[bturbo87]

I have read that you could give grit to break it up. You can try it.

 

[feathersnuggles]

With that liquid poop you described, it seems to me you really need to get some raw ACV and put into the water to help her regain some intestinal health. It will also help keep bad yeast & bacteria down in her slow crop until she can empty it.

Like the post above said, if she doesn't have access to the ground and dirt, and she eats fibrous foods, or things that are tougher than crumbles, she needs grit to grind up food in her crop so it doesn't get stuck there.

Finally, you seem to be running this problem as a topic in a couple of places. It's very confusing.