Impacted Crop - Baseball Size - VIDEO IS READY!!

[Maryallison]

I wanted to let everyone know that I am thankful for the posts here and I performed the surgery on a turkey a hour ago. It was the hardest thing I had ever done, but I felt like the turkeys impacted crop was my fault cause I recently fluffed the pen with hay and there was hay in the turkeys crop. The super glue did not hold so my husband is about home so he is gonna look and try too. May have to sew it closed. Ok and I have to be honest.... I will never forget that smell

Please think happy thought for my turkey. I know I got everything in the crop out, just hoping nothing passed further down. Gonna go read the rest of this thread for any more help. Thanks ya'll!

 

[Maryallison]

So the glue did hold on the crop just not on the outter skin. So I did just sew her closed, but will have to remove the stitches later on. I really hope my pretty turkey hen makes it! I feel like I did a good job.

 

[Maryallison]

Here I am again...just a few nights later having to do the surgery on another turkey

I will have my husband for help this time so I expect it to go much better...ok, maybe not better, but quicker. Thanks egain everyone for posting. I appreciate all the knowledge!

 

[Crafty-Duck]

That was a great video!!!

 

[Cheep a'lil Talk a'lil]

Thank you so much for this thread and the video. I was at my wits end with my daughters chicken. I knew we had reached surgery point but was iffy about doing it until I saw your video. The surgery is done and our little patient is VERY happy! So happy that she jummped on my daughters back when she was bending over and putting news paper down in the shower (her home for the next few days).
Thanks again!!

 

[valleychick1]

So, if you are not using hay or straw in the nesting boxes, what are you using?
Amazing job in the surgeries for your girls. Hope they all continue to do well.

 

[7&8]

Hey all -

I realize that this is a really old thread, but Shadowgrass's video is so perfectly definitive of how to ream out a crop, that I had to resurrect it!

I have a little EE who developed an impacted crop. She's a little over one year old, and is in good health, otherwise. I have always culled impacted crops in the past. This little hen seemed like a good candidate, so we went for it.

I followed Shadowgrass's video exactly. I didn't have a scalpel, but I picked up an X-ACTO knife at WMart for a few dollars; it did the job nicely. I used Super glue gel to close both layers.

The only other difference was the ingredients we removed from the crop. This hen eats grass; I can't change that. I feed a mix of wild bird seed & whole oats for scratch. She was full of grains, as this is all she'd been eating since becoming impacted. The impaction removal was slow going and super stinky. There were a few decent sized, obligatory stones, a shaving or two, and a bit of plastic or two. I used plastic tweezers to remove the bulk, and once I could squirt some saline in, it helped loosen up the remaining glop. At one point, I wished I had a baby spoon to use!

The hen layed quietly on her side for the entire thing, and a couple of times, she tried to peck at the grains I was pulling from her!

My random thoughts on hens that get impacted crops: Some are simply prone to get impactions, for any number of reasons. It's our choice to intervene; "a chance to cut is a chance to cure." This little EE may well impact again. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I'm going to offer the hungry one water with electrolytes and a little yogurt. And I am soooo grateful to Shadowgrass for the great video!