Impacted Crop Diaries

[PITSNPEEPS]

I noticed that a common thread to impacted crop seems to be hay or grass. Can a chicken get impacted crop if they don't eat either of those? My girls are in a coop with a course sand mix as recommended in another thread I found helpful, are fed crumble with a daily handful of scratch in the morning and they always have water available. I have never wormed them but I have also never seen any indication of worms when I clean the sand every weekend. I noticed a couple days ago that CeCe had a hard golf ball size mass in her crop but she seems to be acting and eating/drinking normal (she is such a pig!). In reading this thread I plan on going to my feed store to pick up wormed since I have four youngsters that will be moving into the coop in a couple weeks, but I am concerned about the mass. Help please!

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

I noticed that a common thread to impacted crop seems to be hay or grass. Can a chicken get impacted crop if they don't eat either of those? My girls are in a coop with a course sand mix as recommended in another thread I found helpful, are fed crumble with a daily handful of scratch in the morning and they always have water available. I have never wormed them but I have also never seen any indication of worms when I clean the sand every weekend. I noticed a couple days ago that CeCe had a hard golf ball size mass in her crop but she seems to be acting and eating/drinking normal (she is such a pig!). In reading this thread I plan on going to my feed store to pick up wormed since I have four youngsters that will be moving into the coop in a couple weeks, but I am concerned about the mass. Help please!

Chickens get an impacted crop when they eat long, fibrous things that wind up in their crop. If they eat smaller, bite sized food bits, it's highly unlikely that they will get an impacted crop. For example, chickens keep in battery cages are only fed their feed and never need grit.

That said, hens can really pork out and get a very full crop. Check it first thing in the morning to see if it's empty when she wakes up. It should be. If it isn't, then you might need to do some massage work to help break up the wad. I suppose if she ate a lot of feed w/ very little water that it could get thick in the crop. But that's not normal.

 

[PITSNPEEPS]

Yes, she does wolf her crumbles when the urge hits her. I will make sure to check her first thing and see if she still has the mass and needs a bit of massaging. Thank you so much, I really love the little lady and don't want anything bad to happen to her!

 

[Jenscriv12]

Hi I stumbled upon this post. Hopefully one of you can help me. My girl, Maria, has had what seems like a chronic enlarged crop for months. At first I was being diligent and monitoring her but began working long hours... anyway it gotten really bad. Her crop is huge and squishy. Apparently it's been hitting the ground when she is pecking at things and she has some small skin tears. I've got her separated from the others, eating soft scrambled eggs and plain yogurt with some pure collagen on it and clean water. She seems to ok, not too lethargic but just a little slower than the others. I can't bring her inside and do not have a garage or anything. Right now she's in a wire crate next to the others. I'm afraid to massage her crop because of the skin tears. I'll be monitoring her poo. Is there anything else I can do? I'm here all day this weekend but I'm basically only at home for an hour of daylight in the evenings and leave in the dark of morning too.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

Hi I stumbled upon this post. Hopefully one of you can help me. My girl, Maria, has had what seems like a chronic enlarged crop for months. At first I was being diligent and monitoring her but began working long hours... anyway it gotten really bad. Her crop is huge and squishy. Apparently it's been hitting the ground when she is pecking at things and she has some small skin tears. I've got her separated from the others, eating soft scrambled eggs and plain yogurt with some pure collagen on it and clean water. She seems to ok, not too lethargic but just a little slower than the others. I can't bring her inside and do not have a garage or anything. Right now she's in a wire crate next to the others. I'm afraid to massage her crop because of the skin tears. I'll be monitoring her poo. Is there anything else I can do? I'm here all day this weekend but I'm basically only at home for an hour of daylight in the evenings and leave in the dark of morning too.

Hmmm, that's a tough one. It sounds like she's got a pendulous crop. Meaning the crop got stretched out of shape and it will then drag on the ground. And she'll have trouble emptying it at night which can cause it to make gas at night. I've seen crop bras which you can put on your hen which support the crop and that would keep it from dragging on the ground and help it empty at night. Not sure what else you could do for her. Poor hen.

 

[The Chicken Fan]

Hi I stumbled upon this post. Hopefully one of you can help me. My girl, Maria, has had what seems like a chronic enlarged crop for months. At first I was being diligent and monitoring her but began working long hours... anyway it gotten really bad. Her crop is huge and squishy. Apparently it's been hitting the ground when she is pecking at things and she has some small skin tears. I've got her separated from the others, eating soft scrambled eggs and plain yogurt with some pure collagen on it and clean water. She seems to ok, not too lethargic but just a little slower than the others. I can't bring her inside and do not have a garage or anything. Right now she's in a wire crate next to the others. I'm afraid to massage her crop because of the skin tears. I'll be monitoring her poo. Is there anything else I can do? I'm here all day this weekend but I'm basically only at home for an hour of daylight in the evenings and leave in the dark of morning too.

One of my girls had a pendulous crop. I got her a crop bra and she is a completely new chicken! It pretty much saved her life. I would recommend looking into getting one.

 

[Jenscriv12]

Thank you Chicken Fan and Spice Girls. I ended up making her a bra. The ones I found online were going to take too long to get to me so I used some support tights I bought at CVS for a few bucks. First, I tried using the calf of the tights and just cut a hole for her wings to pull through. It worked but seemed like it was rubbing on her very bony body on the wrong parts. So I next used the waist and part of the thigh. The high was the head and the waist part being for her body. I cut the waistband off and cut it diagonally across so I'd have two parts to tie together. It worked perfectly. Wish I'd thought to take a picture. Anyway, here's what else I've been doing. Besides the soft scrambled egg, yogurt and collagen I have been giving her every morning (about 1/2 cup total all day) yesterday I got Prozyme in the mail (suggestion from the chicken chick on FB) and added about 1/8 tsp to her food along with some pellets mixed in with the yogurt/egg mix. With everything, it has only taken 5 days for her to now just feel like she has a small but saggy boob. LOL. I am going to purchase a crop bra because she could not fly up to her roost with the one I made, hopefully the other will be more flexible. Here is a before (bottom) and after (top). The before is actually a few weeks ago, it got worse than this. She's a happy girl being spoiled. I just need to get her weight back up now and figure out a good balance of how to keep that crop down! I was always feeding all my girls scratch and peck whole feed, none of my other girls seem to have a problem with it but do you think maybe she just can't digest it properly?

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

Thank you Chicken Fan and Spice Girls. I ended up making her a bra. The ones I found online were going to take too long to get to me so I used some support tights I bought at CVS for a few bucks. First, I tried using the calf of the tights and just cut a hole for her wings to pull through. It worked but seemed like it was rubbing on her very bony body on the wrong parts. So I next used the waist and part of the thigh. The high was the head and the waist part being for her body. I cut the waistband off and cut it diagonally across so I'd have two parts to tie together. It worked perfectly. Wish I'd thought to take a picture. Anyway, here's what else I've been doing. Besides the soft scrambled egg, yogurt and collagen I have been giving her every morning (about 1/2 cup total all day) yesterday I got Prozyme in the mail (suggestion from the chicken chick on FB) and added about 1/8 tsp to her food along with some pellets mixed in with the yogurt/egg mix. With everything, it has only taken 5 days for her to now just feel like she has a small but saggy boob. LOL. I am going to purchase a crop bra because she could not fly up to her roost with the one I made, hopefully the other will be more flexible. Here is a before (bottom) and after (top). The before is actually a few weeks ago, it got worse than this. She's a happy girl being spoiled. I just need to get her weight back up now and figure out a good balance of how to keep that crop down! I was always feeding all my girls scratch and peck whole feed, none of my other girls seem to have a problem with it but do you think maybe she just can't digest it properly?

Wow, that's awesome. I'm so happy for you and for your happy hen.

I don't know why some get it and others done. I think it's just because some hens are goats and eat and eat and the crop just gets stretched out of shape.

 

[The Chicken Fan]

Thank you Chicken Fan and Spice Girls. I ended up making her a bra. The ones I found online were going to take too long to get to me so I used some support tights I bought at CVS for a few bucks. First, I tried using the calf of the tights and just cut a hole for her wings to pull through. It worked but seemed like it was rubbing on her very bony body on the wrong parts. So I next used the waist and part of the thigh. The high was the head and the waist part being for her body. I cut the waistband off and cut it diagonally across so I'd have two parts to tie together. It worked perfectly. Wish I'd thought to take a picture. Anyway, here's what else I've been doing. Besides the soft scrambled egg, yogurt and collagen I have been giving her every morning (about 1/2 cup total all day) yesterday I got Prozyme in the mail (suggestion from the chicken chick on FB) and added about 1/8 tsp to her food along with some pellets mixed in with the yogurt/egg mix. With everything, it has only taken 5 days for her to now just feel like she has a small but saggy boob. LOL. I am going to purchase a crop bra because she could not fly up to her roost with the one I made, hopefully the other will be more flexible. Here is a before (bottom) and after (top). The before is actually a few weeks ago, it got worse than this. She's a happy girl being spoiled. I just need to get her weight back up now and figure out a good balance of how to keep that crop down! I was always feeding all my girls scratch and peck whole feed, none of my other girls seem to have a problem with it but do you think maybe she just can't digest it properly?

She looks fantastic! Sometimes the crop will go back to normal size, or she may have to wear the bra for the rest of her life. Also, congrats on making one! I'm not crafty at all so I thought it would be safest for me if I just ordered one

 

[bmayer]

I have been away for 4 days and went out to see my flock this morning and do my crop check on Mindy. It's got another huge, hard impaction again. So she's back to being a house chicken for the day. I am withholding food and massaging. Now that we've been through it I'm hoping I can get it softened and moved much quicker than last time. Prayers and thoughts for my little girl that it moves quickly.