Impacted crop + diarrhea

[suzannef]

Hi all, so I'm pretty sure my birdie has impacted crop which is a first for us. It is hard and not empty this morning as it usually is. She is lethargic and sad looking. Plus she has diarrhea. Is it normal for them to have diarrhea with impacted crop or am I looking at two separate problems?

I've taken food away and she drank a little water this morning. She's away from all the other birds. I massaged her crop for a few mins and tipped her upside down to see if she would vom, but not even close.

I haven't given her a dose of oil yet but I will later today if I feel it might help make her vomit.

I have some pro-biotics which I started giving yesterday arvo. Just cos their good. But if anyone has any other advice - particularly around the impacted crop/diarrhea combo I'd be grateful.

Do chooks with these problems have a good recovery rate if well looked after? Thanks, Suzanne

 

[Eggcessive]

Many people use coconut oil orally to help soften an impacted crop. Some also use stool softeners such as colace or doccusate sodium to help flush the crop. Water is the best thing with crop massage. Getting them to vomit is useful, but dangerous if they choke on it. I would go to the top of this page to “search forums,” and search articles for “azygous thread on treating sour crop and impacted crop.” TwoCrows also has a good article on crop problems. Vets can be helpful with crop blockage since they can do surgery. I have had little success in treating crop problems. Good luck.

 

[suzannef]

Thanks, I've come back from the beach a couple of hours later and her crop doesn't feel hard anymore but mushy. So she's either drunk LOADS of water when we were out or we are going towards sour crop now. Thinking to give anti-biotics. I have some here. My experience with these things is that if you don't get on top of it reasonably fast it's curtains

 

[Eggcessive]

Check her crop in early morning before she has had a chance to eat, when it normally would be empty. Make sure that you are providing granite chicken grit so that she can digest grasses and foods other than plain chicken feed.

 

[Fishkeeper]

What kind of probiotics? Adding new bacteria to the situation might not necessarily be a good thing.

 

[Eggcessive]

Probiotics are a good thing to use for crop and digestive health. But I would not use antibiotics. I would concentrate on determining if it is truly a crop problem (read the articles above,) and giving treatment to clear it. In sour crop, antifungal drugs are commonly used.

 

[casportpony]

It's been my experience that crop problems are always secondary problem, which in mine has been cancer, worms, blackhead, coccidiosis, bacterial infection of the intestines, or bacterial infection of the repro tract.