Impacted crop....did surgery last night

[kfuller]

Title explains. One of my RIR hens was starving and dehydrated. I could tip her over with little force. So sad. All started about 3 months ago when she stopped laying and started losing weight. I figured maybe the FL heat is getting to her or possibly molting. She continued losing weight, but still eating and drinking, mostly producing diarreha daily. After realizing she is really sick ( 3 months later) I gave her antibiotics (cipro). 4 days of that seemed to do nothing. Gave her dewormer (wazine). 24 hours later I realized she has an impacted crop and if i dont do something she will die. 24 hour with no food and oils, water, massaging did not lossing a baseball size of what felt like clay. Actually think massaging compacts the stuff more. So i performed the sugery last night removing what seemed to be mostly feed and grass but bound up like clay. No straw or foreign objects were found.

My questions it, what can cause this? Worms possibly, disease, or just what she ate. I have three Hens, and the other 2 or healty. I am not going to let them free range anymore cause I have long bahia in my yard, and it gets long sometimes.

Another question is did super glue work for you? Thats what I did but now am second guessing that decision. Skin incesion looks great, but how am i suppsoed to know how that crop turned out? Say the glue held for the last 16 hours and I havent given her anywater (so the glue will hold), will the crop skin have mended back together in this time frame? Im not sure how well I glued the crop liner. Getting the 2 ends of the lacerated skin to align perfectly was hard. Will they somehow meet together and heal right?

As of now she is still walking around. In fact right after surgery she chased a baby liazzard.

Thanks for any info.

 

[Lifetime chicken lover]

kfuller, Congrats on doing everything you could for your bird.
I did the surgery once too, I used stitches and it just did not work. Regardless of the closure method used, you have to watch for adhesions of the crop on the outer skin. As soon as the wound seems to have healed for the most part, you'll have to massage the wound to prevent the layers adhering. But do not do this too soon. After 2 weeks or so, I'd say.
I'm not sure about the glue. I would assume that if it was super glue, it should dry pretty quickly. Keep checking that there is nothing leaking or oozing out of the wound.
I found the hardest part was healing/recovery. My bird, unfortunately, just did not make it.
I hope your surgery is more successful than mine.
I wish your bird a happy recovery.

 

[kfuller]

Well she passed away 24 hours after these last ditch efforts. 3 hours before passing she was eating and drinking, so not sure what happened. At least she had one last drink and food before passing and is not suffering anymore.

 

[Lifetime chicken lover]

I'm so sorry to hear about your bird. You can rest soundly that you did everything you could for her!

I would like to add to anyone who decides to read this post who has a similar problem, unless you have vet-like facilities and a lot of time to provide post-op care, surgery on impacted crop IS NOT a good idea. It involves needless suffering for the bird and is very time consuming.
Just my 2 cents on the matter.