Impacted crop. European alternative to Docusate Sodium?

[pitapinta79]

Good morning to everybody.

I have a hen that was sick with swollen head syndrome. For a week I administered antibiotics (enrofloxacin) for possible secondary infections and I fed and gave her a drink. The inflammation was decreasing and already seems to be fine. She had her eye completely closed from the swelling and the mucus barely allowed her to breathe. In addition to this I bought chlorine dioxide (here in Spain we do not have Oxine) to make it nebulizations. All this seemed to work and the inflammation disappeared; the mucus too. She began to eat and drink little by little. I continued to give her food and drink to complement the little she ate and drank. But it did not occur to me to give her stones or shells, and now she developed an impacted crop -maybe it was the antibiothics, I don`'t know-. I've given her paraffin -mineral oil- last night , but she defecates very little -dirty water and little solid matter- and the food ball is still in her crop .

Also, she's losing weight since a few days ago. I thought it was the disease, but clearly it was because of this. She starts to be very low in weight, I do not know how much time we have, but less and less.
I have been to several pharmacies and I can not find sodium docusate here in Spain. Do you know another alternative for Europe? Besides from the paraffin I try to give water to her and massage her crop.

Thank you very much and greetings.

 

[Eggcessive]

@Shadrach might be helpful, since he lives in Spain. The main brand here of docusate sodium is Colace, which has been around for generations, and might be found. But the mineral oil (liquid parafin) is a very good lubricant for a blockage. Some also use cooled coconut oil in small pieces. A teaspoonful of either of those would be the dosage.

 

[Shadrach]

Good morning to everybody.

I have a hen that was sick with swollen head syndrome. For a week I administered antibiotics (enrofloxacin) for possible secondary infections and I fed and gave her a drink. The inflammation was decreasing and already seems to be fine. She had her eye completely closed from the swelling and the mucus barely allowed her to breathe. In addition to this I bought chlorine dioxide (here in Spain we do not have Oxine) to make it nebulizations. All this seemed to work and the inflammation disappeared; the mucus too. She began to eat and drink little by little. I continued to give her food and drink to complement the little she ate and drank. But it did not occur to me to give her stones or shells, and now she developed an impacted crop -maybe it was the antibiothics, I don`'t know-. I've given her paraffin -mineral oil- last night , but she defecates very little -dirty water and little solid matter- and the food ball is still in her crop .

Also, she's losing weight since a few days ago. I thought it was the disease, but clearly it was because of this. She starts to be very low in weight, I do not know how much time we have, but less and less.
I have been to several pharmacies and I can not find sodium docusate here in Spain. Do you know another alternative for Europe? Besides from the paraffin I try to give water to her and massage her crop.


Thank you very much and greetings.

Hello pitapinta79.
I've had similar problems getting Sodium Ducusate.
I've just been talking to my vet and she has phoned through to the local pharmacy for an alternative. I don't know what its called and I won't know until I get to see the product. It may arrive tonight; it may not.
I will post here as soon as I know what the stuff is called. Obviously I won't know if it works.
I decided a couple of days ago to order this.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DulcoEase-...728095&s=gateway&sprefix=dulco,aps,492&sr=8-4
given the problems I've had here.

 

[pitapinta79]

Hello pitapinta79.
I've had similar problems getting Sodium Ducusate.
I've just been talking to my vet and she has phoned through to the local pharmacy for an alternative. I don't know what its called and I won't know until I get to see the product. It may arrive tonight; it may not.
I will post here as soon as I know what the stuff is called. Obviously I won't know if it works.
I decided a couple of days ago to order this.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DulcoEase-Stool-Softener-Soft-Capsules/dp/B001DR9TRE/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1GILTWSA4W1UL&keywords=dulcolax&qid=1554728095&s=gateway&sprefix=dulco,aps,492&sr=8-4
given the problems I've had here.

Thanks for the advice. I'm trying to order that in Amazon but I'm having problems with the shipping from UK.

 

[pitapinta79]

@Shadrach might be helpful, since he lives in Spain. The main brand here of docusate sodium is Colace, which has been around for generations, and might be found. But the mineral oil (liquid parafin) is a very good lubricant for a blockage. Some also use cooled coconut oil in small pieces. A teaspoonful of either of those would be the dosage.

Good afternoon everyone.

I will update the situation of my hen. While the Docusato was arriving - from England to Spain - I have continued to supply her with 5 mls. of paraffin in the morning and 5 mls in the evening. It seems that the cop slowly diminished, each morning was a little smaller. Now it is about the size of a golf ball or a little more at the begining it was huge-. Since I do not have facilities to have her 100% isolated and without food, I have continued to let her go out to the meadow. She is seen eating very little and very small things, small worms, very small pieces of grass and small stones. Just in case I gave her a scrambled egg with yogurt and some olive oil. With all this, she has been losing weight - 2,600 grams. to 2250 grs- and I already think that sheis thin, not to the limit, but we do not have too much time until it is irreversible.

I repeat, every day the crop diminished somewhat, very little by little, she made some poop, sometimes watery or with remains of herbs and small undigested grains.

Yesterday morning came the docusate and immediately I gave her a capsule, water and masages in the crop. I have to say that all these days - it's already been 10 or so - I've been giving her a lot of water and a lot of massages to be sure of slowly breaking the contents of her crop. In the middle of the afternoon she made a poop of more solid consistency, although somewhat slimy -added image-. Best poop all these days. At night I gave her another docusate capsule and more water, some egg and yogurt.

In the morning I saw that she had defecated less than other days, water with urea and very very little solid. The crop seemed more empty than previous days, but only a little. The morning has passed and I have not seen that she have defecated more than water. Obviously I gave her this morning another dose of docusate, water -10 mls- and olive oil -3mls-.

Now I do not know what to do because it seems that the paraffin was doing a better job than the docusate. I do not know if I can give both of them at once or it is too much or there is toxicity between the two or what. And I worry that she will weaken and lose more weight, because today I have not seen her eat almost anything. In fact, she takes a worm with his beak, kills it and leaves it without eating. With the herbs she does the same.

I do not know if I should give her paraffin along with the docusate and wait until tomorrow, and if there is no progress, I will do the surgery. I'm desperate.

By the way, I've been giving her Nystatin in case she have some kind of fungal infection - 3mls in the morning and 3mls. at night-.

Any suggestion is welcome. Thank you very much to all.

 

[Eggcessive]

I wouldn’t have used that much parafin for so long. Generally I would give 5 ml a day, but not every day, and not twice a day. I have not used docusate sodium, only mineral oil (paraffin) or coconut oil. With such a large amount and continued use, that may be why she is losing so much weight. Not every case of impacted or sour crop is treatable. I usually find there is some other reason for the crop problem to occur in the first place. I wish I had more advice, but I have not had much success in treating impacted or sour crop.

 

[pitapinta79]

Thanks for the reply @Eggcessive . Seeing that the paraffin worked slowly I thought that the crop would end up emptying completely. Yesterday night I gave her one last small dose. At the beginning of the night, she defecated water, urea and paraffin. Now (it's 7 a.m.) she has done solid poop twice (attached photos). It's not a lot, but it's something. The content of the crop continues to decrease very slowly. I'm going to go to a fishing shop to buy some maggots and see if they work as they say or at least release something from the crop. If in the afternoon I do not see any progress I will have no choice but to do the surgery (impossible a veterinarian here).

Thanks for your help. Any advice is welcome. A greeting.

 

[Eggcessive]

Sorry that I haven’t had more suggestions for help. I just am not a good authority on crop problems. I usually refer others to these 2 articles about crops:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...d-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments.67194/

Here are 2 good videos on crop surgery:

 

[pitapinta79]

Sorry that I haven’t had more suggestions for help. I just am not a good authority on crop problems. I usually refer others to these 2 articles about crops:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...d-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments.67194/

Here are 2 good videos on crop surgery:

Thanks also for your help @Eggcessive . My little Mori has passed away to a better life. I tried to do the surgery but it did not work out and I had to sacrifice her. It's the first time something like this has happened to me. It comforts me to know that she had a great life. I always say that my little ones will retire with me, but sometimes these things happen. I made a short necropsy and she had a huge amount of undigested grass and some grain. Considering that she had recovered from the Swollen Head Syndrome, I think two things could happen:

1: the antibiotics finished with their intestinal flora and when she started to eat grass her crop got stuck.

2: the disease itself affected her digestive system, and although her head was no longer swollen and she was breathing well (thanks to oxine, I'm sure) she was affected internally by the virus.

P.D .: Two hours before surgery I gave her some maggot larvae. When I opened the crop, they were still alive. I say it in case someone thinks that they die soon when entering the crop. It seems to me a very interesting fact. At least they live two hours in these conditions.


Rest in peace Mori. I'm sorry I did not do better. We will miss you little one.

 

[Eggcessive]

Very sorry for your loss @pitapinta79. It was brave of you to attempt the crop surgery.