impacted crop, huge,hard,not responding to treatment

[Ohhhdear]

Gloria's Gang :

What are your thoughts about antibiotics? I can get the general powder form to add into water but have been unable to get any penicillin.

Have you checked with TSC or your local feed mill? I believe our feed mill sells animal vaccines and syringes.​

 

[AnnainMD]

Gloria, did you take care of the impacted crop? Everything go well?

 

[Gloria's Gang]

I'm having a drink with my videographer right now! Everything went soooo well. Later I will be posting pictures and a video. Sylvia did great! She is resting in the dog crate in the living room now.

Will post all the details later tonight.

Thank you everyone!

 

[AnnainMD]

Yay! I'm so glad--I hope she recovers well. Mine is doing fabulously.

 

[Gloria's Gang]

We performed the crop impaction procedure early this afternoon. It took about one hour and 15 minutes from start to finish. My 14 1/2 year old son held her legs and body and my friend manned the flash light and the camera. We filmed most of it but I need help posting the video, I hope I can post the pictures at the end. Sylvia was a real trouper.

We laid her on a tall table in the kitchen and draped her with a cloth. I trimmed some feathers from the top area of the crop. She is a 1 1/2 year old cochin with lots of fluff and looking back, I should have trimmed more because the feahers kept getting in the way. I used a brand new blade but I don't think it was sharp enough; the outer skin cut very easily but the crop needed much more pressure than I expected. The blade seemed to be pulling the "skin" which made me nervous. I did not have another blade to use. I knew when I got into the crop because we could see the brown crap in there. I used blunt nosed scissor type tweezers to begin pulling out the blockage. It was packed tight with straw, really packed! I had to work at getting it out. Everyone was right about the smell! As soon as I opened the crop I could smell it but when it started coming out it was awful. My poor helper was gagging. It just kept coming. I felt so bad for Sylvia. She must have been miserable with all that inside her. I felt around inside with my gloved finger to make sure I got everything. Then I irrigated with saline and a large syringe. I moved the crop around to make sure all the saline came out and dried it off a bit with gauze. I used dissolving sutures which I got from my vet. I used the same tool to hold the small curved needle and put 4 stiches in the crop, tying each one individually. The outer skin was more difficult to stitch. I ended up taking my gloves off, washing my hands again with surgical scrub. I tried to do a running stitch but it didn't work so she got about 5-6 individual stitches to close the outer skin. I cleaned it up with some hydrogen peroxide, dried the area and applied bacitracin.

We uncovered her and stood her up and she let out a little growl. Her feathers were a bit messy and still had some undigested grains on them so we brought her to the sink and gently washed her up. Sylvia was so good the whole time. She only flinched a bit when I cut into the crop and again during one of the stitches but she laid there for well over an hour. I have her in a large dog crate in a quiet corner of the living room. I offered her water with added eletrolytes and I decided to also add Duramycin-10 ( a water soluable tetracycline antibiotic ). I will give her this for 2-3 days. She looks so good that late this evening I offered her a couple of spoonfulls of vanilla yogurt, which she gobbled right up. So far she looks great! I will keep an eye out for drainage and make sure the crop is not leaking into her body.

Things I would have done differently:


-Clipped more feathers
-used a straight blade or ordered a real scalpel online. (I could not find one in stores and ordering would have taken too long)
-had a small fan going or candle burning ahead of time for the smell (it really bothered my helpers).
-wished the needle was a bit longer with the sutures. It was hard to handle.

Looking back, the whole thing went really well. I can't believe the nasty stuff that came out of Sylvia. What would have made her consume all that hay? My 16 others don't have that problem. This past April she was broody. I got some fertile eggs for her to sit on which she did, for 21 days. Perhaps she was nibbling on the hay in the nest while she sat there. The babies hatched May 5th, it was a long time ago. I also lined two sides of their run with hay bales late this fall to block the hard cold wind we have. Maybe she was picking at that? I moved it all to the outside of the run today. She also molted recently for the first time. Not a hard molt like some of my others. Someone here had mentioned that may be a factor. Who knows! For now she is well. I will keep updating and post the video tomorrow. After experiencing this, my son said he does not want to be a doctor!!

-

 

[nwfl]

Bless you! I've only had serious wound repair experience.

 

[Gloria's Gang]

This morning she is doing great! She is ravenously hungry which is not good. In the dog crate I have a layer of shavings for padding and then a cloth ontop of that. She is trying to eat the shavings! I put more cloth in to cover all of the shavings. Gave her a little bit of yogurt. She pooped a bunch of times last night, just white watery poop which is now dry. She is trying to eat that too. I feel bad that she is so hungry so I took a few tiny pieces of bread and soaked them in milk and offered her that. She ate and drank the milk. Hopefully that will satiafy her for a while because I don't want the crop to expand at all. The incision looks excellent. Very clean and not crusty. I am having a hard time posting the pictures. I was able to upload them but not put them into the post. Will keep trying. Thank you all again!

 

[RhodeIslandRedFan]

I am so glad to read your very good news

Congratulations on your successful surgery! Thank you also for sharing your experience with us. I dread the day I might have to deal with this, but I am sure all of the information you provided will help the rest of us through this when our time comes!! Continued good luck to you and your hen!!!

 

[4reds]

My NHR has a massive crop it is not hard though. She just sits and doesn't want to move at all. She waddles instead of walking normal. We brough her into the house lastnight and made her a bed in the basement. I gave her some mashed baby meat sticks and some mashed bananas with soft boiled egg. She gobbled it up and then she pooped. What should I do with the crop issue.

 

[Gloria's Gang]

This surgery was a last resort. Try giving her little bits of bread soaked in lots of olive oil and massage the crop several times a day. That may help to get things going. Her pooping is a sign that at least something is getting through.