Impacted crop I think? were exactly is the crop?

[jen5680]

Well my bird is just not acting right and i have been reading all about impacted
crop but i don't no what i am doing or were exactly to look??? Her breast area
feels like a big water ballon or something. Is this the crop area because it looks
like her breast area?? When I feel around on her neck it is hard and feels like
she has a hard half circle in there. I no this sounds weird but i just don't no what
area to be rubbing on and i don't want to hurt her.
Can someone please help me. I hope it is not to late for her.
thanks!!

 

[sumatra]

Their crop is just at the base of their neck sort of to the right side of their bodies. It does sound like an impaction. Wish I could be more helpful, but i've never had to deal with one. I hope she is ok!

 

[jen5680]

Well i just held her upside down over the trash and i can't believe
the amount of liquid that came out!!! And the smell! SICK!
I guess i will wait a bit and try it again later. She keeps opening
her mouth like she is trying to get air or something. Poor little thing!
I guess I should give them grit to maybe help prevent this????

 

[Chicken Boo]

There are a few threads about impacted/sour crops on this board. Do a search.

 

[teach1rusl]

Never dealt with it myself. I've read that you can try to get a tiny bit of olive oil down and gently massage the crop area to try to get it to pass. There is a LOT of info on impacted crops to be found through the search box.

 

[cobrien]

Impacted crop is a serious condition, they can die from it. If you haven't already, bring her inside and keep her warm. Add 1-2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (with the "mother", the brand name Bragg's is good) to 1 gallon of water. I would feed only scrambled eggs and yogurt for now. No grit. Massage crop in a downward movement, ideally you would do this as often as possible. I stayed up all night once with one chicken once, massaging the crop and tempting to eat drink every 1/2-1 hour, I know this isn't possible for everyone but just do what you can. They can regurgitate the yucky liquid and breathe it in which could lead to pneumonia. I don't recommend holding her upside down again or pushing down on the crop or massaging in an upward movement for this reason. If you can afford a vet, they can give a medication called Reglan which "moves stuff through their system". I saved a baby chick by getting this done but of course it's expensive. Maybe you can find a vet to give you this without an exam.

 

[jen5680]

I brought her inside this afternoon because I thought
she was acting a bit strange the last few days but wasn't
real sure why. I also put ACV in her water but she really
hasn' drank much at all and she won't eat anything.
I spent a lot of time out there today cleaning
the coop and I was really watching her and she hadn't moved
the whole time i was out there. When i went out yesterday
she was just staying under the light but I just thought she was
cold or something. I new for sure today that something wasn't
right and the other chickens were picking on her. I of course got
right on BYC and starting looking up posts on what the problem
could be. That is when i read about the sour crop. I had never
even heard of it but thank goodness i kept reading and reading
about it.
There are so many different things that people say to do that it is
hard to pick the right thing but I guess I will just start by doing a few
at a time and pray that she gets better. After what came out of her
when I turned her upside down, she has got to be feeling a little
better but she sure doesn't act like it. I don't have a poultry vet
in my area so i am hopeing for the best?????

 

[eastbaychicks]

Must be the time of year? Or is this happening all the time. So sad!!!!

We need a tutorial on BYC dealing with this more specifically. I've read and read for hours and still need more help.

Good luck... I'm thinking of you.

 

[megsneggs]

I am new to chicken ownership (two years) and I have this same exact problem. I noticed about three days ago that my light brahma had a huge crop and was it was super hard. I massaged it and took away the pellets. For the last three days I have only been feeding them (I have three chickens) olive oil soaked bread and warm water with apple cider vinegar and the electrolytes/ vitamin mixture. Today I massaged it again and it was a lot softer and moveable in there. I did turn her over to see if the same nasty stuff people talk about came out and sure enough liquid started coming out right away but it was not stinky at all. She started gagging but then was fine when I let her go to recover. She acts completely normal, eats, drinks no problem and has normal coloring. I am hoping that by tomorrow I will massage it again in the pinching downward motion and hopefully she will recover just fine. That surgery link is crazy! Do people really do their own surgery to drain it and just let the cut heal by itself??? I just cannot imagine doing that without being a vet or extremely experienced chicken owner.

 

[jen5680]

Well I woke up this morning to find her dead!!

I feel so bad that I didn't notice this in time to help
her. I would have done the surgery myself if I had a better diagram to go by. It would be nice if someone
could take grapgic detailed pictures and post it on thi site. I no there is one on here that shows someone doing
it but you really can't tell from the pictures.
Good luck to anyone else with this problem!!