Impacted Crop - length till impact passed

[OregonChickenGal]

Quote:
Have you tried dropping the oil on her beak? Sometimes they'll drink it right up. I use mineral oil for my chickens they don't like olive oil. Mineral oil has no taste. When my hen had an impaction it took 3 days to clear up.

 

[puddinbabe]

Dropping liquid on the beak doesn't work. It always has for my other hens, but not this little lady.

 

[puddinbabe]

Her poop has also turned from white watery with green to just watery with a little green. It looks like there aren't any more urates. I couldn't find anything about this on the board.

 

[OregonChickenGal]

Watery with green is from not eating. Here's a link. http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

 

[puddinbabe]

I know its from not eating, and its been that way for awhile. But today was the first day that there weren't any white urates in the watery green mess.

 

[gallusdomesticus]

If you hold her head between your thumb and forefinger and tilt her beak upward toward the vertical, she will involuntarily open her beak and you can put the syringe in.
Watery droppings can indicate that she is not processing solid food and has an obstruction in her digestive system. Since her crop is blocked, that makes sense. Until you can get the crop contents broken up and down her, keep trying to get some protein in her. If all else fails, crop surgery may be your only option...that was the case with my hen's first impaction. Good luck.

 

[puddinbabe]

She's at the vet right now. Hopefully they can help.

 

[Minniechickmama]

I use a small, 1 ml syringe to administer things that need to go down, like dewormer. I slide it right down to the crop and squirt it in. I am able to do this on my own. I hold the bird on my lap with my one arm securing her body but still able to hold her head with my hand. sort of a football hold. I hold her head and beak with one hand and use the other hand to pry her beak enough to get the syringe passed. they struggle a little but I get it done. Giving her some ACV this way even if you have to do surgery to clear it, it can help any unwanted bacteria/yeast/whatever clear out of her crop. You need to keep her off solid food for about 3-6 days and let her crop shrink back. Maybe longer if she has surgery. By solid, I mean grains and grasses.
I have had a batch of Welsummers that I have had problems with. Their food choice is to gorge themselves on grass until they are so impacted they have a softball sized crop of the stuff. Cleaned this out of one last year:

This was well over a cup of grass. She never would have gotten it out on her own. She was such a mess a couple of weeks later after the surgery, and this being the second time she had this in about 3 months, I finally put her down. The others I have caught early enough that ACV and olive oil worked to clear them up. I also vomitted their crops clean every day if it became buldging again until I was content that the over abundance of yeast was washed out.
Good luck.

 

[ErinG]

Our banty became impacted with straw, we tried massaging, but it wasn't working and seemed like it was painful for her. We resorted to surgery, and she made a full recovery quickly. The vet should be able to do a simple surgery like that for you - not sure how much that would set you back, or how they would do with the general anesthesia. Good luck.

 

[puddinbabe]

When I arrived at the vet I told them I thought it was hay. The vet said that probably wasn't right because that should digest. But of course I was right. They took a clump of hay out. Hopefully there isn't an underlying medical problem that has caused this. Let's hope for a speedy recovery and a healthy appetite. I'll post results in a few days. Thanks for all the help!