Impacted Crop?? Need more advice.

[Beekissed]

I say, do it! What have you got to lose? I would have rung her neck by now to relieve her of her misery!

If she is so dehydrated as to be listless, then what have you got to lose here? I, too, am a nurse and I have also heard of admin. fluids SQ to animals. Hardly anything done to animals is a sterile procedure in the field, except surgery of some kind and even that is difficult. It would be just like inserting a needle into a human, just swab with alcohol for 30 seconds. No longer than the needle will be inserted, she shouldn't stand too much of a chance of getting some raging infection. Most vets won't treat chickens, so people have to do what they have to do, sometimes. Go for it with the NS or D5 LR.

 

[chickenlady]

Well tonight, after a day of my hen not drinking anything and slipping more downhill, I figured I couldnt hurt much by trying to give fluids sub Q. I was able to give her 5ccs of fluid under her skin. About 5 minutes after doing so, she jumped up and drank half a bowl of water. Still wont touch the bread with oil. So I massaged the water around in her huge crop and could hear funky noises coming from there.

I decided to follow others advice regarding impacted crop and held her upside down to make her vomit. Well, vomit she did. Huge chunks of grass and shavings came out. I stopped and gave her a rest to make sure she could breathe. After a 10 minute break, we did it again. More grass and shavings, clumps of it. I cant even begin to tell you have bad it smelled. OMG!!

She is now resting. We were only able to empty half of her crop for now. I will let her sleep the night and see if we cleared this up. Hopefully the rest will be gone by morning. I know she is not out of the woods but I feel like I made an effort in saving her instead of just watching her die. Thanks for listening. Anyway, her name is Spirit, she is a total mutt hen but our first hen. She was given to my then 4 year old son. She lived in my house and sat on my lap and watched tv every night until she was 10 weeks old. Then she moved to a coop. Shes a good little chicken and still loves my son.

 

[Beekissed]

Good job!! Some folks could never have done what you did to help your chicken. Kudos on your bravery!

 

[d.k]

* Keep in mind, if you try this, that bringing the solution up to the animal's body temp is critical. A bad vet killed a pet of ours by giving her substanstial s/q fluids that were as cold as the extremely air-conditioned exam room.

 

[chickenlady]

Thank you Dk for the reminder. Fortuneately for me, the fluid pak had been sitting in a warm area for a while. I never thought of that. Sometimes you get so crazy trying to help these chickens and you dont think about everything. 5ccs is not alot of fluid but that was all she would sit for. When all was said and done for the night, I was only able to give her 1 more cc. Thanks again for that info.

 

[bwebb7]

Glad she is getting relief!

 

[chickenlady]

Thanks bwebb. She seems pretty active this morning. Drank a whole bowl of water overnight. Pooped somewhat alot. More than all of yesterday anyway. It is a thick green pea soup kind of poop with some water in it. I'm assuming it is the mush that has accumulated in her crop. I could not get her to vomit at all this morning so I will let her be. Later this afternoon, if needed, I will give her more fluids SQ.

 

[chickenlady]

Another update. Her crop is still the same size as last night. During the day today, she went from thick green apple sauce poop to solid poop containing lots of grass and leaves. She is taking in very little water but is drinking some. I gave her a small handful of crumbles today which she happily ate. Her comb is still bright red. Tonight she has started to become lethargic again and is really drooping her wings. Could this be something else? She has lost alot of weight and is in the middle of her heaviest molt yet. She has tons of new feathers coming in everywhere. I am afraid to give her too much but dont want to withhold food for much longer, it has been just over 24 hours with the exception of a handful of food.

 

[Crazy_Chicken_Lady]

I know this is a late reply by me, but you had mentioned in an earlier post that your hen's breath smelled 'funny'. Perhaps she also has sour crop. Do you have any active culture yogurt? Nystatin is also used to treat this, but you'd have to get it from your vet. 5ml on an empty crop (if possible). In a pinch copper sulfate can be used. 1/2 tsp per gallon of water. Septic yolk peridontis can also cause this sour crop too (I had a hen die of it).

I sure hope your hen recovered.

My girl currently has an impacted crop. Our vet sent us home with a long throat tube with a syringe on top. We run the tube down to her crop (becareful not to get it in her treachea) use the syringe and put in warm water and work the contents of her crop then use the syringe to suck back up some of the water (don't put this back into her) it will hydrate her and help to break up the contents. We were also advised to get hand feeding baby bird formula and mix very milky and use the same syringe and tube to inject this into her crop. Keep doing it 1-3 times a day. If this doesn't work she'd have to have her crop cleaned out by surgery.

Many websites I've read advise against tring to make your hen vomit as water can get in the birds treachea which is behind the tongue.

Hope this helps in the future.

 

[chickenlady]

Thanks Crazy Chicken Lady. I was using epsom salt flushes for my girl. I gave her 12 hours with no food and just lots of water. Then I gave her warm water with epsom salt, crop massages every hour, small amounts of grower crumbles. I did make her throw up 3 times which emptied alot of garbage. I know this method probly isnt the best but I just wanted to empty her crop without surgery because it wouldnt empty on its own. Anyway, in a few days, her crop was finally empty and flat. I gave her some moist cat food and more grower crumbles. I put her back in the coop and she seems back to normal now. Thanks again for your info.