Impacted crop or sour crop?

[ChickensRsmart]

I've been looking at similar threads and I don't see exactly what I'm dealing with (probably not anyway), so I decided to post a new thread.

I have an older hen and her crop hasn't emptied for the last couple of days (maybe 3 days). It's not full (maybe a bit more than half full), but there's a lot more in there than she usually eats before going to bed on any given evening. I can feel the grains in her crop and they make a fairly tight ball at the bottom of the crop and it will break apart with soft massaging. But her crop continues to fail to empty the next morning.

She's produced a few smaller (and drier) looking poops today - so something must be getting through her. She will also infrequently extend her neck and "shiver" as if her there is some discomfort - and sometimes while gently messaging her crop, she will do it as well - I would estimate that she does this perhaps 1 or 2 times per hour...

She's had all food withheld today (and she wants to eat). I've only supplied her with garlic water. Has anyone had a similar problem? I also don't smell any bad breath, but it's not always easy to smell a chicken's breath.

 

[aart]

These might help you figure it out:
Crop Treatment by Azygous
Crop Treatment by TwoCrows

 

[aldarita]

I just had a similar problem with one of my hens. I separated her and put her in a very large cage, withheld all food and added 5g of baking soda in a liter of water to change the pH in her crop to keep it from getting sour (due to yeast growth) and electrolytes . I also gave her a crop massage every 2 hours. After 2 days her crop got smaller but it did not empty completely. I started giving her wet feed a little at a time (like 3 TB)which she ate. She was pooping some solids but it was a very wet poop, mostly water (because she was drinking lots of water) after a week, her crop is still not emptying completely but she seems to be fine so I put her back in the yard and she's currently on a watch with crop check ups. She might just have a slow crop now. I have looked for info about dealing with a slow crop but have not found much.

 

[ChickensRsmart]

I just had a similar problem with one of my hens. I separated her and put her in a very large cage, withheld all food and added 5g of baking soda in a liter of water to change the pH in her crop to keep it from getting sour (due to yeast growth) and electrolytes . I also gave her a crop massage every 2 hours. After 2 days her crop got smaller but it did not empty completely. I started giving her wet feed a little at a time (like 3 TB)which she ate. She was pooping some solids but it was a very wet poop, mostly water (because she was drinking lots of water) after a week, her crop is still not emptying completely but she seems to be fine so I put her back in the yard and she's currently on a watch with crop check ups. She might just have a slow crop now. I have looked for info about dealing with a slow crop but have not found much.

Thanks aldarita and aart.

She's still pooping small amounts - normal looking poops - on the dry side. She's drinking galic water since yesterday and I just watched her drink more of it. Earlier, I also managed to get about a 1/4 tsp of olive oil into her and I've been massaging her little crop about every hour. None of my chickens are anywhere near as cooperative as all the youtube chickens in videos taking medications or being treated for sour or impacted crops. I estimate she got about 1/4 tsp of olive oil - and another 1/4 tsp went everywhere but in her mouth...

I am feeling hopeful now because for the first time, her crop contents did not settle into a semi-hard mass - after massaging her crop about 30 minutes ago. It feels softer now - after the olive oil. Coincidence? Maybe...maybe not.

I would not doubt that she ends up with a slow crop too aldarita...she's 11 years old now...and this is her first known case of a crop problem - impacted or sour.

 

[SB16]

Could she have eaten anything strange?

My Speckled Sussex, Betty, once took to eating sand from her dust bath. I didn't know that at the time. All I knew was that she had a hugely impacted crop. Took her to the vet who put her on antibiotics (?) and I tried every remedy I could find, but I couldn't clear it and she started not feeling well so I wound up having to operate on her to get it out. The surgery wasn't hard on her and she recovered within two days.

*The surgery was actually harder on me than anyone. Even my friend who was wielding the scalpel. I asked her if she was okay cutting into my chicken and she said, "I cut into chicken all the time." Nerves of steel.

Good luck with your hen.

 

[ChickensRsmart]

Could she have eaten anything strange?

My Speckled Sussex, Betty, once took to eating sand from her dust bath. I didn't know that at the time. All I knew was that she had a hugely impacted crop. Took her to the vet who put her on antibiotics (?) and I tried every remedy I could find, but I couldn't clear it and she started not feeling well so I wound up having to operate on her to get it out. The surgery wasn't hard on her and she recovered within two days.

*The surgery was actually harder on me than anyone. Even my friend who was wielding the scalpel. I asked her if she was okay cutting into my chicken and she said, "I cut into chicken all the time." Nerves of steel.

Good luck with your hen.

She could have eaten something she should not have - it's possible. Although I think it's more likely that she has some kind of infection in her gut (she's getting pretty old). I am starting to think so because she's responding well to the garlic water. She's pooping more frequently again and there's now more moister in her poop...It's as if the garlic tea is kick-starting her digestive system. Her crop still has yet to empty, but it feels softer now and I think it may have shrunk in size - I'll know for sure by tomorrow if it's beginning to empty out.

It is hard to work on your own pet - whenever you have to use a scalpel...I've just been through a little bit of that - and it was too much.

I've heard of vets prescribing antibiotics for sour crop, but I never understood it - what if the sour crop is due to yeast and not bacteria? Won't that make the sour crop worse?

 

[SB16]

She could have eaten something she should not have - it's possible. Although I think it's more likely that she has some kind of infection in her gut (she's getting pretty old). I am starting to think so because she's responding well to the garlic water. She's pooping more frequently again and there's now more moister in her poop...It's as if the garlic tea is kick-starting her digestive system. Her crop still has yet to empty, but it feels softer now and I think it may have shrunk in size - I'll know for sure by tomorrow if it's beginning to empty out.

It is hard to work on your own pet - whenever you have to use a scalpel...I've just been through a little bit of that - and it was too much.

I've heard of vets prescribing antibiotics for sour crop, but I never understood it - what if the sour crop is due to yeast and not bacteria? Won't that make the sour crop worse?

I'm glad she's doing better. I can't imagine how attached you must be to one another. I hope just one of mine lives to be 11.

I think the antibiotics were a ruse. I walked into the office knowing she was impacted and needed surgery. I'd been dealing with it for a week already. The vet wanted to do x-rays and bloodwork before performing surgery. The estimate on that pre-op work was over $450. I declined. They threw antibiotics at me as I walked out the door with my $140 bill. I can't imagine that they thought they'd work. Indeed, all they did was stretch out her ordeal for another week.

 

[ChickensRsmart]

I'm glad she's doing better. I can't imagine how attached you must be to one another. I hope just one of mine lives to be 11.

I think the antibiotics were a ruse. I walked into the office knowing she was impacted and needed surgery. I'd been dealing with it for a week already. The vet wanted to do x-rays and bloodwork before performing surgery. The estimate on that pre-op work was over $450. I declined. They threw antibiotics at me as I walked out the door with my $140 bill. I can't imagine that they thought they'd work. Indeed, all they did was stretch out her ordeal for another week.

Yes. In my experience, almost all vets are money grubbing sob's. lol. They simply don't give a rat's butt about animals - $$ is all that matters to them...even if it's at the animals' expense. That's been my experience at least. And I happen to love capitalism...but not when it's at the animals' expense.

My little hen is a silver penciled cochin bantam. And yes - she is one of my babies. I love them like a mother loves her babies (but I'm not gay.) LOL These little bantams are ROUND...when they see treats somewhere, the girls run toward the treats and their feathers make them look like they're wearing skirts - which they have to lift as they run. lol

I met some lady at my local feed store and she told me she has a bantam hen who is 14 years old...

 

[LoCoHens]

I'm dealing with a similar issue in my 8.5-year-old Brahma (old for a large breed). I noticed a few weeks ago that her crop wasn't emptying overnight. I isolated her for a few days, withheld food for about 12 hours, then gave her feed mash and scrambled egg in small amounts, got some mineral oil in her several times a day with crop massage, and put acidified copper sulfate in her water to stave off sour crop. She had an appetite and her poops were normal to wet. Her crop seemed to get better (but not fully) so I put her back in with the flock. That was tough because there was a pecking order fight that she lost.

Since then her crop issue has worsened and this morning was the worst yet. I've been doing the lemon juice mixture on TwoCrows and mineral oil with crop massage twice a day. Sometimes I think it helps and sometimes I'm not sure. She's also lost weight.

While crop issues can be an isolated thing, I've also experienced with other chickens that they're often a symptom of something more serious. As an old hen, I fear that she has tumors blocking her up.

There's no way I could do crop surgery myself even I thought that was needed. I broke down and called the vet this morning and they're coming to me tomorrow. I've had mixed experience with vets. My biggest issue seems to be a knowledge gap in treating chickens as pets. This hen is one of my original chickens and beloved so I want the peace of mind that I did what I could.

 

[ChickensRsmart]

I'm dealing with a similar issue in my 8.5-year-old Brahma (old for a large breed). I noticed a few weeks ago that her crop wasn't emptying overnight. I isolated her for a few days, withheld food for about 12 hours, then gave her feed mash and scrambled egg in small amounts, got some mineral oil in her several times a day with crop massage, and put acidified copper sulfate in her water to stave off sour crop. She had an appetite and her poops were normal to wet. Her crop seemed to get better (but not fully) so I put her back in with the flock. That was tough because there was a pecking order fight that she lost.

Since then her crop issue has worsened and this morning was the worst yet. I've been doing the lemon juice mixture on TwoCrows and mineral oil with crop massage twice a day. Sometimes I think it helps and sometimes I'm not sure. She's also lost weight.

While crop issues can be an isolated thing, I've also experienced with other chickens that they're often a symptom of something more serious. As an old hen, I fear that she has tumors blocking her up.

There's no way I could do crop surgery myself even I thought that was needed. I broke down and called the vet this morning and they're coming to me tomorrow. I've had mixed experience with vets. My biggest issue seems to be a knowledge gap in treating chickens as pets. This hen is one of my original chickens and beloved so I want the peace of mind that I did what I could.

Yes. It get's harder to deal with these problems when your bird is getting old. Crop surgery wouldn't be an option for my girl simply because she is so old. She is doing about the same as of yesterday - she's still pooping reasonably well, but her crop is (maybe) only a bit smaller - I don't know where all the poop is coming from, but there's a fair amount of it every day now for 3 days.

I ordered her a crop bra too - just in case there's some pendulous-ness to her crop? Feels like the crop may hang down an inch or so more than it should, but I don't really know... She seems to be having less crop discomfort too - it's still there (the neck stretching and shivering), but it's much less frequent now.

I am sending a poop sample off to the same lab that tested for the source of Salmonella that killed my horse a few years ago...

Hopefully she's not dealing with a tumor or a mass of some kind. She is so much more than just a chicken to me. lol. I can see that you feel the same way about your hen! I think a lot of people love their chickens... I wonder how many people in the world keep chickens as pets - and not necessarily just for meat and eggs? I'll bet is at least 100 million people - world wide...