Impacted crop? PICTURES!

[Charm1704]

I did surgery on mine..It's easy but messy...just get a razor blade and cut through the skin into the middle of the crop, make the hole big enough to clean it out, I used tweezers...make sure every thing is sterile ..then I sewed her back up with needle and thread....~Charm1704

 

[Charm1704]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/newestpost/620398 here is my post on it at the time, I hope it copied...~Charm1704

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I wish now I had taken more pictures but this is my maran, Jerk Chicken, who had a very impacted crop and was going downhill fast. You can see how extended it was in this pic.





I pulled out her chest feathers in a patch on her chest, just over the lump. I used a brand new large exacto knife and that I sanitized first with fire.

I then wrapped her in a kitchen towel like a swaddled baby and laid her down on her side. I held her firmly but gently and my fiance cut. I was very concerned that she would freak out and be in pain but she had no reaction at all. I have read that most pain relievers and anesthetic are bad for birds and my vet cousin explained that bird's brains are too small to register and react to pain the way mammals do.

We didn't use very much pressure because we did not want to cut too deep. We first cut through her skin which was much like cutting through chicken skin to make dinner. There was a little blood but not a lot. Right under her skin was the crop. It was a thinnish veiny membrane.

We then cut through that. It smelled really really terrible - like super terrible. There was feed and a lot of grass and some whole mealworms and some sour liquid. The cut was about a 1.5-2 inches, just large enough to get my little girly finger in there and scoop out all the yuck. It was clear what the problem was once I was in there. There was a huge tangle of grass and weeds.

It was super gross.

Here is Jerk Chicken standing next to everything I pulled out.



Once the crop was empty I cleaned her up as best I could with saline. I looked online for awhile to try to find dissolving stitches but I could not find any so I just used regular thread and needle from a sewing kit. I was worried about the crop closing because I did not want to leave that open with a hole in it that might not heal, especially since it is part of her digestive system. But, I couldn't sew it up because whatever I used would be suck inside her so I very carefully took the crop and held it together with my fingers and then the fiance helped me gather the outer skin layer and I sewed them all together to close both holes at once.

This means that her crop is permanently stuck to her chest wall but it seemed the best option with what was available. She wanted to eat the thread while I was sewing. This was her only reaction the whole surgery.

I put a piece of gauze and then wrapped her in one of those self-sticking bandage things you get when you donate blood. I found them for sale at a feed store. She did not like that and wiggled out of it constantly so after a day I just left it exposed and she did not mess with it.

I gave her antibiotics that I bought on the internet that are really for fish (Tylan). I made her loosely scrambled eggs to eat and kept her isolated in a dog crate. I didn't feed any soli foods for the first few days but did give her water. She was really really hungry. Her friends came for visits. She laid an egg the day after surgery.



After a week everything looked healed so I cut and pulled out the thread and started her on real food. I kept the wound clean and used the non pain reliever neosporin. (the pain reliever kind is bad for birds) When that went well I let her go home.

She does have a big ugly hard scar now. Here she is 3 weeks after.



I am not a vet so I don't know if what I did is perfectly correct or the best but I used what I could get a hold of and decided to just go for it and it went really well.

 

[CallyB57]

A couple of my hens have had impacted crop (I believe I give them sunflower seeds too much, so I have cut back some on that) and I could feel the sunflower seeds even though the crop was very tight and hard. If it didn't go down the next morning, I would then hold them in my lap, slowly pry the beak open and slowly squeeze the oil at the back of the throat. I wait a few minutes, then very gently massage it from the bottom of the crop to the top, then from the top to the bottom. I massage slowly about 3 full minutes, then let her go. I check back in a couple hours and if it is still very hard and packed, I give another massage with no oil, and I do it very gently. I then just wait until the next morning. Meanwhile, I don't put out any sunflower seeds for the flock so she can't eat any more. Usually, the next day, the crop is down and I still withhold the sunflower seeds a couple of days, then slowly let them have the seeds again. If they get the sunflower seeds a lot, they favor that over their feed. Just be careful when you massage and don't do it too hard.

 

[Warrprincess688]

So I tried to cut her open, in 2 spots. I cut open the top layer expecting to see a nasty crop but all I see is tissue. I even stuck my finger in about 2 inches and still nothing. I opened her up on the side and it just started bleeding and still couldn't see a crop or feel anything. After I cleaned her up since I gave up, her bulge became 2x as big

 

[Warrprincess688]

Should I cut it round? I made a 2 inch cut. I tried flushing water in her crop and slinging it out before the surgery, Nothing cameout that way.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Are you sure it's not a tumor? If it's not the wrong side and is just tissue it could be.

 

[janinepeters]

Yikes, I just read thru this thread. This does NOT sound like an impacted crop, as it is on the WRONG SIDE. It is a mass of some sort, and my guess would be a tumor. If she has been losing weight, it is probably malignant (cancer). If you have not already killed her by introducing infection while cutting into her, please stop with the surgical attempts and let her be. Take her to a vet, or put her down, if she continues to deteriorate. Would you want someone to cut into your chest WITHOUT AN ANESTHETIC if they didn't even know what was wrong?

 

[janinepeters]

I was very concerned that she would freak out and be in pain but she had no reaction at all. I have read that most pain relievers and anesthetic are bad for birds and my vet cousin explained that bird's brains are too small to register and react to pain the way mammals do.

"no reaction" doesn't mean they don't feel pain! Prey animals often do not behave any differently when subjected to painful stimuli, but that doesn't mean they do not feel it. They probably evolved to not show it because showing it would attract predators. Even if squawking and moving didn't attract predators, there would be no advantage for a chicken to show signs of suffering, because flock mates do not help sick and injured birds. They instead often kill them. People evolved to show it when they are suffering, because other people help them.

If chickens don't feel pain, why do they pull away and squawk when you accidentally step on their feet? Why do they make that little squawk and run away when pecked on by another chicken? If your vet cousin really said chickens do not "register" pain, that's an idiotic statement and I hope I never end up in your cousin's office with any of MY animals.

Sorry for the rant, but it's thinking like yours that people use to justify all sorts of animal abuse as seen in factory farm conditions.

Perhaps a more accurate statement would be that chickens don't always SHOW signs of distress when subjected to overwhelming painful stimuli. That appears to be true. But it certainly does NOT mean they FEEL no pain.

End of rant.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I saved my chickens life. I don't really care if you have a problem with that.

I didn't say they don't feel it. I said they don't react. I have also stitched up my fiance with no pain reliever and I don't regret that either.