Impacted Crop... PLEASE HELP

[georgia531]

Hello... i have a 1 yr old beautiful EE rooster... yesterday i picked him up and was horrified to feel his breast bone, he is literally starved... his crop is hard and i massaged it and i can feel grass or straw or something in there.. i read this forum for hours yesterday and could only come up with oil and surgery... surgery is not an option... the oil soaked bread and eggs didnt seem to help. as of yesterday he was still eating, i have him in a cage with no food at this point, i dont want to make it worse. i can feel the large obstruction, it feels like a big pile of tangled grass or something.. he is going down fast... if anyone has any other ideas on how to help this poor roo, please help me... thank you in advance.

 

[ten chicks]

Hello... i have a 1 yr old beautiful EE rooster... yesterday i picked him up and was horrified to feel his breast bone, he is literally starved... his crop is hard and i massaged it and i can feel grass or straw or something in there.. i read this forum for hours yesterday and could only come up with oil and surgery... surgery is not an option... the oil soaked bread and eggs didnt seem to help. as of yesterday he was still eating, i have him in a cage with no food at this point, i dont want to make it worse. i can feel the large obstruction, it feels like a big pile of tangled grass or something.. he is going down fast... if anyone has any other ideas on how to help this poor roo, please help me... thank you in advance.

Other than using oil or flushing out with water via a tube,that is all know. But there is on more thing i have been researching,worth a try if all else fails. This involves using maggots. I know disgusting but it apparently it is a old method of dealing with impacted crop. Purchase maggots from bait shop,give to chicken,the maggots eat food compressed in crop and the chickens apparently like them. Takes a couple of days for this to work. Google maggots and impacted crop,there is lots of information about this method.

 

[georgia531]

i read that yesterday too, its worth a try. not sure where a bait shop is around here, but ill try to find some maggots somewhere, im pretty desparate... im not sure how flushing w/ water would work.. its a pretty large mass. i gave him a bowl of water with AVC w/mother in it, but not sure if he drank any.. it looks pretty hopeless at this point... any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated, in the meantime, i will look for maggots. thank you.

 

[ten chicks]

i read that yesterday too, its worth a try. not sure where a bait shop is around here, but ill try to find some maggots somewhere, im pretty desparate... im not sure how flushing w/ water would work.. its a pretty large mass. i gave him a bowl of water with AVC w/mother in it, but not sure if he drank any.. it looks pretty hopeless at this point... any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated, in the meantime, i will look for maggots. thank you.

Here is a link for more information http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/answers-from-chicken-vet-on-impacted.html

 

[georgia531]

thank you for the link. i found a bait store that i can get maggots at this afternoon, i dont know where id get tubing small enough to go down its throat, and im scared it would go into his lungs. hes in pretty bad shape, still standing but really weak.. i feel so bad. wish there was a sure fix, he is a beauty. i feel really helpless at this point. any other suggestions would help, even if its a long shot... i will not cut him so please dont suggest it.

 

[casportpony]

thank you for the link. i found a bait store that i can get maggots at this afternoon, i dont know where id get tubing small enough to go down its throat, and im scared it would go into his lungs. hes in pretty bad shape, still standing but really weak.. i feel so bad. wish there was a sure fix, he is a beauty. i feel really helpless at this point. any other suggestions would help, even if its a long shot... i will not cut him so please dont suggest it.

Get a size 18 french catheter tip rubber tube and 35ml syringe, any vet office will have them. Tubing is very easy and almost impossible to insert the tube down the wrong hole.

 

[ten chicks]

Get a size 18 french catheter tip rubber tube and 35ml syringe, any vet office will have them. Tubing is very easy and almost impossible to insert the tube down the wrong hole.

Thank you for visualization. I have never had to do this yet,but if and when i do,this really helps to understand the process. Great information.

 

[casportpony]

Thank you for visualization. I have never had to do this yet,but if and when i do,this really helps to understand the process. Great information.

You're welcome... I'm a very visual person, it's just so much easier for me to look at pictures, lol.

FWIW, if anyone here ever needs help tubing, I'm available by phone to help, just send me a PM.

-Kathy

 

[georgia531]

thank you so much for the pictures and your help. i will ask the local vet, but im not too hopeful.

 

[georgia531]

he has pooped a tiny bit, its definately green grass in there... he got loose last week, and was hiding from the other roosters in a patch of grass. he must have ate alot of it... the obstruction is very large and i can feel it in there... im going to pick up the maggots. i have read alot of conflicting info on the maggot method, but im desperate, so im going to go for it.