Impacted crop, sour crop???? What exactly am I dealing with? *UPDATE*

[freestargirl]

I'm a newbie. I have 6 Golden Comets that are about 2 months olds. One of them, I noticed had a sizeable lump on her front right side on Sunday. I talked to 2 'chicken friends' and they both said 'oh that's the crop, you can sometimes see it after they've eaten.' I didn't mess with it too much, but it was squishy and kinda freaked me out. Yesterday it was bigger, and it was squishy in the AM. By lunch time it was harder and had spread to both sides, so I started research.

I got the chicken to vomit 1x, was just a little yellowy green slime. Then I massaged her for awhile and heard/felt some gurgly stuff and thought she'd pooped but hadn't. I quarantined her in a pet taxi with water. Later in the evening, my husband moved the pet taxi thus spilling the water and dumped the bedding out of it, so I don't know if she pooped yesterday after I quarentined her or not. I 'vomited' her again last night about was about 6 hrs after the first time, as her crop felt 'doughy'. This time there was some chunks of starter ration, and some green roughage that I suspect was the cause and more slime, and there was about 30% relief immedietely in size of the crop. I tried the dropperful of oil, but wasn't very successful, so I poured the oil into the rim of the waterer and offered some yogurt but she wasn't interested. I left a little yogurt in the pet taxi for overnight, but she hadn't touched it this AM. She did poop overnight (I don't know how much to expect from one???). Her crop is still quite swollen, but it was squishy, and I've not felt anything hard in there at any point. I did notice this morning while I watching her walk around (pecking at the ground) that the viscosity of her crop changes depending on the way she's standing. With her head up, it firms some (doesn't change size) and then when she bends her head down, it loosens. Also she's throwing her head around like is mentioned in some of the other posts like she's trying to dislodge something. She doesn't smell any worse than the other chickens, though. But since she pooped, I'm going to offer the oil soaked bread and see if she'll eat that.

So do I have impacted crop, sour crop or what? And what now?????? I can't justify taking her to the vet- she's not a pet.

Thanks!

 

[colebarnhart]

It sounds like it maybe, but if there aren't any other symptoms then you might want to leave it alone. I've had chickens that had really large ones and at the time I didn't know what it was, but they went away on there own. Since then I've had 2 chix die from it, but they acted very lethargic and "sickly".

 

[half a peck]

Having just gone through this myself for the first time, this is what worked for me.

I've only got 4 birds but the 1.5 yr old cochin got an impacted crop and it was the size of a baseball. Here is what I did.

I cleaned out the chicken house, removed all straw bedding, put paving sand on the floor and segregated her inside at feeding time. I feared that if I segregated her inside to nurse her through this, that I did not want her to eat straw since she was know for doing this!

I came up with a diet that I knew she would like from previous experience. I gave her probiotics, about half a cup of non -fat yogurt with 3 tablespoons of smashed bananas, and a teaspoon of mineral oil. She got this 2 times a day for several days plus all the water she wanted. The stirred up bananas in the yogurt got her interested in eating. Each time she ate and I could feel the nice mushy food introduced into the crop, I gently massaged the crop to help loosen up the hard clump. Each day she got better, the impacted crop was less and less. I checked each morning to see if she was clearing the crop, the poop was loose, greenish.

After a week, I stopped giving the mineral oil and replaced it with normal chicken crumbles, about a tablespoon, stirred into the yogurt and bananas mix and added water so it wouldn't be dry for her to eat, very watery. Wanted to see if she would pass it. So far so good. The crop each morning feels cleared now and harder poop is sitting there in the am.

I hope to put her back on her normal dry crumbles by the end of the week but am hoping the crop will be rested enough to be able to handle dry chicken food again.

Good luck to you,

Half a Peck

 

[freestargirl]

Update:

Tuesday evening I got her to vomit ALOT- there was immediate but not complete relief to the crop, and she threw up more chicken feed & rotting greens. I quarantined her again for the night with some yogurt, olive oil & bread all smushed up together. Yesterday morning, Wednesday, the crop was still large, and I decided to let her back in with the rest of the flock, as she'd had 2.5 days of impacted crop care and it hadn't really shrank any. She ate like crazy when I did that. Last night, all the others were on roosts, but she was in one of the low nest boxes. I wasn't really sure what I thought I would find this AM, but she was perky as ever running about with the others. I did notice though that she flapped her wings and made an attempt to get on top of the lower nest boxes (3 on bottom, 2 on top in a pyramid shape) and couldn't. Her crop is still quite large, tennis ball sized? but wasn't hard. The other chickens crops were about golfball sized and pretty firm. Her color in her face has been the same as the other chicks, and she never acted lethargic. She wasn't throwing her head around this morning, but she was quite a bit after she ate yesterday when I released her in with the others. Time will tell, but I decided yesterday to let nature takes its course. I don't want her to suffer, but I don't want to cull her if there is a chance she'll do fine on her own.

 

[half a peck]

Just curious, but a friend who has helped me get started with barnyard fowl, thought it might not be good for a bird's crop/ or gizzard, to offer them bread.

Maybe some other folks have heard the same thing. Since I finished with a week of yogurt with smashed bananas, gently massaging the crop, it did clear and I was able to begin feeding her dry chicken food/crumbles again. Today, she has laid her first egg today after the yogurt treatment!

I was very concerned about 2 things: 1. large hanging crop 2. no poop moving through her system. After these two symptoms cleared and improved, she was allowed to go back on her normal food.

Hope your girl improves!

Half a Peck



Quote:

 

[freestargirl]

Mine was passing poop the whole time, so she was getting her food thru. Her crop was hard in the evening, and soft in the morning, just large and billowy. She didn't make it though. We found her yesterday morning in the lower nest box, a week after we first noticed it. Since she was passing poop, we're wondering if she had some sort of tumor on or near the crop, because the crop itself was working fine. Who knows. We didn't investigate. Poor Lumpy.

 

[Daisy668]

Is She coughing? If she is i had a chicken who was the exact same and they go downhill quickly. I would get her to the vets and get some anti-biotics and soon as you can. Feed her Yoghurt off your finger and make sure she is eating the yoghurt and same with water cause they dont seem to drink when ill!
Daisy
P.s Hope she gets better
Sorry by the time i sent it you sent the news sorry

 

[half a peck]

Quote:
New Egg, so sorry your girl didn't make it. I too noticed the large but mushy crop in the mornings, didn't seem to have much in it. I did notice that after a week on the yogurt and bananas, the crop seemed to slowly return to a normal size. She has been eating the same as the other birds and has laid several eggs since her impacted crop.

A whole host of illnesses will at some time probably affect my small group of birds, I'm just hoping it won't be soon or when a friend is chicken sitting for us. Hope your other birds are doing well.

Half a Peck