Impacted Crop?? Very skinny chicken

[Detail]

I have an americauna hen that is less than a year old and she has lost so much weight that I am scared for her life. She is extremely skinny with no fat just skin and bones. She can't even roost. All my chickens are free ranged and I have separated her from the others and have been giving her kitten food, cooked eggs, regular scratch, lots of vitamins, and some greens, for the past two weeks, but she is not really eating anything. I do see her eat (a little) and drink though. She has not gained any weight and might be loosing more. I have taken a fecal sample to the vet and she does not have worms. Her crop has always stayed the same size; its never any bigger or smaller and its rock hard. I am taking her to the vet tomorrow, but I wanted some answers from anyone on here. I think its an impacted crop, but I just don't know.

Here's some more info: I had a Hen Saver (like an apron for hens) on her to protect her from the roosters, but I took that off because I thought that was affecting her diet. Could it have been?
I think my brother threw a ball at her (not intentionally, it was for the dogs) and it hit her hard. She is not acting hurt though. Could that have had something to do with this?

Any help would be great... Thanx

 

[nzpouter]

rock hard crop that never went down = impacted crop, try giving her some cooking oil and massaging the crop to break the blockage, 2 weeks is a bit of a long time for it.

 

[LynneP]

I'm very sorry about your hen and you are wise to get veterinary assistance at this point. Please let us know what you discover and do about her...

 

[MoodyChicken]

Poor girl, she's starving. She likely has an impacted crop, and it's been blocked for a while. It's fairly easy to fix. Be sure to feed her a moist, high protein diet (wet cat food would be great) while she recovers. This will help...

http://sites.google.com/site/moodysbantams/poultry-health-1/crop-impaction

 

[SandraChick]

definitively sounds like impacted crop.

olive oil given internally and then massaging of the crop can help. (You can just get drops of oil on the edge of her beak and she's swallow it.- don't shove it down her throat or it may go to her lungs instead)

Also- since it wacks out the pH- put ACV in the water (do the dropper method if necessary). That will help stop the fermentations process which is going on in her crop.

Once it has passed...make sure to give her some good yogurt with live bacteria. She'll need all the good bacteria's help to stabilize her system.

If you can go to the vet today...do it.
I did the olive oil and then vinegar water on alternate hours. It passed in 1.5 days.

I didn't discover an impacted crop on one of my chickens until I found her almost dead on the ground one night. She had it so bad she had seizures. She stayed in the house for a month- learning how to walk again. She's all healthy now- and gives me JUMBO eggs!!

Good luck!
Sandra

 

[Detail]

Well I took her to the avian vet today. Her crop was empty because I did not give her any food during the night, so that ruled out impacted crop before I took her in. The vet examined her and found out that she had heart issues. Her heard was beating really fast and irregular. He gave me two options: either give her some sort of fish oil treatment (sorry I don't know the exact name) to put on her food and hope that it goes away, or euthanise her. He did not sound very promising on the first treatment and told me that this pretty much only works on young babies and they will eventually grow out of it. She is not my favorite, kinda stupid, picks on the others, looks to be in pain cuz she is so skinny, and doesn't have any feathers from the roosters, so that didn't give her any points. I choose the later option. She is in chicken heaven now. R.I.P. Rosie....

 

[MoodyChicken]

Aw, I'm sorry. There was one other option though. I have a roo with a heart condition, he got the point where he couldn't stand. I gave him Isoxyprin (spelling?) by the recommendation of my vet, and he's 100% back to normal. He's the first chicken that's been confirmed to have successfully used that medication to treat a heart problem. It was an incredible recovery. This bird was in an oxygen chamber for 3 days, then we gave him a simple, inexpensive pill and he practically recovered over night.

 

[SandraChick]

I suggested it was impacted crop because you said the crop stayed the same.

I'm sorry you had to make the choice you did. Rest in Peace.

Sandra

 

[mzrea]

Are impacted crops always firm? I'm thinking one of my RIR has an impacted crop, but it feels kinda squishy, not firm/hard at all.

 

[nzpouter]

there is impacted crop and there's also impacted gizard, in both cases, food from the crop will not pass through, the next stage of this will be sour crop.