Impacted crop?

[Skyler vaughan]

One of my warrens caught my eye this morning as she was standing upright with her backend tucked under her, and her neck moving in sharp and fast motions. When I picked her up she didnt panic (this is unusual for her) and I noticed her crop was very big, I felt it and it was rock hard. I tried to massage it a little to see if any of the contents would move but it caused her some discomfort. Does anyone know if this is an impacted crop and how I could help her?

Right now she is still quite lively, looking for things to scratch through and is pecking, still has the energy to fly out of my arms but looks a bit ill. Help would be appreciated!

 

[theoldchick]

Sounds like it. Chickens will try to hide illness and appear normal for as long as they can. https://the-chicken-chick.com/chicken-anatomy-crop-impacted-crop-sour/

 

[Skyler vaughan]

Sounds like it. Chickens will try to hide illness and appear normal for as long as they can. https://the-chicken-chick.com/chicken-anatomy-crop-impacted-crop-sour/

This article didn't help... I can't perform surgery on my hen as I have no experience, and I can't take her to the vet because it's too expensive! I've been feeding her water and massaging which seems to be helping but I feel like I'm getting nowhere. Any advice?

 

[DobieLover]

This article didn't help... I can't perform surgery on my hen as I have no experience, and I can't take her to the vet because it's too expensive! I've been feeding her water and massaging which seems to be helping but I feel like I'm getting nowhere. Any advice?

Give this article a read:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

It takes some time to clear an impacted or slow crop.
Go to your local WalMart and get 2 or 3 small jars of veggie based baby food, a bottle of generic docusate sodium stool softener (STIMULANT FREE), miconazole 7, a large plastic syringe (I assume you don't have tubing supplies) and a jar of coconut oil. You will then have what you need to treat your bird. If you don't have sour crop you won't need the miconazole 7 but it's good to have on hand for when you do.
You will need to give her copious amounts of water followed by crop massage between treatments. You need to be very careful not to aspirate her. I hold the chicken between my legs with her sitting on the floor. They will pull their head in as far as they can and will eventually stop fighting. I can then pry the upper beak open and gently hold it while very slowly dribbling water into the side of the beak and letting them swallow on their own. It takes a bit of time but I can get 50 mls of water in this way then massage the crop well. These massages are done every 60-90 minutes. Your bird will need to be kept crated with only water to drink during the duration of the treatment until her crop is completely flat.
After it is flat, offer a very wet mash made from her normal feed the following day and see how she does. You can add some raw egg and/or the rest of the jar of baby food you may have left after treating her with the stool softener if you go that route. If she eats and poops normally for one day, remove the food at night. If the crop is flat again in the morning you can let her return to the flock.
Depending on your temperatures and your setup, she can be crated in the coop.
I would keep her from free ranging for at least a week after the crop clears.

 

[TumbleGrump]

I've used in the past a little olive oil. I put a little bit (drips) in her beak and massaged her crop. Than tried this an hour later again. I also have used this for other "smaller bird" issues and it seems always to help great. One of nature's great medicine.

 

[Skyler vaughan]

Give this article a read:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

It takes some time to clear an impacted or slow crop.
Go to your local WalMart and get 2 or 3 small jars of veggie based baby food, a bottle of generic docusate sodium stool softener (STIMULANT FREE), miconazole 7, a large plastic syringe (I assume you don't have tubing supplies) and a jar of coconut oil. You will then have what you need to treat your bird. If you don't have sour crop you won't need the miconazole 7 but it's good to have on hand for when you do.
You will need to give her copious amounts of water followed by crop massage between treatments. You need to be very careful not to aspirate her. I hold the chicken between my legs with her sitting on the floor. They will pull their head in as far as they can and will eventually stop fighting. I can then pry the upper beak open and gently hold it while very slowly dribbling water into the side of the beak and letting them swallow on their own. It takes a bit of time but I can get 50 mls of water in this way then massage the crop well. These massages are done every 60-90 minutes. Your bird will need to be kept crated with only water to drink during the duration of the treatment until her crop is completely flat.
After it is flat, offer a very wet mash made from her normal feed the following day and see how she does. You can add some raw egg and/or the rest of the jar of baby food you may have left after treating her with the stool softener if you go that route. If she eats and poops normally for one day, remove the food at night. If the crop is flat again in the morning you can let her return to the flock.
Depending on your temperatures and your setup, she can be crated in the coop.
I would keep her from free ranging for at least a week after the crop clears.

sorry I didn't reply! I ended up using olive oil and massaging her crop, she's made a full recovery and has put her weight back on. She's eating normally and the other girls aren't picking on her. Thank you for advice.

 

[theoldchick]

Yay!