Impacted Crop

[LawChick]

If it is absolutely impossible to get the olive oil down the bird's throat alone, you might try what worked for my hen. She had a very impacted crop from eating grass that had been freshly mown. I took her to the vet, who had her doubts whether my little hen would make it or not, but we decided to treat her for a couple days and see if she got stronger. She was close to death. The vet gave her a little cat hairball medicine to help things along, and soon the grassy poo was making its way through her system. I followed up with a SMALL amount of basically bread crumbs mixed with a little water and a little olive oil. In a few days, my girl was able to rejoin her flock and get back on regular food. One thing . . . my vet told me to give her only scratch grains and maybe a little apple sauce when I took her home, but she said the bread mixture would be okay so long as the bread was crumbs. She also cautioned me against giving her any grit, but that was probably because my hen had an intestinal infection as well (we don't know which came first, the impaction or the infection). My vet also suggested adding a little organic apple cider to her water, and that of my other chickens, too, which I did. Hope your hen recovers!!

 

[Nicole01]

I put a drop in my hand and guided the beak to the oil and they drank the drop. A small dropper would work too. I used the hand guiding with vitamins too. It saved my chicks life.

 

[canesisters]

Thank You all for your advise. I found her body when I got home this afternoon.
I wish that I had been more prepared and I feel terrible that she suffered for so long.
At the very least, this was a learning experience and I will be prepared to save the next one.
Her brooder-mates are all doing well, but I'm going to keep a close eye on them
Many thanks again. I appreciate your help.

 

[Nicole01]

I'm so very sorry for your loss.

 

[shadowmane]

I'm sorry you lost yours. I had a similar situation with one of my Easter Eggers. She would stand there wrenching her head around like there was something caught in her throat. I got the information here to use olive oil and massage her crop. I had to do that several times over the course of two days to get the blockage out. I isolated her for those two days, then put her back in with the rest. I've not had a problem out of her since.

 

[ipana]

I, too, am sorry you've lost your little bird. One thing for future reference, olive oil is not the best oil to use. Mineral oil is the preferred oil. It is thinner and will work its way down through the crop more quickly than olive oil.

As far as massaging pressure goes, of course you don't want to hurt the bird but there are no nerves in the crop. The object is to try to help break up any "clumps" of materials that may be there. If you feel a wad, like grass, massaging will not help. Grass usually needs to be removed surgically.

You may want to change the bedding for now if the bedding is wood shavings. Little chicks would be curious and pecking so they may be eating the wood chips which would be hard to pass through the crop. Use the wood shavings on older birds. Larger particle sand would be good for chicks. It would add some grit and it's not likely they would eat a lot of it.

Again, I'm really sorry about your little bird. Take comfort in knowing that you did the best you could.