Impacted Crop?

[janey41]

My 3 month old chicken had an impacted crop or at least stopped up. I flushed it and emptied it and found nothing unusual like clums of grass i have seen removed in all the crop surgery videos. I have had her on soft diet and yogurt etc. Her crop continues not to empty. I can feel in her crop large pebbles and gravel that will not come up when I flush her crop. I have also been giving her syringes of oil and massaging her crop hoping they will pass. It has been 3 days and they will not pass through. Is it the pebbles blocking everything and should I consider crop surgery?

Please help if you can. She is one of my pets and I cannot afford a vet visit much less surgery for my poor girl.

Janey

 

[Tomczyk]

I have similar problem only my girl is 21 weeks old. Her crop is bulging it is soft like water balloon but you can feel grit in there. She was doing a head jerking as well. Gave her oil and massage crop. She acts normal except she eats alot it seems to me. Have tried birdy bra( vet wrap that sticks to its self) to hold crop in proper position to empty but as soon as i let go of her she lays down and starts to fall over to side then take it off she is back up and normal. She holds her tail down and to left. If anyone has any ideas would appreciate it. I do have video of her i can post once i figure out how to do that.

 

[andysialnce]

I had a black Jersey giant hen about two years of age that I encountered a compacted crop with. Done everything that I could to get it to bust up, very hard ball, and had no luck with. Massaged and massaged, flusehed with warm salt water, olive oil in her food. Hung her upside down to try and massage it out, make her regeretate it, anything I could find to get her to pass it on her own it just wasn't happening. I finally took her under the knife myself as last resort. Cleaned out her cropss best as I would know how. When I opened her up just a massive ball of anything she could eat fell out, poor girl ate everything she could find to try and dislodge it herself. Cleaned out rest of her cop by running my finger round inside crop and found a long piece of plastic she ate sometime that ran just as far as down her atleast to her gizzard. Washed the crop out with four or five syringes of salyne and turn her loose and she healed in two to three days by herself. Still to this day she just as happy as a lark, her crop is stretched from the mass she was carrying around for so long. That seems to give her no problems though, she just gets to eat more of those treats that I give them than the rest of the chickens. If you do it yourself be sure to were gloves and don't get any of it on your cloths, said that you can't wash that smell out of your cloths or off your hands.

 

[Tomczyk]

What if it is not hard? Could it just be that it is stretched out and that is the way she will be? I don't care if she stays like that just want her to be ok. She is my favorite.

 

[janey41]

Hi Tom,
My girl started her problem 6 days ago. I flushed her crop Thursday and gave her syringe of olive oil, separated her from others and fed her only plain yogurt. I put Terramycin and electrolytes and vitamins in water. Okay Friday did not flush but did everything else. I can still feel like gravel in crop. Saturday, Flushed her out again, gave oil and massaged, and yogurt. Sunday, Still feel gravel. Did everything as day before exept flush. Today, I called around for vet, no vet here cares for chickens, they suggested call feed stores for someone who may be able to help. I called my feedstore and the owner said bring her in and he would try to massge the gravel up. I got there and she no longer had gravel in her crop. She had pooped in the cage and the gravel was in her poop. I know I made you read alot but I guess what I am trying to say is give oil and massage and soft diet and eventually it will pass. I hope this helps you. For the next three days I will keeep her on yogurt and soft food and terramycin and electrolytes to help heal her inflamed crop. I am so happy my ordeal is over and hope everything turns out well for you too.

 

[Tomczyk]

Thank you for the suggestions and will try it.

 

[andysialnce]

If it is soft then I don't think you should cut on her now. Need to make her drink warm salty water, the warm water will help loosen and break up the compaction better than cold will. The salt will help with her wanting more water. Once she's filled her crop with water, remove the salty aged from her pin, massage the very bottom of the crop for a moment or two. Then turn her upside down while still massaging her crop like you would an iceing cone. She will bring up the water and hopefully whatever is in there. Watch your feet and cloths hands you don't want that nasty on you. Will probably be green and nasty looking fluid and should smell to high heaven if she is compacted. If nothing noticeable come out besides fluid repeat it at end of day or next morning. Don't want to feed her right now cause that's where your having the problem at. Be sure to give her some electrolytes in her water after your finished working with her. If she looks to be doing better or is interested in eating I fed my girl a mash of her laying mash mixed with olive oil, remove her food after she is full and shows no more interest in it. You don't want her to gorge herself anyway, just enough to get her through the day. If when she eats check her crop next day see if she has digested it or is it lumpy feeling in her crop. If lumpy than repeat The salty water and massages. I only had to cut my girl cause it was such a hard mass and I had to do something. If she is compacted she will eat anything and everything to dislodge it. Keep her isolated till she looks or feels better, you don't want her makeing your problem worse by eating stuff she shouldn't.