Hi all!
A week ago, I noticed my cuckoo marans hen (who usually is a glutton) was getting really skinny. Her comb and wattles were dried out looking (though this is probably from molt), but her eyes looked alert, at least. I felt around her crop, and it felt like it was impacted. However, I read crops were usually impacted from something long, and it felt like there was a large rock in her.
She was so skinny and unhealthy looking that I took her to the vet. The vet took a blood sample (came back normal) and a fecal sample (not back yet), and flushed a saline solution down into her crop. The ball (most likely of food) loosened up and disappeared. The vet weighed her and she only weighed 3.3 pounds(!!) - that's super light! I wish I caught this earlier...
I kept her in a separate box so I could monitor how she was eating. I recently changed to pellets instead of crumbles (they spilled those too much). The size of the pellets are not a problem for her, though, because I wet them (for some reason they refused to eat the pellets dry). The next day, I noticed she barely ate anything, and her crop was impacted again! And, her whole crop shifted to the right! It was completely on the right side of her neck! I got her to eat a little wet food and water, and then massaged her crop again.
I've been having to massage her crop everyday, and she's also barely eating anything - her poops are mostly watery. I bought some plain yogurt to feed her, and she ate it vigorously... Maybe she doesn't like the wet pellets and I should switch back to the brand I used before? I also noticed that when she swallowed down the yogurt, her crop (which was shifted to the right) sometimes twitched.
What do you think is wrong? Why does her crop keep getting impacted everyday? What could I do to solve this problem?
Thanks for reading! I appreciate any feedback!
A week ago, I noticed my cuckoo marans hen (who usually is a glutton) was getting really skinny. Her comb and wattles were dried out looking (though this is probably from molt), but her eyes looked alert, at least. I felt around her crop, and it felt like it was impacted. However, I read crops were usually impacted from something long, and it felt like there was a large rock in her.
She was so skinny and unhealthy looking that I took her to the vet. The vet took a blood sample (came back normal) and a fecal sample (not back yet), and flushed a saline solution down into her crop. The ball (most likely of food) loosened up and disappeared. The vet weighed her and she only weighed 3.3 pounds(!!) - that's super light! I wish I caught this earlier...
I kept her in a separate box so I could monitor how she was eating. I recently changed to pellets instead of crumbles (they spilled those too much). The size of the pellets are not a problem for her, though, because I wet them (for some reason they refused to eat the pellets dry). The next day, I noticed she barely ate anything, and her crop was impacted again! And, her whole crop shifted to the right! It was completely on the right side of her neck! I got her to eat a little wet food and water, and then massaged her crop again.
I've been having to massage her crop everyday, and she's also barely eating anything - her poops are mostly watery. I bought some plain yogurt to feed her, and she ate it vigorously... Maybe she doesn't like the wet pellets and I should switch back to the brand I used before? I also noticed that when she swallowed down the yogurt, her crop (which was shifted to the right) sometimes twitched.
What do you think is wrong? Why does her crop keep getting impacted everyday? What could I do to solve this problem?
Thanks for reading! I appreciate any feedback!
