Impacted CROP!

[Ladyhawk12]

OK so I feel quite sure My hen Ive been stuggleing to save hase a Impacted crop. I thought maybe she had Coccidia or something else still amiss in her gut. But Since she got better she started grazing all day, but only appeared to be eating grass. Ive been checking her crop and it has been quite full like a golf ball. So I got up to let her out and sure enough she hasnt really touched her food and crop is still a golf ball!!

Ive read the slow/sour cropp article here seems quite helpful. I have her caged with only water and will be getting Dulcolax ( or how ever its spelled). Will message her and try to entice more water.

BUT DAM.....I was so hoping she was better, didnt eat for days...Now I gotta starve her...Poor thing

Any further personal advise is appreacated to top off the article...Thanks

 

[KurtG]

My personal experience is none of the dulcolax, oil, massaging, etc worked. We had to go in and remove the clump of grass. Might want to look around for sutures they are available but shipping seems to be the issue for these type of 'emergency' events.

 

[Ladyhawk12]

well My vet will just about give me anything that isnt a controled substance. But he is no chicken vet nor is any other around here. Its mississippi and in these parts people just ignore or cull ill chickens. Im almost hoping she vomits with the messages...I just hate it. Ive spent dam near 3 weeks with a roller coster of ups and downs with her. Is there a link to what your suggesting. I could show my vet....

 

[KurtG]

There are links here about procedures and materials(and frankly each has their own opinion), but I did not bookmark. I just went on youtube and searched "crop surgery".

Frankly none of the videos prepare you for cutting (the intimidation part), after starting, the most difficult part was finding the edges of my cuts to sew (I had already tried to sterilize the wound). If I did it again, I would stitch, then sterilize. Oh and you need really good light. I had to call our daughter to hold a flashlight to stitch

...I figured if I did not do something she would be dead anyway. I hear you about culling, lots of "we can put her down"...we're on 4 days or so post op....

 

[Ladyhawk12]

Im so confussed. I caged her took her food away only left water. After a couple hours her crop fely much more better. But I left her for a couple more hours to see what happened. She is drinking, her poop is still mostly water with bits of dark stuff. When I say mostly I mean about 95% ! So when I check her again at 2 pm her crop is now hard and hard to mush again like a ball shape. Only she has had no food. So Not being sure WHAT on Earth is really going on, I put in squash and is devouring it. IF her crop was impacted or full...would she even be hungery?

I sure dont want to cut on her unless IM positive that is whats needed. You are way braver than I. But I TOTALLY understand having to do something because if not they are gonna die anyway If your on day 4 You must have alot of something right

 

[KurtG]

yeah ours still wanted to eat like heck. We had to cut her off as the crop was getting bigger. I'm not sure but suspect the symptoms indicate a partial blockage. It is what we saw, watery poops with green bits. I still wonder if we are dealing with a blockage lower in the gizzard. We are getting more poops, but no normal ones yet, I think the soft to hard crop indicates there is something (grass?) in there and the food and water are slowly making their way around it, but the main blockage remains. It is also what we saw.

 

[Ladyhawk12]

Yeah I see it like a hair ball. Wonder if a xray would help?

 

[KurtG]

Well ours not doing well even with surgery. Crop is enlarged tonight, not much poop for the day. She must be impacted further down

 

[MrsBachbach]

Im so confussed. I caged her took her food away only left water. After a couple hours her crop fely much more better. But I left her for a couple more hours to see what happened. She is drinking, her poop is still mostly water with bits of dark stuff. When I say mostly I mean about 95% ! So when I check her again at 2 pm her crop is now hard and hard to mush again like a ball shape. Only she has had no food. So Not being sure WHAT on Earth is really going on, I put in squash and is devouring it. IF her crop was impacted or full...would she even be hungery?

I sure dont want to cut on her unless IM positive that is whats needed. You are way braver than I. But I TOTALLY understand having to do something because if not they are gonna die anyway If your on day 4 You must have alot of something right

Golf ball size is quite normal size and I wouldn't be worrying about an impacted crop, especially if it went down in size. If it was softball size and not going down, then I would suspect crop problems. You can massage it if concerned, take away food at night, make sure there is nothing in the cage for her too eat, even paper or shavings, and check her in the morning. Sometimes a chicken will eat something that may stay in the crop for awhile. A crop can stretch quite a bit. Its a holding pouch and it also does a bit of digestion itself if need be. A muscle over the crop moves periodically to push the contents down into the digestive tract.
If your chicken has loose stools something else is going on. If she is eating little, that's why you don't see much in the way of matter in the stool. She may be eating little because she doesn't feel well. If you already treating for cocci with no sign of improvement, then you should try to worm her if she hasn't been wormed in a while. Safeguard would be the best choice. Try to keep her eating by giving special treats if she has no interest in her regular food. Make sure she is drinking also. If the wormer doesn't get her eating, you may have to determine if you are dealing with vent gleet or an e-coli infection of some sort. Vent gleet has a certain treatment and a e coli infection will need some antibiotic treatment. There are alot of diseases out there that can cause intestinal diarrhea. Your just going to have to look at all the signs and try to start eliminating what can be going on. Since she does have diarrhea, you need to make sure she is hydrating herself. Wouldn't hurt to put a vit/electrolyte solution in her water either.

 

[Ladyhawk12]

Thank you so much for the advise. I have wormed her, she had a full course of flagyl and anti yeast cream. Now probiotic powder over her foods. But has total nasty 98% water poo with small flecks of dark stuff. I have had a time finding Corid. Its on the way from amazon. Mean while a goat friend is giving me stuff for cocci today. Its crazy because she is markably better, but poo is not at all normal. The full hard feeling crop first in the morning really concerened me. But when relaxed it has softened up twice. So I'm gonna try the corid and do just that if she has bacteria issues my vet can likely stumble through it with me. My gut feeling are usally spot on, and I'm not feeling like exploring the inside of her crop will help. So crossing my fingers the corid makes a stool change, and I'm just paranoid about her crop.