Impacted Gizzard

[Silvorchisu]

Hi MrsChicken1954, I'm curious to hear how the chicken you gave liquid paraffin and metoclopromide did... I've got a hen in similar straights!

Thanks.

 

[nestleaver1]

Hello to anyone reading this looking for a way to treat impacted gizzard. I had a bird with watery poo, poor appetite and I could feel the gizzard enlarged and contracting ineffectually in her abdomen. She had also laid three deformed eggs before she stopped; they were dented on one ‘side’.

I thought she was doomed but tried to get her to take vegetable oil, coupled with attempts at massage which I fear was simply hurting her. The crop was slow to empty but I kept her going on soft food like yoghurt and porridge. She was not getting any better. Then I realised that it might be possible to break up the blockage enzymatically.

Cellulase would be the one to break up grass but where do you get it?? If I lived in the States I could try to get her to eat termites, but we don't have termites in the UK. I Googled it and found that you can buy cellulase as part of an enzyme complex sold as a dietary supplement. Vega Digestive Enzymes Formula - Pack of 30 Vegetable Capsules is the one I bought from Amazon - £4.69 - this comes in capsules with powder inside so easy to pull them apart and add to food. Then she wasn't eating… typical; but I tried many temptations and she finally decided she would take some egg mayonnaise which I had sprinkled with about half a capsule of powder.

I got her to eat this dose 3 or four times and she started to pass larger amounts of nasty, dark, odd-smelling poo which looked like undigested grass. She was also taking in grit. On the third day, her crop was properly empty in the morning for the first time in weeks. She started to eat ravenously and that night produced a large pile of nice, rounded, properly digested poo! She has been eating well ever since and is putting on weight fast.

I was a bit surprised that this stuff actually works since it looks like some quackery nonsense, but I got some of the powder on my fingers and it felt like it was taking the fingerprints off. Also a horror review on Amazon saying it had dissolved someone’s gums. So it works, which is good, but make sure it is wetted so the chicken (or you) is not breathing the powder. Also make sure chickens that are not impacted do not eat it because it seems to be powerful stuff.

Obviously, this is only one chicken and it could have been resolving for other reasons but it could be worth trying when there is nothing else.

Hope this helps someone – it might work for an impacted crop too if it is organic matter forming the impaction.

I will post again if and when she starts to lay again.

Nestleaver1

 

[JensChickies]

Hello to anyone reading this looking for a way to treat impacted gizzard. I had a bird with watery poo, poor appetite and I could feel the gizzard enlarged and contracting ineffectually in her abdomen. She had also laid three deformed eggs before she stopped; they were dented on one ‘side’.

I thought she was doomed but tried to get her to take vegetable oil, coupled with attempts at massage which I fear was simply hurting her. The crop was slow to empty but I kept her going on soft food like yoghurt and porridge. She was not getting any better. Then I realised that it might be possible to break up the blockage enzymatically.

Cellulase would be the one to break up grass but where do you get it?? If I lived in the States I could try to get her to eat termites, but we don't have termites in the UK. I Googled it and found that you can buy cellulase as part of an enzyme complex sold as a dietary supplement. [COLOR=0066C0]Vega Digestive Enzymes Formula - Pack of 30 Vegetable Capsules[/COLOR] is the one I bought from Amazon - £4.69 - this comes in capsules with powder inside so easy to pull them apart and add to food. Then she wasn't eating… typical; but I tried many temptations and she finally decided she would take some egg mayonnaise which I had sprinkled with about half a capsule of powder.

I got her to eat this dose 3 or four times and she started to pass larger amounts of nasty, dark, odd-smelling poo which looked like undigested grass. She was also taking in grit. On the third day, her crop was properly empty in the morning for the first time in weeks. She started to eat ravenously and that night produced a large pile of nice, rounded, properly digested poo! She has been eating well ever since and is putting on weight fast.

I was a bit surprised that this stuff actually works since it looks like some quackery nonsense, but I got some of the powder on my fingers and it felt like it was taking the fingerprints off. Also a horror review on Amazon saying it had dissolved someone’s gums. So it works, which is good, but make sure it is wetted so the chicken (or you) is not breathing the powder. Also make sure chickens that are not impacted do not eat it because it seems to be powerful stuff.

Obviously, this is only one chicken and it could have been resolving for other reasons but it could be worth trying when there is nothing else.

Hope this helps someone – it might work for an impacted crop too if it is organic matter forming the impaction.

I will post again if and when she starts to lay again.

Nestleaver1

Very interesting. I'm glad it worked out for you. Just FYI....once I got my girl unblocked, she then had an infection that I had to clear with baytril. That being said, it could of been the infection that stopped her crop/gizzard in the first place. Good luck with your hen, and I'm glad it worked out.

 

[nestleaver1]

Thanks for the heads up! She looks fabulously healthy now she has been eating properly for a few days. Still a little lighter than the other 2 but she is so energetic and, being top chicken, she has resumed her disciplinarian status.
Forgot to say, the first symptom, weeks ago, was very loud gurgles from her guts coupled with poor appetite. I guess only the power of a muscular gizzard can make such loud noises so, if your chicken starts gurgling noisily, keep an eye on her.
Cheers, Kate

 

[nestleaver1]

Update on Little Mo and her problematic gizzard.
10 days after her gizzard had cleared and she started processing food properly, she laid an egg. It was still dented tho, which suggests there is a mass in there somewhere. She laid 3 or 4 eggs, every other day, but her gizzard has now clogged again and her crop is full every morning. She ceased laying again 4 days ago. This may be my fault as I should have kept her on soft food for a while. It may also be because I gave them a lovely bale of straw to scratch at and climb on and she seems to have eaten some of it...
Now she will not eat anything but her weight is up so we may have a longer window to try treatment.
Hoping it is not a cancer blocking her up but I fear it might be more than just vegetable matter causing the problems.
KT

 

[nestleaver1]

4 weeks on and Little Mo has turned a corner. I really thought she was done for as she was so light and not eating. Her crop was backed up and impacted and she would not eat. I injected the crop lump with dissolved enzyme, directly through the chest into the crop. This cleared the impaction almost completely but I could still feel something in her crop; it had a 'rustly' texture, like straw or maybe plastic. This remained present for about 2 weeks and I had convinced myself it was a fleshy mass and part of her, when it disappeared. Now she is eating well, but still fussy and slow. The crop clears but I believe there is a bit of plastic trying to get thru her digestive system. She produced a few normal poos the other night but otherwise they are squishy, grassy and messy. But at least they are there. She gets fermented grains, yoghurt and cooked rice, but she seems to prefer pellets now. She is putting on weight and is definitely more energetic; running for food, climbing on things but still has periods sitting quiet under the coop. We go on holiday end of the week and she will go to stay elsewhere for 2 weeks. I am fairly confident now she will survive that time so we'll see how she is when we get back.
The crop injection does not appear to have had any adverse effects.

 

[nestleaver1]

Well,Little Mo finally died yesterday. Her lungs were making the 'death rattle' when she came out of the coop in the morning. Still, she ate some fermented grains and a but of yoghurt. She tried to make the journey back to the run from the kitchen but sat down exhausted, produced some fluid from her beak and died within a couple of minutes.
Autopsy showed nice, normal gizzard, no blockage. Some nodules and thickening of intestines; yolks not releasing from ovary and becoming 'meaty' and dark. Ovary massive and lots of ascites fluid in abdomen (this was very swollen by the time she died). Uterus and shell gland looked lovely and normal. Liver normal. Lungs almost non-existent and with whitish streaks/bumps. She had put muscle on so breast muscle was not bad; she was not emaciated.
I think it was reproductive (ovarian) cancer spread to lungs and the gizzard blockage was probably a physical issue that was unrelated and probably resolved by enzyme injection into crop.
She was a gorgeous chicken and had fun until the end. She is buried in the vegetable bed where she loved to dig even on the day before she died.
NL1

 

[Bocktobery 10]

I just saw this thread and nestleaver1, I have to say, you did amazing work with your chicken. I am so sorry Little MO didn't make it though. It sounds as though she wasn't going to pull through anyway with the cancer and all.

Your posts have been extremely helpful. Please keep exploring issues- chicken people need more posts and dedication like yours. Thank you!

 

[nestleaver1]

Thank you so much Bocktobery 10! I just hope I can pass on some useful information for others.

I have had a recent loss which I feel could have been prevented if I had been more alert to my Flo's condition. She was in perfect health; seemed a little slow for a couple of days, then was found dead. Of course I autopsied and found she was perfect inside. I had never seen a healthy chicken's insides. The only thing was that her gizzard was a little distended and when I cut it open I found it was full of seeds from the sticky willy plant (goosegrass, cleavers, Galium aparine). I had read that these seeds could kill chickens and I pull out any plants I find but it is hard to get it all. The seeds apparently contain glycoside toxins, which would stop the heart, as well as physically blocking the gizzard.

I believe I could have saved her IF I had realised the seriousness of her condition and had given her the enzymes. I feel bad since the evening before she died she was sitting with her head out of the coop after dark, as if she was waiting for me to come and do something. Of course, I just shoved her inside and shut the coop. I had to be at work early the next day so didn't observe her properly and when I got home she was dead. It was just 3 days from looking a little peaky to dead chicken. She must have eaten the seed 5 days previously.

A lot of people report 'mysterious' deaths but they do not cut their chickens open to find out what killed them! It is so important to know and to pass on the information so others can .

There does not seem to be a lot of information about the dangers of sticky willy seed so I would like to shout it loud: STICKY WILLY CAN KILL YOUR CHICKENS! Pull it out wherever you find it.

My poor Flo was a friendly, clever chicken and I should have looked after her better. It's always easier to diagnose issues in retrospect, though!
All the best,
Nestleaver1

 

[BrynneB]

I'm not sure where to best post this but really wanted to get this information out in case a someone has a similar problem.

In late October I posted on this forum asking for help with my Ameracauna pullet who was in very bad shape and had been diagnosed by a local avian vet as having an impacted gizzard. I found very little on this forum or anywhere else, so I am guessing this is not a very common problem. The vet made the diagnosis based on an x-ray which showed a mass of what "read" as mineral in her gizzard. The vet concluded that she had over-eaten oyster shell or grit. She is the lowest on the pecking order and had apparently been bullied away from the food. Hungry she had apparently filled up on oyster shell, the only thing readily available. Ethel, my hen, was extremely ill - not moving much, drooping tail, barely eating or drinking, very few, tiny poops. The vet kept her overnight, filled her crop by tube feeding (showed me how to do it) and started her on regimen of 1 oz of metoclopramide once a day until she regained her appetite. The metoclopramide encourages appetite, and essentially keeps things moving through the intestinal tract. Vet also told me to remove oyster shell form her coop. The vet said Ethel was "talking" to everyone in the office (a good sign) and had even eaten a few little pretzels. During the next two days I kept her in a separate crate, inside, where I could monitor her food/water intake and she could rest and conserve her energy. I was a little nervous about tube feeding, so instead tried to hand feed her yogurt mixed with olive oil and soft bread which I mixed in the blender, and used a needle-less syringe to give her water several times a day. Doing this is tricky, you must be careful to put it in the side of beak and give them a chance to swallow. Must be careful not to put food or water into windpipe. I found directions for doing this on this forum. After a few days she began to eat a little more, and we moved to soft scrambled egg for protein, and a little cooked irish oatmeal, and of course the essential yogurt mixed with olive oil. Once she began pooping a little more and a little more often I decided to put her back out with the other girls to improve her morale. By the fourth day I could get her to eat regular feed again, mixed with water to keep it soft and to make sure she was staying hydrated. She began to move about and eat on her own after 6 days, though I often stopped her during her free range time with a dish of food. Reminded me of following my toddlers around to encourage "grazing"! By day 8 she was eating grass again and pooping regularly. She had by now passed a good bit of the excess grit. Getting her to eat and drink regularly were essential in order to pass that excess grit through her system. I also feel that the olive oil and yogurt helped the gastrointestinal process, and she liked them too! We did have one other problem after the fact: She had become so seriously malnourished during the impaction that 2 weeks after she recovered, her beak became brittle and began to deteriorate. (Shows how close we came to losing her!) I became very alarmed and was afraid she would lose her beak entirely. I read somewhere that cod liver oil in 1/2 tsp supplement could help with beak regrowth and began to give a little every other day in their feed. Though she had lost almost half her beak, the beak completely regrew in 2 months. She is now totally recovered, has been laying every day, and is her sweet, flighty little self again.

Lessons learned: I now keep several different feeding dishes in the coop so she always has a alternative if chased away, and watch to make sure she is eating her fair share. Be careful with oyster shell - I use ground up egg shells instead. Chickens' beaks can grow back. There is such a thing as gizzard impaction and it can be treated. Praying for chickens is not stupid and God loves them too )

This is very helpful.