Issue with crop or is she broody??

[Doodledoo4]

The fluids you saw in her bedding were from the obstruction. It's a big clue that's what's going on. If she fights you when you try to give her the pill, you need to wrap her in a towel to confine her wings and feet, pry open her beak, and shove that pill in. Close her beak and tilt her head back, and she will easily swallow it.

Oyster shell calcium works too slowly to be of any use in a reproductive crisis. She needs a concentrated form of calcium that will go to work immediately. The calcium citrate is such a calcium.

Losing fluids in large amounts will make her dehydrate quickly. The fluids need replacing. Being strong and fighting you indicates she is strong enough to drink on her own. Give her water that she can easily access. Electrolytes in it won't hurt.

I place my patient in a crate on thick towels to absorb the fluids and also so I can easily determine what comes out of her. You will want to know if an egg is coming out intact or broken. The latter will indicate that more material may have to be expelled, and if there's broken yolk in there, she will also need an antibiotic to head off bacterial infection which can ruin her egg laying career before she's even gotten started.

The towel method worked and I got the calcium in her. She’s out foraging with the others right now and seems ok. One of us will be home from work this afternoon and will work on setting up a crate for her so we can get a better idea what’s going on. When I looked in the coop “someone” laid an egg in her spot but I’m not sure who.

 

[azygous]

If she's out with her flock and is acting normally, then the egg you found was likely hers. If she hadn't passed the egg, she would still be behaving lethargically.

Continue with one calcium tablet again tomorrow morning. When you see for sure she is laying normal eggs in a normal regular pattern, then you can stop the calcium tablets and let her go back to just oyster shell for her calcium needs.

 

[Doodledoo4]

Then she likely still has an unresolved condition. Get her confined to a crate as soon as you can. This is important. You need to be able to moniter her closely. Give her the electrolyte water with sugar in it. She may be becoming weak from fluid loss. Shock could follow. You could lose her unless you take control of this situation.

Thank you. We will be getting home from work as soon as we can and getting her confined, we have a relative bringing over an old dog crate. Do you recommend leaving her confined in the coop/run area or bringing her into a separate place like the garage?

 

[Doodledoo4]

Visited the vet today and she couldn’t find evidence of a stuck egg. She did find coccidia in the stool and noted crop stasis. We got some medication to try to help with these and will try to nurse her back to health for the next couple days and reassess her Saturday to see if what next steps we want to take. She is concerned the crop stasis is secondary to another condition we might not be able to treat. Hoping she will respond well to treatment

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

It would be highly unusual for one so young to go broody. I've had many broodies and they don't look sleepy like your girl does. If you touch them they growl and puff themselves up, and some will peck you. If you take them off their nest to have a break they will sit for a few moments and then realise it's break time, then they will get very busy eating, drinking, dust bathing, then go back to sit on their nest once all their needs have been attended to.

I did have one first time broody recently that I thought was dead because she puts her head down on the bedding with her neck stretched right out, which is weird. The first time I saw her doing this I grabbed her to remove her from the nestbox thinking she was dead and she growled quietly at me, so I realised she was very much alive.

Hopefully someone will be along soon with some advice, as this is not my area of expertise. If her crop doesn't shrink overnight I'd be very concerned about it having slowed/become impacted.

My 6 girls are about 21 weeks and i was concerned about impacted crop as well. I came out to coop this AM and fortunately it has emptied, but i worry cause how much lower her crop hangs than the other girls. I read maybe hers empties slower. Either way, i will be having a crop bra made soon. There is a link on one of the threads here where the lovely person sews them for her lovely 12 yr old chicken! I took screen shots of her design. I will add the pic and maybe you can find the thread.

 

[Doodledoo4]

If she's out with her flock and is acting normally, then the egg you found was likely hers. If she hadn't passed the egg, she would still be behaving lethargically.

Continue with one calcium tablet again tomorrow morning. When you see for sure she is laying normal eggs in a normal regular pattern, then you can stop the calcium tablets and let her go back to just oyster shell for her calcium needs.

Thanks, unfortunately she’s looking a little lethargic again. Doing the sleeping standing up thing

 

[Doodledoo4]

So far I feel like she is maybe looking a LITTLE better with her treatment, but it’s really hard to say. On Wednesday the vet mentioned she thought it was worth trying the meds for a few days and offered to euthanize her Saturday if she wasn’t better. I’m just not sure how to judge what sort of improvement should expect and how much longer I should keep her alive if she’s not going to get better. I feel like she is moving a little bit more, she is eating some blueberries and mealworms, and fought me a little more when I gave her her medication today.

i am also getting worried about how it would go to reintroduce her to the flock if she does recover. I let her out in the backyard to walk around a bit last night and somehow our rooster and another hen found her and were beating up on her pretty good. I feel horrible having to confine her to this cage but seem to be getting more emotionally attached as a I care for her.
Any advice? We are fortunate all our chicks have survived this long with no issues and I was feeling more prepared for a predator attack or something rather than an illness.