Large Crop

[Froghorn]

Does anyone have a remedy?? My black copper has a huge swollen chest. The size of a soft ball at least. I have watched this increase for 3 weeks now. Originally I saw an earlier post on BYC with someone having a problem like this one. The advise was a mixture of olive oil and water. Then an eye dropper of this daily and then massage crop each time for up to 7 days. I have tried this method and still using it to no result as of yet. I had a vet here on my horses that looked at him and didn't really know what to do or what it was. He was a large animal Dr so I am not to surprised but thought he could make an educated guess. He advised that I should try to take feed from him for 24 hours and see if it made a difference. I have taken the black copper away from feed. It has been 24 hours now but I see no improvement in the swelling of the crop. I don't know what to do. He is a little over 4 months. Maybe its just me but he seems to be weak today now. I don't know if I should give the food back to him or wait longer or what. Does anyone have any advise or know what I should do? Am I going to loose him??

 

[chicmom]

Hello-

I'm so sorry to hear that. I have heard of people actually performing a surgery by making an incision and emptying the crop, then stitching it back up, but I wouldn't have the stomach for that. I'm sure if you took it to an Avian Vet, that would be super expensive.

I hope someone comes along to help.....and good luck to you.

 

[Froghorn]

I would have the stomach but I am afraid not knowing what to do or what I am doing that I would kill him. I hope someone can help. I know he is suffering. He can hardly stand anymore.

 

[theFox]

Do a search on impacted crop and ruth.

What you are describing sounds like impacted crop. It can be caused by the chicken eating a lot of greens etc.. without having grit in their gizzard. Another cause is something is blocking the exit from the crop to the gizzard. Chickens have been known to swallow a lot of "interesting" things.

The reason to do an impacted crop ruth search is that a BYC member with the handle ruth posted a procedure for doing crop surgery. There are others on here that have also done the surgery.

 

[PunkinPeep]

If his crop did not shrink after 24 hours without food, then you definitely have an impacted (and by now, probably sour) crop.

As long as this is the case, he is going to have a lot of trouble absorbing nutrients, and this is why he would start to seem droopy or sick. He's getting weak.

I would start by simply gently massaging the crop. Sometimes, you can feel what might be blocking movement out of the bottom of the crop, and you can gently massage it aside and allow the crop to empty. If you feel a big piece of straw or something, you might have to resort to surgery.

The other thing i would do is get him to start drinking some vitamin water and possibly a boiled egg yolk. These nutrients are easier to absorb.

I know there are some great threads here on BYC about what to do for impacted/sour crop. I'm going to look for them now.

 

[Imp]

Here's a couple threads about crop surgery. Be very careful what you do, when I searched for it a lot of posts ended in RIP. It's a tough problem.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=21291

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=229796

Good luck

Imp

 

[PunkinPeep]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=224315&p=1

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=3097930#p3097930

Here are a couple of threads that might be helpful to you. It's a lot of reading but probably worth it.

 

[Froghorn]

He has always had only feed and grit with no greens, but that doesn't mean he didn't swallow something. When massaging the crop I can't say I feel anything. Just feels like a large water balloon. I will look at the threads you provided. As far as surgery I myself am very reluctant not knowing a thing about doing it. Even reading how to I don't know???? I am afraid.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Quote:
I would consider surgery an absolute last resort. And if it's liquidy, you can probably take care of the situation with other means. One of the threads i linked addresses specifically that.