Possible impacted crop

[Peachyfrog]

I have a 4.5 year old ISA brown hen who has had poop in her feathers for the last few days and was kind of slow walking around. I had daily been cleaning her butt to ensure she wasn't blocked (never was, just messy outside). Today she's now standing and dozing, not really walking around a lot. When I picked her up she didn't even fight me like usual and I must have touched her crop or something as she threw up what looked like water when I put her down. It didn't have any smell to it, so not sour crop. I picked her up again and feels like maybe a small golf ball or smaller size lump around her neck and a little below that it just feels very squishy like a lot of liquid, so I'm guessing impacted crop. I massaged the lump some in case that's what it is. I've brought her inside to keep a close eye on her and she's mostly just sleeping. She's recently drank a good bit of water and now she's like angling her head and making kind of faint gurgling sound like she might throw up the water again. Her poop was pretty solid/normal looking a few days ago with the messy but, though today now it's just like liquid (guessing no food getting through her given her other symptoms). I've put bread soaked in olive oil in with her (no other food) but she doesn't seem interested.

Thoughts on if this is indeed impacted crop and if so anything else I should try other than keep massaging her crop a few times a day and hope she eats the olive oil bread? Syringe with a little olive oil? Anything else? Or with the poop on the butt and lethargy is this maybe something different and there's something else I should try??

Here's a link to a video of what she's doing after drinking (as I can't seem to attach it) - https://1drv.ms/v/s!Av1-Hn0lYyHskLU4z5G2skABYDZ7ng?e=aZjhOI

 

[Eddie12109]

I am not an expert but it sounds like sour crop to me... I am currently dealing with an eight year old hen with this. She does the same movements as your hen did in that video. First, it seems like you already did this but isolate her until she is back to normal. What I do is not give her water for 12 hours (best time is overnight) then after 24 hours I start giving her food like scrambled eggs or cantaloupe but avoid giving too much because the goal is to get rid of as much food and water as you can in her crop while not starving her. There is a YouTube video that has a little concoction that is for this:
1 teaspoon of:
Ginger powder
Chili powder
Baking soda
Cinnamon

a squirt of lemon juice and two tablespoons of water. I give this everyday in a dropper until she feels better.
Then when her crop starts emptying in the morning start giving her regular chicken feed and see how she does.

the lump you feel could be actual food or something that is normal and not impacted. I have never dealt with impacted crop but I don’t think what I put above would hurt... I am leaning towards your chicken having sour crop though

 

[Isaac 0]

When a production-type hen the age of your bird is experiencing crop stastis problems, more often, then not there's an underlying problem, which could be reproductive, cancer, or infection of sorts. Conditions such as egg yolk peritonitis, salpingitis, and/ or ovarian cancer can create increased internal pressure inside the bird's body, which can subsequently cause foods not to pass through the intestines as easily, and promote decreased overall organ function, both of which ultimately lead to the bird's passing. There are those few cases where the bird may have eaten something spoiled or has something lodged further down its system creating a blockage in which treatment may prove useful.

If you would like to continue with the treatment you may refer to this link for more information:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[Eddie12109]

Wait so just a question but if a bird has stopped laying, what internal problems would she have if she has sour crop... like could she still have EYP or salpingitis

 

[Isaac 0]

Wait so just a question but if a bird has stopped laying, what internal problems would she have if she has sour crop... like could she still have EYP or salpingitis

Oftentimes birds that have reproductive issues, have a past history of not laying or laying deformed shells, caseous material, etc. With conditions such as EYP, salpingitis, ascites, you often see distention in the abdominal region.

 

[Peachyfrog]

She's been a pretty good stable layer, at least up to this past summer/fall. She's stopped for the winter currently. I don't see any distention in her abdomen, though feeling around there's some sort of lump on her belly just to the inside of her leg, too small to be an egg I think. Not sure if that's maybe a further down obstruction or maybe a tumor/cancer??

Update this morning:
Just to cover the bases and to help clean her butt, I gave her an epsom salt bath last night and then gently blow dried her after. Her butt feathers have fluffed back out and are looking much better. Anytime I tilted her any little bit forward unintentionally, yellowish brown liquid came up and though not obnoxious, does have a little smell to it. Trying not to cause that as I've read she could aspirate.

After more accurately locating and feeling her crop I don't feel any obstruction, it's just squishy liquid and it didn't empty last night at all even with her not eating or really drinking much since at least about 3 pm yesterday. Given what I'm reading I'm fairly certain at this point what she has is sour crop, all the symptoms are fitting that. Not sure if there's some other underlying condition or obstruction further down her digestive line or not that's causing it.

Just in case there is something blocking further down, I offered her some coconut oil this morning. She really went after that and was eating it off my finger. Since she hasn't had anything to eat for awhile, I did offer her yogurt/scrambled egg this morning to see if she would eat. She did seem hungry and ate a little scrambled egg (didn't want to give her too much as some sites are saying with her crop not emptying that could just make things worse, but I don't want her to starve either as she seems fairly weak/tired). She is drinking water this morning and I'm hearing gurgling periodically from her body, pretty loudly. She seems to have perked up a little since the egg/yogurt this morning, though she's still dozing a fair bit.

Any other ideas or just keep doing what I'm doing? How much egg/yogurt is ok to let her eat given her crop isn't emptying? Should I keep giving her coconut oil since her crop isn't emptying even though I don't feel any obstruction? Other ideas??

 

[Peachyfrog]

"There is a YouTube video that has a little concoction that is for this:
1 teaspoon of:
Ginger powder
Chili powder
Baking soda
Cinnamon

a squirt of lemon juice and two tablespoons of water. I give this everyday in a dropper until she feels better."


Is that 1 teaspoon of each spice or 1/4 teaspoon of each to equal 1 teaspoon total?

 

[Eddie12109]

1 teaspoon of each
What I did was give mine two droppers worth and massaged it yesterday and she is much better today.

 

[Peachyfrog]

Update: she's definitely not blocked as she was pooping almost liquid yesterday, but the egg/yogurt she ate yesterday is now coming through as solid poop. So...pretty sure this is sour crop at this point and not impacted. Started some monistat yesterday evening in hopes to combat the yeast that causes sour crop. So far she's doing about the same but hanging on.