Limping 6 month old hen with hard crop

[AshHallahan]

A few days ago my mom noticed one of her 6 month old isa brown hens limping on one of her legs. She isolated her to keep the others from bothering her and she’s been eating and drinking just fine and alert. She is having normal poop as well. She did notice her crop has stayed full/hard, so we started giving a little olive oil last night and gently massaging the crop (there’s an ACV shortage here) and we took away her food and only giving her water as well since last night. This morning she seems to be pushing that lame leg forward with her toes curled instead of limping/standing on it. I didn’t think the two were related but could they be? None of the others in the flock are acting strange, and she hasn’t lost any weight.

 

[Tookie]

Hello and welcome to BYC!
How is your hen?

 

[Kiki]

Welcome to BYC!
What exactly have you been feeding your birds and when was the last time you brought a new bird home?

Is it possible to take a short clear video of how this particular bird is trying to walk today and upload it to YouTube?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

A few days ago my mom noticed one of her 6 month old isa brown hens limping on one of her legs. She isolated her to keep the others from bothering her and she’s been eating and drinking just fine and alert. She is having normal poop as well. She did notice her crop has stayed full/hard, so we started giving a little olive oil last night and gently massaging the crop (there’s an ACV shortage here) and we took away her food and only giving her water as well since last night. This morning she seems to be pushing that lame leg forward with her toes curled instead of limping/standing on it. I didn’t think the two were related but could they be? None of the others in the flock are acting strange, and she hasn’t lost any weight.

When was her last egg?

If her crop is hard and doesn't empty overnight, then begin treating her. Take care giving liquid oil that she doesn't aspirate. I'd make water and food available during waking hours.
Read this article about how to treat the crop symptoms. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

She does have something else going on besides the crop problem. It can be hard to know what. May be reproductive, a disease like Marek's, nutritional...?
Do the best you can with treating symptoms and keep us posted.

 

[AshHallahan]

She hasn’t laid any eggs yet, no new birds. We began treating with olive oil and gentle crop massages and it’s been slow going but her crop is slowly emptying. 12 hours ago we took up food and just gave water, once the 12 hours were up we tried giving plain scrambled egg (she didn’t really want it) and have left chick grit out for her to try to help the crop along. She’s still alert and been cleaning herself, drinking water as well. Wondering if the “limping” was just because her crop was so full and heavy on one side it was causing her to tip/lean? She’s been limping less as the crop has emptied it just still very slow.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

6 month old isa brown

She hasn’t laid any eggs yet

Do you have photos of her and her poop?

I suppose anything is possible and if the crop was that heavy...I've never experienced that in any of my birds, but who knows.

6months old, Isa Brown, Not laying yet. A little late for the breed, but then again, we go by averages. The individual can be slow to mature. I'd keep watch on her.
Continue with monitoring her crop and see what happens.

 

[AshHallahan]

I ended up having to do surgery on her crop to remove everything, there was a bunch of feathers, long grass and what looked like sand and it was very firm. She’s lost a lot of weight so I think that attributed to her imbalance, especially with how heavy her crop was before emptying it. She is doing just fine so far, drank a little water and had a small amount of scrambled eggs.

 

[Tookie]

I ended up having to do surgery on her crop to remove everything, there was a bunch of feathers, long grass and what looked like sand and it was very firm. She’s lost a lot of weight so I think that attributed to her imbalance, especially with how heavy her crop was before emptying it. She is doing just fine so far, drank a little water and had a small amount of scrambled eggs.

Hopefully she'll recover completely!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hope she's on her way to recovering!
Keep us posted.

 

[Tookie]

How is she doing?