Marble in crop?

[DanaSue11]

I think my hen has a marble in her crop. She's acting pretty normal, although she went to bed tonight with her crop less full than I would like. She hasn't laid an egg in three days and ran away from me when I went to pick her up, which isn't normal for her--she's quite affectionate. Any thoughts?

 

[rebrascora]

Feel her crop in the morning before she has the chance to eat. If you can feel the marble in there then you need to try to get it out and that means up over. If it gets into her gizzard it may be fatal and if it sits in her crop for any length of time it will block the outlet and cause problems like impaction or slow/sour crop. I would try to vomit it out by inverting her and massaging it towards her beak, but this is a risky process as she could aspirate any liquid that comes up. The risk is not huge but it can happen and you need to offset that against the risk of not getting it out. If you are unable to get it out by massage and/or vomiting, surgery would be the next option. I have done crop surgery twice to clear an impaction and it is not overly complicated. There are You Tube videos which show you how. I found closing up with super glue worked really well. If you don't feel able to do it yourself, then, assuming you have confirmed by palpitation that the marble is definitely in there, then you need to seek veterinary assistance or be prepared to lose the bird.

 

[DanaSue11]

Feel her crop in the morning before she has the chance to eat. If you can feel the marble in there then you need to try to get it out and that means up over. If it gets into her gizzard it may be fatal and if it sits in her crop for any length of time it will block the outlet and cause problems like impaction or slow/sour crop. I would try to vomit it out by inverting her and massaging it towards her beak, but this is a risky process as she could aspirate any liquid that comes up. The risk is not huge but it can happen and you need to offset that against the risk of not getting it out. If you are unable to get it out by massage and/or vomiting, surgery would be the next option. I have done crop surgery twice to clear an impaction and it is not overly complicated. There are You Tube videos which show you how. I found closing up with super glue worked really well. If you don't feel able to do it yourself, then, assuming you have confirmed by palpitation that the marble is definitely in there, then you need to seek veterinary assistance or be prepared to lose the bird.

Thank you for your insight. This is what I feared. I can vomit her first thing in the morning before she has had anything to eat or drink. I'll just be out there with my coffee waiting on her. There's probably not much risk of aspiration if she's empty. I've vomited another hen once so I have a general knowledge how to do it.

I'm just wondering how in the world she swallowed a marble. It feels smooth though, so I'm fairly certain that's what it is.

 

[rebrascora]

Good luck and please update this thread. Will be keeping my fingers crossed for her and you.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[DanaSue11]

Will do!

 

[DanaSue11]

Well, the marble wasn't in her crop this morning. So, I imagine it's gone to her gizzard and will help her break up the rest of her food. She's lively and acting totally normal this morning. Crop was filling up with food nicely. We will see...

 

[rebrascora]

Well, there is nothing more you can do now other than keep your fingers crossed and hope. My gut feeling is that something the size of a marble will cause a problem in the proventriculus/gizzard but time will tell. Please will you continue to update over the coming days and weeks so that we can all learn from this.
Really hoping I am wrong and she is OK with this.
Just out of curiosity, how did you come to know it was there if you didn't see her eat it?

 

[DanaSue11]

Well, there is nothing more you can do now other than keep your fingers crossed and hope. My gut feeling is that something the size of a marble will cause a problem in the proventriculus/gizzard but time will tell. Please will you continue to update over the coming days and weeks so that we can all learn from this.
Really hoping I am wrong and she is OK with this.
Just out of curiosity, how did you come to know it was there if you didn't see her eat it?

Fingers crossed it just hangs out in her gizzard. It's not a huge marble-about the size of a garbanzo bean. I just happened to pick her up last night and felt her crop and felt the marble. Frankly, I was surprised it wasn't in her crop this morning and took it as a good sign. I hope I'm right! Of course, she's my favorite hen...

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Are you guessing its a marble based on what you felt or do you know she had access to such a marble/ see her take it?

 

[Birdinhand]

I'm up the hill from you in shoreline. if you want some help/sympathy, you can bring her up and we can give it a try, just message me. our family is a chicken family, and we are around this morning.

edit: just seeing the update that it has passed downstream. fingers crossed for an easy delivery!