Molting and impacted crop connected?

[sfurbish]

I have a dozen hens raised from day-olds that are now 18 months old. About a month ago one of my EEs started a heavy molt and as her new feathers came in she became very lethargic. I found a large hard tennis ball sized lump in her crop that didn't go away overnight. I treated her by isolating her and giving her water and massage treatments with Monostat as it smelled like sour crop. Two days later the lump broke up and passed and since then she and her new feathers have been fine. Yesterday one of my Sussex who's been in a heavy molt for about a week and has lots of new pin feathers developed a giant baseball sized lump in her crop that I've been trying to break down with water and massage with limited success and today another Sussex who is also molting pretty heavily also started developing a lump. None of the non-molting hens have anything abnormal with their crops. I watched the latest Sussex and noted that she does a lot of preening and there is a bunch of waxy dander which might account for the crop lumps/impactions. Has anyone else had trouble with molting hens developing these hard crop lumps during molts and is there a goo way to break them up other than what I'm trying now?

 

[Kiki]

It may be related but it may not.

What do you feed your flock?

 

[Eggcessive]

Molting can bring about any type of illness because it really stresses them. I have a molting EE right now with a big crop. Whenever I have seen an illness it has been during molting time. Use crop massage, encourage lots of water, give plain cultured yogurt or probiotics, and feed mushy foods. Here is some reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/impacted-slow-and-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/answers-from-chicken-vet-on-impacted.html
https://www.tillysnest.com/2012/01/crop-issues-html/

 

[sfurbish]

It may be related but it may not.

What do you feed your flock?

They get pellets (Dumor Layer feed or Purina Layena) and are out to forage for an hour or so per day. The rest of the time they are in their 15x30 foot run and I give them a handful of scratch (to get them in). They've had watermelon and pumpkin a few times too

 

[sfurbish]

Molting can bring about any type of illness because it really stresses them. I have a molting EE right now with a big crop. Whenever I have seen an illness it has been during molting time. Use crop massage, encourage lots of water, give plain cultured yogurt or probiotics, and feed mushy foods. Here is some reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/impacted-slow-and-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/answers-from-chicken-vet-on-impacted.html
https://www.tillysnest.com/2012/01/crop-issues-html/

Thanks. Only the molting ones are developing the hard lumps and only the one Sussex is having a problem right now. I'm irrigating her with clean water (which she hates) and doing the crop massage every couple of hours. Seems to be getting smaller, but very slowly.

 

[casportpony]

Fluids, lots of fluids, as in 25 ml to 50 ml per pound per day will really help.

 

[Clucktown]

I just searched "molt causing slow crop" and found this thread. Same thing is happening to my bantam Brahma Buff. She is acting normal and has very little access to any grass, so was trying to understand why the large crop that never empties. I have seen slow crops when my hens are broody, so thought there might be some sort of connection to the molt like a vitamin/mineral deficiency. Is she eating the feather casings as suggested by sfurbish? She doesn't seemed bothered by it, but I certainly am concerned. I kept her in my shower for a day and gave her only water and olive oil with numerous crop massages, but there was no improvement. My daughter did notice she was eating a few of the feather casings. My hens are all given plenty of fresh water with quick chik, Dumor Layer crumbles, meal worms, bananas, fresh romaine hearts, no scratch, and wormed with valbazen every 6 months. This morning, her crop seemed bigger than it was when she went to bed last night - which made me think about the feather casings as there is no feed in their coop at night. Sfurbish - how are yours doing?

 

[Kiki]

I just searched "molt causing slow crop" and found this thread. Same thing is happening to my bantam Brahma Buff. She is acting normal and has very little access to any grass, so was trying to understand why the large crop that never empties. I have seen slow crops when my hens are broody, so thought there might be some sort of connection to the molt like a vitamin/mineral deficiency. Is she eating the feather casings as suggested by sfurbish? She doesn't seemed bothered by it, but I certainly am concerned. I kept her in my shower for a day and gave her only water and olive oil with numerous crop massages, but there was no improvement. My daughter did notice she was eating a few of the feather casings. My hens are all given plenty of fresh water with quick chik, Dumor Layer crumbles, meal worms, bananas, fresh romaine hearts, no scratch, and wormed with valbazen every 6 months. This morning, her crop seemed bigger than it was when she went to bed last night - which made me think about the feather casings as there is no feed in their coop at night. Sfurbish - how are yours doing?

Have you read this yet:
Impacted, Slow and Sour Crops - Prevention and Treatments

 

[Birdinhand]

just about every feather that our birds lose gets snatched up practically before it hits the ground and eaten like it's some kind of rarified h'orderve. we have hens from several hatches, so they don't molt all at the same time and I'm pretty sure that any one's feathers gets spread pretty evenly. it sure does sound like there is a potential impaction/molt connection but if so this is the first I've heard of it. if it were me, I'd do my best to clean up the feathers as they drop and keep the impacted hen away from others that could be molting.

 

[sfurbish]

I just searched "molt causing slow crop" and found this thread. Same thing is happening to my bantam Brahma Buff. She is acting normal and has very little access to any grass, so was trying to understand why the large crop that never empties. I have seen slow crops when my hens are broody, so thought there might be some sort of connection to the molt like a vitamin/mineral deficiency. Is she eating the feather casings as suggested by sfurbish? She doesn't seemed bothered by it, but I certainly am concerned. I kept her in my shower for a day and gave her only water and olive oil with numerous crop massages, but there was no improvement. My daughter did notice she was eating a few of the feather casings. My hens are all given plenty of fresh water with quick chik, Dumor Layer crumbles, meal worms, bananas, fresh romaine hearts, no scratch, and wormed with valbazen every 6 months. This morning, her crop seemed bigger than it was when she went to bed last night - which made me think about the feather casings as there is no feed in their coop at night. Sfurbish - how are yours doing?

Two of my birds that had the hard lumps in their crop returned to normal after the molt wound down. My largest Speckled Sussex, however, still has a very large hard lump near the top of her crop that no amount of irrigation and massage seems to mitigate. It softens when I tube feed her several syringes of water and massage it, but it doesn't change in size and it doesn't seem to bother her. She eats and drinks normally and hang out with the rest of the flock as if nothing's wrong. If I'd had help I would have done crop surgery on her, but at this point I've taken a wait and see attitude. There is no sign of sour crop and no sign of distress (other than the distress I feel when I see it). It's been this way for almost 3 weeks now. If she takes a downturn I will probably euthanize her and if that happens I will dissect the crop and add whatever I find to this thread. Best of luck with your birds.