Molting chicken not completely emptying crop

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MissGreenJeans

MissGreenJeans

Songster
Oct 17, 2020
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Asheville, NC
Hi, everyone,

Hoping for some advice. I have a 2.5-year-old Ameraucana hen named Sunny Side Up who’s been going through a hard molt. She feels thin and appears to have lost weight. About a week ago, I noticed that she was spending some of her day looking puffed up and squinty eyed—like she felt off. I thought it was just the molt making her feel bad. She was still preening and doing other normal chicken behaviors much of the time. The next morning, I saw that she had watery diarrhea. I felt her crop, and it wasn’t empty. It wasn’t hard as a rock, but it felt firm. It was about the size of a ping pong ball. I read several posts here and decided to fast her for 24 hrs, with access to water the whole day. During the day, she drank a lot. Her crop felt a bit softer midday when I felt it. Next morning, same deal as the morning prior. Her crop wasn’t large, but she hadn’t totally emptied it.

I fasted her again that day and took her to a vet in the evening. She told me that Sunny’s crop wasn’t huge, that it probably wasn’t impacted (she said that almost never happens), that it wasn’t sour crop, that Sunny was underweight but seemed bright, alert and responsive, and that I should feed her whatever she would eat because she was thin and seemed hungry. The vet gave steroid and antibiotic injections. She tested for coccidia, and Sunny doesn’t have that. When I asked for a diagnosis, the vet said she didn’t know but that maybe Sunny had some sort of other infection before and fought it off. She sent me home with directions to feed Sunny and hope for the best.

For the past few days, I’ve been feeding mostly regular food with warm water, supplemented with a little scratch and soldier fly larvae, a little oatmeal, some applesauce, some baby food, some cooked peas and corn, and a little scrambled egg. Sunny is eating everything offered eagerly. But her crop still isn’t completely emptying at night. In the morning, I feel something firm in there—like silly putty. Yesterday I gave her a tsp of coconut oil with a little baby food, and then I massaged. Her crop seemed softer after the oil and massage, but this morning, the whatever-it-is is STILL in there. It might be a little smaller than it originally was, but not by a lot. Still about the size of a walnut.

Sunny is now behaving normally. She seems to feel a little better, I think. I have her inside the run with the other chickens but isolated inside her own small ex-pen area because one of the other chickens has been periodically plucking at her feathers. Her poop is still softer than usual and there’s less of it, but it’s not watery anymore.

Isn’t it abnormal for a chicken’s crop to not completely empty like this? I plan to try the oil and massage again today—but is there anything else I should be doing? Anyone else had a similar experience?

Other info in case it’s helpful:
None of the other hens have the same symptoms. One is thinner right now, but she’s energetic and also molting. My hens live in a large, completely enclosed run because of the many predators around here. They have dirt and broken-down wood chips in the run. The only new thing is that there are some leaves that have made their way into the run lately, and I noticed the chickens eating them. Because everyone’s starting to molt, there are also a ton of feathers. I noticed the chickens eating some small feathers, too. The vet said this was normal. The chickens have access to food, water, grit and oyster shell all day.

Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
I’m posting again with an update and second ask for any additional advice. Sunny didn’t seem to improve, so I took her to another vet for a second opinion. He said that the first vet’s antibiotic and steroid injections were not a good idea. He sent me to a third vet, telling me that she was really the only well-qualified avian vet in my area. After seeing all three, I’m still at a loss.

The avian vet’s theory is that Sunny may have eaten feathers, leaves or shavings, but she doesn’t have a traditionally impacted crop or sour crop. (Her crop isn’t big like a crop is with most impactions.) I can see crop contractions, so total stasis isn’t going on, but after three weeks, her crop still never totally empties at night, and she eats almost nothing. There’s a ping pong ball sized, doughy, round blob in her crop at all times. I’ve tried feeding multiple types of chicken feed, dry, moistened and soupy, corn, peas, eggs, oatmeal, baby food, rice cereal, and scratch. She refuses all of these. She was reliably eating apples until yesterday—voraciously—but she now only takes a few bites. She was eating bits of coconut oil (vet said to try that), but now she refuses those, too. It’s as if she’s repulsed by anything wet or soft, shaking her head, but she only picks at dry crumble and scratch before spitting out the pieces she picks up. I’ve noticed her clicking her beak a lot today. No clue if that means anything.

The only thing she will reliably eat at this point is black soldier fly larvae. I’ve tried syringe feeding Kaytee Exact and EmerAid IC Omnivore, but Sunny struggles a ton, so I get little into her and feel like I’m torturing her. She does drink a normal amount of water still. Her poop is mostly water, in fact, though there are some green bits in it, and she sometimes poops very small amounts that look more normal. Poop pics attached.

The avian vet doesn’t want to try surgery because she says that almost always any impaction actually involves not just the crop but the gizzard/stomach. She tells me surgery is risky and stressful. Instead, she has me giving Prozyme by syringe several times a day, though Sunny struggles when I do this, too. I expect only a bit gets into her, though I keep trying. She’s sleeping a lot during the day, looking puffed up.

I have no idea what to do at this point. Sunny is wasting away, but I can’t get her to eat. She doesn’t yet seem to be suffering, and she hops eagerly out of her crate to fly up onto my lap whenever I come to let her out. But she can’t go on like this, I’m sure. I saw a post where someone said their heavy-molting hens sometimes starve themselves and must be tube fed. If anyone has done this (I bet many of you have), is it hard to learn? Sounds scary to me, a total newbie, but maybe I need to try that now?
 

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MissGreenJeans said:
I’m posting again with an update and second ask for any additional advice. Sunny didn’t seem to improve, so I took her to another vet for a second opinion. He said that the first vet’s antibiotic and steroid injections were not a good idea. He sent me to a third vet, telling me that she was really the only well-qualified avian vet in my area. After seeing all three, I’m still at a loss.

The avian vet’s theory is that Sunny may have eaten feathers, leaves or shavings, but she doesn’t have a traditionally impacted crop or sour crop. (Her crop isn’t big like a crop is with most impactions.) I can see crop contractions, so total stasis isn’t going on, but after three weeks, her crop still never totally empties at night, and she eats almost nothing. There’s a ping pong ball sized, doughy, round blob in her crop at all times. I’ve tried feeding multiple types of chicken feed, dry, moistened and soupy, corn, peas, eggs, oatmeal, baby food, rice cereal, and scratch. She refuses all of these. She was reliably eating apples until yesterday—voraciously—but she now only takes a few bites. She was eating bits of coconut oil (vet said to try that), but now she refuses those, too. It’s as if she’s repulsed by anything wet or soft, shaking her head, but she only picks at dry crumble and scratch before spitting out the pieces she picks up. I’ve noticed her clicking her beak a lot today. No clue if that means anything.

The only thing she will reliably eat at this point is black soldier fly larvae. I’ve tried syringe feeding Kaytee Exact and EmerAid IC Omnivore, but Sunny struggles a ton, so I get little into her and feel like I’m torturing her. She does drink a normal amount of water still. Her poop is mostly water, in fact, though there are some green bits in it, and she sometimes poops very small amounts that look more normal. Poop pics attached.

The avian vet doesn’t want to try surgery because she says that almost always any impaction actually involves not just the crop but the gizzard/stomach. She tells me surgery is risky and stressful. Instead, she has me giving Prozyme by syringe several times a day, though Sunny struggles when I do this, too. I expect only a bit gets into her, though I keep trying. She’s sleeping a lot during the day, looking puffed up.

I have no idea what to do at this point. Sunny is wasting away, but I can’t get her to eat. She doesn’t yet seem to be suffering, and she hops eagerly out of her crate to fly up onto my lap whenever I come to let her out. But she can’t go on like this, I’m sure. I saw a post where someone said their heavy-molting hens sometimes starve themselves and must be tube fed. If anyone has done this (I bet many of you have), is it hard to learn? Sounds scary to me, a total newbie, but maybe I need to try that now?
Click to expand...
Sorry I didn't see this until now. How is Sunny doing? I hope a lot better by now.
 

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