The chicken's throat leads directly into the crop. In fact, think of the throat as the opening to the crop. The tube is generally cut to about eight or nine inches long and about four inches goes into the crop. Then all you need to do is syringe the fluids into the tube. It's safe because the tube is directing all the fluids directly into the crop instead of trying to avoid the airway each time you insert the syringe into the beak.
A vet can sell you a tube kit or you can ask around of any old people who use oxygen for their discarded tubing. A lot gets tossed since they need to replace it periodically. Or you can buy aquarium tubing from Walmart pet aisle and. You can ask around at pharmacies for a syringe to fit it. They give those away free. I can instruct you on how to insert the tube. It's so easy, you don't need a video.
Thank you so much!
Sounds like IV fluid tube that I
The chicken's throat leads directly into the crop. In fact, think of the throat as the opening to the crop. The tube is generally cut to about eight or nine inches long and about four inches goes into the crop. Then all you need to do is syringe the fluids into the tube. It's safe because the tube is directing all the fluids directly into the crop instead of trying to avoid the airway each time you insert the syringe into the beak.
A vet can sell you a tube kit or you can ask around of any old people who use oxygen for their discarded tubing. A lot gets tossed since they need to replace it periodically. Or you can buy aquarium tubing from Walmart pet aisle and. You can ask around at pharmacies for a syringe to fit it. They give those away free. I can instruct you on how to insert the tube. It's so easy, you don't need a video.
Thank you very much! I wonder if I still have extra tubing from when I gave my cat IV fluids a few years ago, or if I threw it away; sounds like that could work. Otherwise, I'm waiting these roads to become navigable since this winter storm.
One sad note though: I'm realizing that this might be an indication that it's time for my hen to be let go. Long story short, she's got a large hernia which is what seems to be causing her decreased mobility (& she's for the most part stopped using the roost bars, preferring to sleep in a nest, which I allow for her since i don't want her jumping down - it clearly causes her discomfort), and I suspect that she's the one who laid the lash egg this summer (the only lash egg I've ever seen in the flock) though I can't say for sure. She's seen the vet for all of this, and a couple rounds of bird-safe NSAIDS over the past 5 months have helped her go out of the run and enjoy the yard again almost like she used to.
She's 6 or more y.o., and I love her so much, and I love how she handles her position as matriarch of the flock (even these days), but I have to be sensitive about how much I let her go through.
I'll keep you posted. Her crop is so big this morning that when I offered her some scrambled eggs (after she rejected the moistened crumble that she usually devours), she enthusiastically went after them, but liquid rolled out of her beak twice when she opened it to eat. And thereafter, she went after the eggs much more timidly; she must be feeling the fluid and trying to hold it back. Her comb and wattles are also a deep red color, both last night and today. (NOT purple, but still, I wonder)
The treatment I would use for sour crop is detailed in Gail Damerow's The Chicken Health Handbook 2nd Ed. 3) FLUSH THE CROP– Mix 1 teaspoon Epsom salts in ½ cup water. Pour or squirt down the bird's throat twice a day for 2-3 days. (Be careful not to get the solution in the bird's airway.)
