pickle47
In the Brooder
Hi all,
First of all I apologize for the length of this post! I wanted to lay out the situation completely. I have read every thread I could find on crop issues in BYC (thank you to all the experienced people who have posted), but my approach isn't working so far....
I am a first-time chicken owner with 13 chickens, all 9 months old. One of my five Bielefelders has been having crop trouble - I think she may have a mass of hay in the crop, and has developed sour crop secondary to that (I am composting restaurant scraps in their run, using hay as the browns, and I have seen a few chickens with hay sticking out of their beaks - I didn't realize this could be dangerous until now! I will switch to woodchips). I first noticed she was more lethargic and tossing her head strangely 5 days ago, and from BYC figured out that it was a crop issue. Her crop is quite enlarged (about the size of a tennis ball) and definitely hangs down (pendulous), and there is no hard mass (like it sounds like there would be in some cases of impacted crop). Instead, the crop feels squishy and dough-like, with what feels like gravel towards the base. I isolated her from the other 12 chickens in the greenhouse, because she was getting pecked, and to give her only water (no food) to see if her crop cleared by morning. It did decrease in size at all. I began giving her coconut oil chunks several times a day and massaging her crop on day 2, and gave her yoghurt and scrambled egg - she does eat some, she has some appetite. Her poops are watery, though there is some solid mass - often green with some white, not that large.
On morning 3, when her crop had not decreased in size at all, I decided to try to make her sick to see if I could help clear it (I know maybe a bad idea because of risk of aspiration). She vomited quite a bit of sour green liquid, but it didn't seem to decrease the size or texture of the crop at all. Because of the sour smell, I thought it could be sour crop, and I began treatment with Monistat orally, as some threads on BYC suggest (1/2 inch of cream orally twice a day). She has been on this treatment for 2 full days now, plus coconut oil, regular massages, but the size and texture of the crop has not decreased. I moved her into the house in a dog crate because we are having colder weather here (and to keep her isolated from other chickens) and she immediately began to eat the cedar shavings, so I removed those and put in newspaper. Maybe she is a chicken who just likes to eat things she shouldn't - like hay. She is still alert, and eating a bit, with watery poops with little solid matter. I have given her scrambled egg, yoghurt, and layer crumble soaked in water.
I stitched her a crop bra and have installed that on her just now - which she hates and is picking at - but I am hoping this will help the crop empty, but I am skeptical that it will, because none of my massaging, regurgitating her, the Monistat so far, or anything else has helped. The crop is still the size of a tennis ball.
I am worried that she has a hay obstruction in her crop, and that because she is eating so little, and her crop isn't emptying, she will die of malnourishment, which will be hard to sit by and watch happen. And this has already been doing on five days....She has been such a sweet girl through all this treatment I've subjected her to. I understand if there is nothing I can do for, but I thought I would post to see if there is anything else I can try, or something I'm maybe doing wrong. It has been discouraging that her crop hasn't decreased in size at all. I called the Cornell Cooperative Vet Extension service (we are in upstate NY) and they seemed to think surgery might be needed....I am not in a financial situation to take her to a vet for surgery. I'd be willing to try at-home crop surgery as a last resort, but given that that would be a first for me, I'd like to make sure it's absolutely necessary before risking her life like that. And we are vegetarian, so her destiny is not the soup pot...
Thank you for any one who can suggest any help! And again I apologize for how verbose this post is. Many thanks.
First of all I apologize for the length of this post! I wanted to lay out the situation completely. I have read every thread I could find on crop issues in BYC (thank you to all the experienced people who have posted), but my approach isn't working so far....
I am a first-time chicken owner with 13 chickens, all 9 months old. One of my five Bielefelders has been having crop trouble - I think she may have a mass of hay in the crop, and has developed sour crop secondary to that (I am composting restaurant scraps in their run, using hay as the browns, and I have seen a few chickens with hay sticking out of their beaks - I didn't realize this could be dangerous until now! I will switch to woodchips). I first noticed she was more lethargic and tossing her head strangely 5 days ago, and from BYC figured out that it was a crop issue. Her crop is quite enlarged (about the size of a tennis ball) and definitely hangs down (pendulous), and there is no hard mass (like it sounds like there would be in some cases of impacted crop). Instead, the crop feels squishy and dough-like, with what feels like gravel towards the base. I isolated her from the other 12 chickens in the greenhouse, because she was getting pecked, and to give her only water (no food) to see if her crop cleared by morning. It did decrease in size at all. I began giving her coconut oil chunks several times a day and massaging her crop on day 2, and gave her yoghurt and scrambled egg - she does eat some, she has some appetite. Her poops are watery, though there is some solid mass - often green with some white, not that large.
On morning 3, when her crop had not decreased in size at all, I decided to try to make her sick to see if I could help clear it (I know maybe a bad idea because of risk of aspiration). She vomited quite a bit of sour green liquid, but it didn't seem to decrease the size or texture of the crop at all. Because of the sour smell, I thought it could be sour crop, and I began treatment with Monistat orally, as some threads on BYC suggest (1/2 inch of cream orally twice a day). She has been on this treatment for 2 full days now, plus coconut oil, regular massages, but the size and texture of the crop has not decreased. I moved her into the house in a dog crate because we are having colder weather here (and to keep her isolated from other chickens) and she immediately began to eat the cedar shavings, so I removed those and put in newspaper. Maybe she is a chicken who just likes to eat things she shouldn't - like hay. She is still alert, and eating a bit, with watery poops with little solid matter. I have given her scrambled egg, yoghurt, and layer crumble soaked in water.
I stitched her a crop bra and have installed that on her just now - which she hates and is picking at - but I am hoping this will help the crop empty, but I am skeptical that it will, because none of my massaging, regurgitating her, the Monistat so far, or anything else has helped. The crop is still the size of a tennis ball.
I am worried that she has a hay obstruction in her crop, and that because she is eating so little, and her crop isn't emptying, she will die of malnourishment, which will be hard to sit by and watch happen. And this has already been doing on five days....She has been such a sweet girl through all this treatment I've subjected her to. I understand if there is nothing I can do for, but I thought I would post to see if there is anything else I can try, or something I'm maybe doing wrong. It has been discouraging that her crop hasn't decreased in size at all. I called the Cornell Cooperative Vet Extension service (we are in upstate NY) and they seemed to think surgery might be needed....I am not in a financial situation to take her to a vet for surgery. I'd be willing to try at-home crop surgery as a last resort, but given that that would be a first for me, I'd like to make sure it's absolutely necessary before risking her life like that. And we are vegetarian, so her destiny is not the soup pot...
Thank you for any one who can suggest any help! And again I apologize for how verbose this post is. Many thanks.
