Nine month old Bielefelder with distended crop that won't empty

[pickle47]

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.

 

[azygous]

If your father is a surgeon, then you would understand that surgery performed before the patient has declined into starvation and subsequent weakness is almost always a better option than waiting when you know that the patient requires the surgery as the only option between recovery and death.

But the bottom line is you know your chicken better than we strangers, and are in a better position to make these judgement calls.

As for the sedative/ pain killer, we do not use those for chicken surgery as they are toxic to poultry. It's not necessary anyway. While chickens definitely do feel pain, they respond stoically to it. You will need an assistant to hold the chicken steady, but not because a chicken experiencing pain will react with flopping and panic as a human would. On the contrary, you can expect your patient to lie quietly on her back, reacting not at all to the procedure.

Here is my protocol for crop surgery.

Supplies to assemble:

A helper
Vetericyn wound spray
Betadine or alcohol
Saline wound flush
Sharp, sterilized cutting tool such as a one-sided razor blade or Xacto knife.
Sterile gauze
Tube of super glue
Latex gloves
Bath towel
Scissors to cut away feathers from incision site

Surgery:
-Wrap hen securely in a bath towel confining wings and feet, but leaving the crop exposed. No anesthesia is required. No pain meds.
-Have your helper hold the hen on her back on a hard surface or table.
-Locate the spot where the lump is most concentrated.
-Trim her feathers away so just skin is exposed.
-Prep the site with Betadine or alcohol to remove external bacteria.

Make a one inch incision in the skin. Do not cut any deeper than the outer layer. This will expose the crop sack.

Next, cut a one-inch opening into the crop sack, slightly offset to the outer cut. This is very important. You should be able to see the obstruction, grass or maybe something else that shouldn't be in there.

Putting slight pressure on the crop, push the obstruction toward the opening and pull it out. Continue until you can't get anything else out of it.

Irrigate the inside of the crop with a generous amount of saline until the saline comes out clean.

Dry the incisions by patting with sterile gauze. First apply super glue to the edges of the inner incision. Hold the tissue together until it bonds, about one minute. If it doesn't hold, apply more glue and continue to hold it until it bonds.

Glue the outer incision as you just did the inner one. Spray the incision liberally with Vetericyn. This promotes the tissue to grow together and heal. Do this twice a day for the next two days.

Feed only soft food such as yogurt, soft boiled egg, apple sauce, or gruel made from mixing water into her feed until it's soupy for the week following surgery. Give her a dose of Nutri-drench each day for five days.

 

[pickle47]

OK thank you so much! I've started her on this program, I have her in a big dog crate in the basement with just water and just gave her coconut oil and another massage. The good news is that her poop is solid and looks more or less normal - not just watery like my Bielefelder - so I think she is less far along/less full up with hay. She also had a good appetite earlier today and is not lethargic so I am hopeful the clump is more amenable to being broken up and moving along. I will stop by my local vet to see if I can get feeding tube from them. I will post with an update in the morning.

 

[BartokRae]

My 2 Bielefelder hens also developed static crop/pendulous crop at 9 months. They were survivors of a mountain lion attack when they were 8 weeks old and we suspect the trauma may have thrown things off for them (as a possible factor).

Anyhow, as new chicken keepers, it took a while to grasp that what we were witnessing needed some serious attention. We managed to empty their crops, but recurrences have happened, though less and less frequently. Both crops are chronically overstretched and sag a little even when empty. They are now 18 months old, and continuing to live good, active lives.

Many things helped to empty their crops at various times. Epsom salt water for speedy emptying, yogurt, garlic, probiotics, acidified copper sulfate, raw eggs, restricted diet, crop buster pills, massages, aloe juice, herbal tinctures, crop bra.

The 2 things that really seem to have made the most long-lasting positive effects are regular garlic and our switching food brands. Someone suggested they might be sensitive to something in our current brand (thus the recurrence) so we switched and recurrence notably diminished. We had been using Scratch and Peck but switched to Kalmbach. Scratch and Peck is a very good brand - my flock otherwise thrived on it. On most days - but especially while they are having an acute episode - they get raw garlic-stuffed blueberries (2 per hen). We’ve never done the crop bra for more than a day or two - so that might help long term as well if used for a longer period of time.

Also the flock loves to eat chia seeds. This helps make things slippery in the gut and keeps the chickens engaged for a long time to boot.

We have wondered if Bielefelders are prone to crop issues. We got a Bielefelder rooster (almost a year younger than the hens) and they all had symptoms of crop issues after giving them raw broccoli piñatas one day. His crop was a little larger than usual and he was adjusting his neck/crop in the same way one of the hens had at various times during this whole process. Happily it didn’t develop into any problem for him.

Hope your girl is doing better.

 

[pickle47]

Because I was pretty sure that she had a hay obstruction (given how it felt and that I could not help her empty the crop no matter what) and that the sour crop was secondary, and rather than subject her to an operation without anesthetic, my friend came over this morning to process her for her soup pot, and post-mortem we removed a huge hay obstruction from her crop - picture below. The lining of her crop certainly showed signs of a yeast infection, but the main problem was the obstruction, so I don't think in this case the Monistat would have helped without removing the obstruction first. Thank you for your help....now I know a lot more for next time.

 

[pickle47]

Thank you all kindly. Now to get a delivery of woodchips for their run instead of hay...

 

[azygous]

That's what I call a revolting development, and I'm sorry you have yourself another impacted crop to deal with. Long stem grasses are the worst to deal with because the material is so tough to move through a digestive system. Like the wad of grass you got out of the other crop, it's a safe bet that this crop contains similar material. Hay is nutritious, by the way, but you need to be sure it's chopped up into small pieces for chickens.

What I suggest is to try all of the standard treatments for impacted crop, go at it hard and consistently over the next two days, but consider the possibility you may fail and therefore need to perform crop surgery to clear the obstruction.

I would first try coconut oil and massage, introducing a teaspoon or two of oil every hour for the next few hours. Massage each time. Provide plain water in between. Later this afternoon, try a stool softener, wait an hour and do more massage. If that fails, at bedtime, send her off with one more dose of a stool softener to try to work over night.

In the morning, see what the crop has done while you slept. If there is any improvement, go ahead and try the molasses flush - one teaspoon molasses in one-fourth cup warm water. She needs to consume it all, either on her own or by tubing it into her. If you haven't ever tubed a chicken, it's easy once you collect the tubing and syringe. The way the molasses flush works is by gently stimulating the intestines to move material through. If the crop is still impacted with grass, however, the flush won't accomplish too much.

It's at this point with the crop still stubbornly full of grass stems that you will need to gear yourself up for surgery as the only solution left. I will walk you through it. If you want to try tubing, I can walk you through that, as well.

 

[pickle47]

Okay this is very helpful thank you. Point taken about wanting to do the surgery when the chicken is strong still.

I have a few questions - one, is it better to keep the chicken off food for the 12 or 24 hours ahead of the surgery, or does this not matter?
Two, is there a concern about the chicken picking at the wound on its bare breast spot during its recovery - do they need a "cone of shame" as is put on dogs and cats (or maybe a crop bra to cover it)?
And three, I am curious about what recovery rates you have experienced - is it common for chickens to go on and live healthy lives after the procedure, or is it hit or miss? (Realizing the answer to this last question is dependent on good sterile technique, etc. during the procedure).

Thank you!!

 

[azygous]

The surgery, while appearing at first glance to be serious, is relatively low risk. The crop sac is tough and you're only dealing with that and the outer skin. No major blood vessels are involved, and risk of infection is very low, as well. Due to the nature of the surgical site, any infection would not immediately risk going systemic.

All of the patients I've been involved with have survived the surgery with good outcomes. There was only one instance of infection of the incision, and that was treated successfully with an antibiotic. Taking reasonable disinfecting measures before and following the surgery is adequate most of the time in preventing post surgical infection.

Withholding food for a few hours prior to surgery would suffice. Post surgery, only soft food and liquids should be given for the next week until the incisions heal, which they do pretty quickly.

 

[pickle47]

I second what @Happy hen lover wrote - thank you so much Azygous! I am deeply grateful for all of your help (and all the others who have weighed in as I've dealt with these crop issues). I have a lot more confidence now about doing the surgery, I am rounding up the rest of the supplies and have printed out your instructions. In spite of the crop not going down in size (that I could tell) overnight, she spent a good day outside without gagging/tossing her head, and acting like her normal self and scratching for seeds, so maybe the treatments helped more than I realized. I will keep a close eye on her, and maybe repeat the treatments plus molasses flush if they recur, and be ready for surgery. Again I really appreciate all the help!