Owners of chickens with slow/pendulous crop unite! Anyone use a crop bra?

[RumneyRoost]

Quick backstory.

I've got a 4yo speckled sussex hen who stopped laying in early May and then developed sour crop. I was concerned she had a reproductive issue but treated the sour crop anyway. I was about to throw in the towel when my vet advised me to "do the opposite of tube feeding". I sucked all the nasty stuff out, treated the sour crop with vaginal cream, and within a couple days she was back to normal. At her lowest she only weighed 3lbs, but once the crop function came back she bounced back to 5lbs and started laying again.
This past week for some reason the crop got stretched out again and started emptying very slowly (not sour), her last egg was Thursday. She's still perky, comes running for treats, and is usually the first one out in the morning. Overnight her crop would typically only empty 25-50% though. So last night I made a crop bra for her, and voila her crop emptied about 90%.

She's lucky that she's a favourite. From now on it looks like I'll be making sure she has a full crop at night, she can sleep with her crop bra on, and then she can be naked during the day. Hopefully with some help her crop muscle can recover, but I suspect there has been some permanent damage. Crossing my fingers that with the bra she can get adequate nutrition to start laying again. She's a pet first and foremost, but when they're laying I get some comfort that there isn't anything sinister going on.

 

[KatieLady925]

Can you get into some more detail about....sucking the nasty stuff out? I've got a sweet barred rock who's had some ongoing crop issues after a bad bout with sour crop (ft. a roundworm infestation) early this year. Her crop doesn't seem to have emptied for the last two days, and I think it's time for drastic measures.

I guess she may also need a crop bra!

 

[RumneyRoost]

Can you get into some more detail about....sucking the nasty stuff out? I've got a sweet barred rock who's had some ongoing crop issues after a bad bout with sour crop (ft. a roundworm infestation) early this year. Her crop doesn't seem to have emptied for the last two days, and I think it's time for drastic measures.

I guess she may also need a crop bra!

So basically what the vet had me do was insert a tube down into the crop (I watched several tube feeding videos to get a better sense of what I was doing), and I used a syringe to suck up the nasty stuff. If you and the chicken are facing each other the trachea will be the hole in the centre, the esophagus will be to your left (the chickens right).
A size 18fr catheter is ideal. Other tubing can work, but be careful of sharp edges.

 

[Texgal57]

Did you make your own crop bra? We purchased one but my chicken is black and the straps are white and stick up on her back, this draws too much attention to her.

 

[RumneyRoost]

Did you make your own crop bra? We purchased one but my chicken is black and the straps are white and stick up on her back, this draws too much attention to her.

I ended up making one with vet wrap. Her crop ended up shrinking back to regular size fairly quickly so she hasn't had to wear it since June/July. I didn't have her in it 24/7. She wore it overnight and got a break from it during the day.
I initially made one with sock material but she was always picking at it and would either move it or untie it.