Pendulous crop

[Sue Gremlin]

Have any of you ever had a hen with a pendulous crop recover or at least survive without treatment?

This 3 year old girl of mine has had this for several months. She is showing absolutely no sign of discomfort at all. She's the boss chicken, and eats, poops and leads her friends as usual. She is even laying again, she just started up again a few weeks ago. I have been reading about vomiting them to empty their crop, but I really don't want to put her though that if she's not feeling bad.

I was looking into getting her a bra, but since she is acting completely fine, I've just been keeping an eye on her. What would you do with her if she was yours?

This is LaFonda today, showing off her mono-boob.

 

[GodMadeChicken]

How has your chicken with the pendulous crop been doing? Did she recover/survive without treatment?

 

[HeavensHens88]

She should be fine! Some hens just have pendulous crops and they live a perfectly happy life. You can buy a Birdie Bra from CrazyK Farms if you are concerned. It holds the crop in place and it won't hang anymore. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8# www.hensaver.com/Crop-Bra.html

I've got to admit, I don't know which link works!

 

[GodMadeChicken]

Thank you for replying. Somehow my entire flock is having crop problems, and I'm confused about what to do. I have 38 meat chickens (17 x-rocks and 21 Segita; they are 6 weeks old), 4 laying hens, and two 5-week pullets. I think most/all have some sort of crop problem. I first noticed that Lila (one of the 5-week old pullets) had a really big crop, but I assumed she had simply eaten a lot. I didn't think about it again until I noticed a week later that she still had it. It felt very squishy and liquid/air filled. After some internet searching, I concluded she has sour crop. This was four days ago. I isolated her and took her off food & water for a night, but her crop was still squishy and enlarged the following morning. I read somewhere online that red wine is a cure for sour crop. I've given her some of that nightly and have been feeding her eggs & yogurt since then, but she isn't much better. I'm thinking of making a crop bra for her.

The same day I isolated her, I noticed my flock of 38 meat chickens also had large, hanging crops. Fearing that the feed had gotten moldy and the entire flock had sour crop, I removed all food for 18 hours and put red wine in their water. After that, I fed them probiotics and a light ration of scrambled eggs for two days. At the end of that time, their crops looked and felt fine, so I reintroduced their crumble feed again. The next day they had swollen crops again. This time I wondered if it was pendulous crop instead of sour crop, since their breath doesn't smell yeasty. I took their feed away last night to see if their crops were still swollen in the morning. This morning, all of their crops looked normal; I also felt a couple, and they even felt normal. So I gave them normal feed again, but now it is 3:30pm and all of their crops (especially the x-rocks) are a little smaller than tennis balls and hanging low again. I'm wondering if they all have pendulous crops, but I can't afford to buy bra's for all the meat birds (plus everyone will think I'm crazy). What to do? Will the x-rocks be fine with their pendulous crops until butcher day in two weeks? Are they even safe to eat?

I'm raising my chickens naturally and really want to avoid using antibiotics.

 

[HeavensHens88]

They'll be fine to eat. Don't fret!

 

[HeavensHens88]

Are you feeding your birds grit? This helps the chickens grind up food better and results in non-pendulous crops.

 

[GodMadeChicken]

Thank you! You have set my mind at ease. Thanks also for the crop bra link.

 

[GodMadeChicken]

I haven't been consistent with feeding them grit because I assumed they were getting enough from semi-free ranging. I'll make sure they have a constant supply from now on!

 

[lanamilo]

I have a hen that has a pendulous crop. I have done the vomit thing, taken her to the vet, withheld food and kept her isolated. Nothing has made a bit of difference. She acts totally fine. Laying eggs like a champ. I bought her a crop bra last week. I hope to have it here next week. She's still on meds from the vet that maybe have helped a little, but not a lot.

 

[Cryss]

I know I'm late to the party, but the way this reads, it sounds like normal crop expansion during the day with normal crop emptying during the night, at least for most of the flock. Maybe one has a crop problem but maybe not. Mornings crops feel empty. As the day progresses it begins to fill. By evening they have a full crop to go to bed with and digest as they sleep. By morning it's empty again and the cycle continues. Putting it on a water only diet will naturally cause it to empty, then refill as soon as the diet is over. JMHO.