PHOTOS OF IMPACTED CROP and NEED HELP

[aalbury]

Forgive me for my ignorance, but how can you tell it's impacted if she is still pooping? The rear is bulging? I hope she's better!

 

[BirdBrain]

The crop is sort of a pouch that comes before the rest of the GI tract. It is where the food gets swallowed to before getting ground up by the gizzard. Sometimes grasses and stuff get all balled up in there and won't pass. If this is not corrected the bird can die. She is trying to get her birds crop cleared before this happens.

 

[Wynette]

Okay, please DO NOT turn your bird upside down & massage her crop. That's extremely dangerous - there's a much higher chance she'll aspirate & die than that she'll be okay afterwards.

Wine will work in the same way organic apple cidar vinegar (ACV) will; it's acidic, and the acid will break down what is impacting her - at least in theory. It takes time, seveal days, and if she's not able to get food down, you could lose her to starvation or more likely dehydration before the crop issue is fixed.

I've had a few issues with this, and what has worked the best for me is:

remove all food/water overnight. Then, in the morning, set her on your lap & syringe into her mouth 8-10 ccs (in small doses) of olive oil. Then, vigourously massage her crop in an UPWARD motion. The olive oil should help her pass what's in her crop. Then squirt into her mouth in small doses 2-3ccs of organic ACV. THen, put her back in her cage & no food (water only - with electrolytes if you have them, but only use electrolytes for a few days) for another 8-10 hrs. Monitor her crop when you get her out again, and repeat the olive oil/massage/ACV. You SHOULD see her crop going down a bit more each time you do this. When the crop is finally empty, allow her to eat a small amount of yogurt - plain, nonfat. If she eats it, check back on her to make sure it's passing out of her crop, and allow her some moist feed; soak your pellets in warm water to make them mushy. Small amounts every few hours - when you are seeing that things are moving along, gradually increase the amount of moistened feed, and gradually wean off of moistening the feed. If she becomes clogged up again, start over.

I've had a few that I've been able to save this way, but I will say that they have all, at some point later in life, become impacted again. Seems like some of them are just prone to it.

BEST of luck!

 

[LynneP]

I agree, Wynette, massage up and don't turn the hen over or that hen may stop breathing.

More instructions here, Incident 03, basically 'What Wynette said'...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-sick-hen

 

[aalbury]

Thanks! I've been reading about it since I asked!

Good luck with her!

 

[sarjaysar]

Problem is its been a few days now. DId you try live maggots? They would hopefully eat the content of the crop when she eats them and let the food pass through, but that is something I would give to her without 24 / 48 hours of noticing. In addition cod liver oil and some quite vigirous massaging every couple of hours to try and break it up. Unfortunately for me I have just had to have surgery done on my Silkie who was severely impacted - there was no way I would have cleared the crop as it was very long stems of grass / ornamental grass all knotted up.

You should remove all food though as the impaction could slowly be moving through but she'll just keep topping it up as she will be starving by now.

 

[Wynette]

How's your girl this morning??

 

[dlfridie]

Thank you everyone who has posted suggestions for me.
I'm off to get red wine and try again.

She is still inpacted.
There is no smell.
I did try to withhold food from her, it doesn't empty her crop.
Hanging her upside down, doesn't help as she only vomits a few drops.

She's not eating any of the ground up pellets I have out for the Serama.
I see her eating quite a bit of dirt. Both of them seem to be just digging around in the dirt.
They have created several concave areas in the corners of the kennel.
Honestly, I've never seen her eat any of the wheat straw.
Now, I am doubting that it is straw.


Is it possible to have a crop impacted with dirt?
When I squeeze the crop it doesn't have any lumpy oddness to it,
it sorta feels (for lack of a better term, go ahead and laugh) like a breast.
Let me know what you think?

 

[Wynette]

Have you done the olive oil massage? It sounds like she's got crop stasis, and the only medicine that treats this, to my knowledge, is nystantin. Here's something I copied from another thread:

Nystatin (sometimes in combo with an appropriate antibiotic ) is usually the treatment for that. Crop stasis (where the crop is not moving the food through) means the bird is going to be dehydrated (and you always must address the dehydration first > electroytes or ringers solution under the skin will be necessary for that )​

 

[rancher hicks]

I have been reading about Cod Liver Oil in the PP and that it is mixed w/ feed, but what feed? And how much? If this is done can it prevent this condition? How often, the article doesn't say.?