PLEASE HELP! crop leaking after impaction surgery! UPDATE/photo

[Bizzybirdy]

Thanks for the URL to order but I don't have time for that in this case. I really need to find something to use sooner...she can't sit around with food leaking out of her crop for days.

Anyone have this problem??? and what did you do/use for stitching? This is a young Araucana, I hate to lose her.

 

[klmclain1]

In case you missed it... I have seen posts on here where people have used dental floss.... do a search for it and see what their experience was. You could even PM whomever it is.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/595534/update-on-hen-with-ripped-throat-pics

 

[xC0000005]

Well, given that cotton used to be the suture standard, In an emergency I'd use it. Cotton thread. Sew slowly, carefully and very close together (note - HAND sew - there is no situation in which a sewing machine with any sort of attachment should be used on a chicken). REI & friends sell emergency medicine kits with suture thread and needles.

 

[Bizzybirdy]

OK...I cleaned her up last night and dried the area with a hair dryer and reapplied the super glue. I did not sew up the skin yet in case it does not hold again. I will use cotton thread to sew the skin tomorrow if all goes well. She sat up the whole time, watching at first and then dozing off. Amazing!

I got up in the middle of the night and gave her some milk mixed with parrot handfeeding formula and bits of bread as she was soooo hungry and thin...a very small amount, and a couple sips of water with Polyvisol. This morning I made some more of the same mixed with graham cracker pieces. So far so good. I did wrap some stretchy gauze around the crop and tied it to give some support. I might add the crop incision was about a 1/2 inch and the skin incision an inch...

Thanks for all the help/advice. I will order a suture kit in case, God forbid, this ever happens again. Have had chickens for over 25 years and never had a crop impaction like this. Got her and others in my avatar as day olds in the fall and they were kept inside on straw bedding. She, apparently, ate alot of it. No one else is having this "problem".

 

[dkosh]

It sounds like she is handling it well. Sounds like you've done a good job. It will take some time to heal fully, the one I had similar to yours is still healing after a month but she is doing fine and laying eggs.

 

[klmclain1]

Yea! Sounds like things are going cautiously well. Keep us posted ok?

 

[Bizzybirdy]

UPDATE: OK...is a week and 5 days from first surgery and my young Ameraucana hen is doing well...still weak and thin and not out of the woods yet but getting stronger each day. She especially loves being outdoors for an hour each day and that has helped her attitude immensely. I had to reglue the crop incision 2X! and that was the worst... having to withhold her food and water as she was soooo hungry and thin, had to let her eat way too soon, but either that or she would have died from starvation/dehydration.

Anyhow...she is a sweetheart and "talks" to me all the time. She eats well, especially loves PEAS and spinach but is sick of scrambled eggs, flings them out of her dish.

I went to my own dr. today and he gave me a 3.0 one inch taper absorbable suture. It may be a little large but it was all he had and he showed me a good way to do the stitches if it should come to that any other time, which I HOPE NOT. Seems like the patient is doing ok but the surgeon here needed some nerve help during this ordeal.

 

[CptCluck]

Thanks for your story - I am having trouble with the super glue as well. It's come apart four times in two days... even though it really seemed to take hold originally. Looking at stitching the poor bird up.

 

[PoultryPedia]

If anyone does ever decide to use cotton thread, I'm guessing dipping it in Betadine solution just beforehand would help prevent infection.

Bizzybirdy--That was a good idea to use a hair dryer!!

I've had super-glueings come apart on a moist cut. I just kept reglueing every so often & tried to minimize movement meanwhile. The cut healed alright.

I should add info about this problem (along with the hair dryer idea) where I've posted info about super-glueing... Thanks for helping me remember this problem that can happen.