please help - impacted crop - should i operate again???

[technodoll]

Initial thread can be found here... https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=4277330#p4277330

I operated on my little silkie hen last night for a severely impacted crop but only managed to get half the gunk out - should I operate again to try and get the rest out?

I only noticed this morning that her crop is still quite distended and full of rocks and what I feel is possibly tangled grasses.

She is broody so I don't know if she's feeling better or not, she stands immobile in the corner of her wire-bottomed crate, all poofed up.

She is passing normal poops, the first in days. She is drinking.

She cannot eat as she keeps regurgitating pale brown liquid - is this a bad sign??

Will the rest of the junk in her crop eventually pass through? She is not allowed any access to grit anymore, no hard grains or hard foods, etc.

My poor little girl, she is quite weak right now and I fear that a 2nd surgery might be dangerous, but at the same time if her crop is still impacted this isn't good either, right?

Please help!

 

[redhen]

Ugh..i'm so sorry! You tried so hard to save her... i read your thread last night..
If it were me i would put her down so she dosent suffer.
But thats just me..
I wish you the best of luck..

 

[Rocky Top Chick]

I would go back in. A human would be taken back to surgery immediately instead of waiting to heal and so forth. If she does not make it you at least have given it your best shot. I would think the junk remaining is making her feel awful, kinda like us having undigested food in our stomach.

 

[Jaguaress]

I have no chickens, but from what you've written here and on the other thread, my opinion is yes, you should operate again. You might want to get some dull, rounded-end tweezers, or better yet forceps, to pull out the lower gunk. It seems to me that the grasses are stuck and she will die of starvation if you don't do something immediate. Perhaps get a mag lite or strong flashlight - an LED headlamp would be best, from an outdoor store - so that you can see that you're getting out more of the grass.

You asked if you should cut open the incision you made. I don't think you should because it might interfere with the skin being able to heal. (Like if you go too long after an injury, they can't stitch it because the edges have healed.) Cut close to the original incisions if you must, but not over them directly. Definitely put antibiotics in her water to prevent infection.

Best wishes that she makes a full recovery.

Edited: Just read the good news on your other thread about her passing small stones, etc.. Hopefully, what you've done for her is working and she'll continue to improve.