Poorly chicken crop not 'draining'

[pwand]

Panacur is another name and it contains 10% fenbendazole. Its horse paste, some can get goat dewormer liquid which is cheaper. The feed stores would carry it and is sold in the UK.
@nestleaver1

 

[nestleaver1]

Thank you! I'll look for that.
Psycho chicken has been living in the kitchen for the last 4 days. I emptied her crop 2 days ago as it had become very large: this took 5 or 6 attempts at making her sick a little at a time. It was not completely empty but down to about 10ml I guess. I got some plain yoghurt into her by pushing it into her beak from the sides so she eventually had to swallow it. Tried with a syringe but she just won't have it. Yesterday she ate a few mealworms and some cucumber. She is still very weak but this morning she has had a lot of cucumber and even a few pellets. I wonder if the cucumber does help with the inflammation a bit? Will add worm medication now she is eating a bit more and see how we go. Lucky I had time off work to look after her - she'd better be OK by Monday...
Happy New Year to everyone.

 

[nestleaver1]

Very sad to report that the Psycho chicken died 2 hours ago. She was very weak, started to spasm and died about half an hour later.
I have autopsied and THINK that her guts and uterus had twisted/adhered to the point where neither could function. This had occurred just below the gizzard, which had become massively expanded (at least 8x size of the heart) and full of food but no foreign bodies I had suspected her of eating. So not primarily a crop issue at all, just backing up. Her queued-up yolks looked black but were just fluid inside so had maybe been reabsorbed when they couldn't be laid.
Her heart/lungs/liver were all perfect and she had no sign of worms/parasites or infection. So I am pleased the vet did not put her down as she had a great last 2 months and there was absolutely nothing we could have done for her.
If anyone really wants to see autopsy pictures I have them.
RIP Psycho chicken...x

 

[pwand]

Sorry for your loss. Hugs

Could you post the pictures, its a great learning tool for others to learn from including myself.

 

[nestleaver1]

OK. That's good these seem to be in the right order. First, you can see the massive distended gizzard (I guess with proventriculus all in one) at the top; a few nodules/adhesions probably not significant yet.

Next it's moved out of the way so you can see the virtually-empty guts, just a bit of gas in there, nothing getting thru. Note round, dark yolks underneath.

This is the gizzard/proventriculus removed with heart for comparison - was very packed full but nothing big that could block it. Some food she had not eaten for at least a week.

Abdomen with gizzard removed - you can see a shrivelled bit of yolk on the L and the other yolks on the R - they are just sacs of fluid - so uterus crosses the gut at the junction of gizzard but still couldn't really see why/how it had got constricted.

Same from different angle

And again.

I am sure the uterus and gut had become joined somehow and constricted each other. Poor baby kept looking down between her legs at the offending place. I had tried massaging that point as I had after I took her to the vet 2 months ago but it must have been too far gone to manipulate this time. She was VERY thin indeed. Should've taken a pic of her keel - literally skin and bone.
She was a great chief chicken; her name was originally Sophie but she witnessed the violent death of 2 coop-mates after 2 separate dog attacks and it left mental scars. She had no feathers on her underside for 18 months after we got her from the free-range farm but finally grew a gorgeous fluffy bottom about a year ago. So I guess she was about 4 years old. I showed the others the body so they would understand she had died. The 2nd in command had a good peck at her feet to make sure and then ran off.
Missing her already.
Thanks for your good wishes and hopefully the pics/story will help someone,
Kate

 

[pwand]

Thanks for the pictures, your brave opening her up, i need to make myself do that the next time.

Again i am so sorry for your loss. Hugs.

 

[casportpony]

Sorry for your loss... IMO, it looks to me like some sort of cancer, probably oviduct cancer that spread and somehow strangulated her digestive tract. This is a perfect example of a crop problem being secondary to something much more serious.

-Kathy

 

[nestleaver1]

Thanks Pwand,
I'm a biologist, I couldn't NOT open her up! Had to know and it is such a relief to find out it was a physical problem that couldn't have been resolved. Otherwise I'd just fret that I'd done something stupid or could have done something simple to save her.
The other three chickens are in rude health (except one of them always lays soft eggs and eats them herself...) - also a relief to know it's not infectious.
Cheers for now,
Kate

 

[pwand]

For me its getting past the birds being pets, otherwise, I am sure I could do this, I find this very interesting.

 

[nestleaver1]

Thanks, Kathy. It does look kind of nodular, just the small bit of oviduct/uterus you can see there. The tissue looked so insignificant I almost didn't notice that it was contacting the gut but the little bit of yolk left over the other side gave it away. Her ovary looked thoroughly dead anyway; no yolk production OR it's all been reabsorbed as my poor chicken starved despite my shoving yoghurt into her... You think it would have invaded the gut directly from that contact?

Pwand, I was weeping for my lovely chicken as I did it! Having a bit of a moment now... but the dead stiff body is not her anymore. She was the feisty, baldy-*** girl who pecked me in the eye when I first clipped her wings and maintained a benign yet firm discipline over the others. The body helps answer questions that would nag at you otherwise. Seriously, the idea of cutting open the body is MUCH worse than actually doing it because, once you're focused on getting the information and trying to work it out, the grossness and emotion disappears - it's a job to be done.

I'll bury her in the morning: I'm going to plant a mulberry tree on top of her so the other chickens can enjoy its fruit when it (eventually) comes. I'll invite the rest of the flock but they probably won't care.

Thanks for your support! Kate