Post Crop Surgery Questions

[Cyprus]

I’m “a jack of all trades, master of none”.
To answer your question I am very fortunate to have had a diverse medical background.

...Now I live a boring life and have replaced my grown kids with chickens.

A fair trade

 

[CPBlaire]

I’m back.

I totally agree with this statement.

@CPBlaire,
You’ve gone far above what most chicken stewards are willing to do!
And you’ve done a great job so far.
You got this.


Here’s a few more thoughts.
If you feel like you can’t reopen the outer incision because it’s started to knit back together, make a new one.
Yes it would be a bummer to have two (exterior) wounds have to heal, but a fresh one would heal with less complications than ripping open flesh that’s already trying to heal. Plus, you will have to rough up the edges of the wound anyway to encourage it to knit to its opposite side.

To do this you would take the scalpel and scrape the edge of the wound until it bleeds readily.

And a note on stitching,
Don’t make your needle’s entrypoint too close to the very edge of the tissue you’re trying to pull together. Aim for a few millimeters out. (Into undamaged skin) This discourages tearing of the tissue which may be compromised and fragile at its edge.

Also when bringing the two margins together, bring them to touching but DON’T make it so tight as to smash the sides tightly (because that isn’t good for circulation) You just want it to butt up snug to each other.

Each stitch should be knotted several times.(3-ish) Leave a little tail on each so you don’t accidentally snip the knot when you snip the thread.

Thanks you

I’m back.

I totally agree with this statement.

@CPBlaire,
You’ve gone far above what most chicken stewards are willing to do!
And you’ve done a great job so far.
You got this.


Here’s a few more thoughts.
If you feel like you can’t reopen the outer incision because it’s started to knit back together, make a new one.
Yes it would be a bummer to have two (exterior) wounds have to heal, but a fresh one would heal with less complications than ripping open flesh that’s already trying to heal. Plus, you will have to rough up the edges of the wound anyway to encourage it to knit to its opposite side.

To do this you would take the scalpel and scrape the edge of the wound until it bleeds readily.

And a note on stitching,
Don’t make your needle’s entrypoint too close to the very edge of the tissue you’re trying to pull together. Aim for a few millimeters out. (Into undamaged skin) This discourages tearing of the tissue which may be compromised and fragile at its edge.

Also when bringing the two margins together, bring them to touching but DON’T make it so tight as to smash the sides tightly (because that isn’t good for circulation) You just want it to butt up snug to each other.

Each stitch should be knotted several times.(3-ish) Leave a little tail on each so you don’t accidentally snip the knot when you snip the thread.

Thank you for your kind words. I do hope everything works out. I just sat in holiday traffic for a couple hours to pick up some needles/syringes to remove the fluid, but I'm thinking your advice may be better. If I'm just draining the area, I'm not really solving the problem.

 

[CPBlaire]

Hi StaceyJ, my apologies for the late response, I just got back from the store. Thank you for your advice, I just ordered some fish mox from chewy.com but they didn't give me any options for fast shipping. I hope it arrives soon.

 

[EggWalrus]

My ex was a nurse and taught me how to sew up hunting dogs after tangling with wild boars. She would always flush/irrigate any torn organs/guts, trim any shredded funky edges then suture the edges back together of that organ. After fixing everything inside, she'd close up the skin with sutures but she would leave out the stitches at the bottom/lowest couple of inches for drainage.
It may help if you could reopen her, close up the crop, then close the skin, but leave out a bottom stitch or two. Make sure to clean out any food that leaked from her crop into her body cavity.
I hope this helps.

 

[CPBlaire]

My ex was a nurse and taught me how to sew up hunting dogs after tangling with wild boars. She would always flush/irrigate any torn organs/guts, trim any shredded funky edges then suture the edges back together of that organ. After fixing everything inside, she'd close up the skin with sutures but she would leave out the stitches at the bottom/lowest couple of inches for drainage.
It may help if you could reopen her, close up the crop, then close the skin, but leave out a bottom stitch or two. Make sure to clean out any food that leaked from her crop into her body cavity.
I hope this helps.

 

[CPBlaire]

Thanks EggWalrus, I think the idea of keeping it loose at the bottom is a great idea. I think I stitched the opening too tightly, so it's not able to drain easily. When I first got into chickens, I never would have thought I'd be learning about stitching! LOL ... Here's my Bonnie with the best shot I could get of my amateur stitch job.

 

[EggWalrus]

Thanks EggWalrus, I think the idea of keeping it loose at the bottom is a great idea. I think I stitched the opening too tightly, so it's not able to drain easily. When I first got into chickens, I never would have thought I'd be learning about stitching! LOL ... Here's my Bonnie with the best shot I could get of my amateur stitch job.View attachment 1596860

Are you going to go back in and close up the incision left open on the crop? Your job of stitching looks pretty good for a first timer. They don't look too tight either, just right. As for drainage, if you have a 6 inch tear/cut in the outer skin, I would sew it up like you did but leave the bottom 1 inch unstitched. That last open 1 inch should granulate and close itself within a few weeks or less. But it leave a means of draining, and if necessary, you can flush/irrigate the wound cavity if needed.

 

[CPBlaire]

Are you going to go back in and close up the incision left open on the crop? Your job of stitching looks pretty good for a first timer. They don't look too tight either, just right. As for drainage, if you have a 6 inch tear/cut in the outer skin, I would sew it up like you did but leave the bottom 1 inch unstitched. That last open 1 inch should granulate and close itself within a few weeks or less. But it leaves a means of draining, and if necessary, you can flush/irrigate the wound cavity if needed.

Yes, I didn't realize it should also be sewn, but now I'm wondering how to do so. Do I also leave the bottom open on the crop stitching? Also, how do you stitch it so that you can remove the stitching afterward? Unfortunately, I don't have any absorbable sutures.

 

[CPBlaire]

Here is a thread with a video of crop surgery:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/impacted-crop-surgery-with-video.858803/

Here are more videos:

Thanks, I didn't see this video earlier!

 

[CPBlaire]

Why do these emergencies happen on a weekend or holiday I'd be too chicken to do surgery of any kind, in my younger days perhaps but not anymore

Seriously! Every pet emergency has been at the worst time possible.