Rock hard abdomen + Previous crop protrusion/nodule (not impaction) that disappeared

Southeast Chicken Mom

In the Brooder
Apr 23, 2021
8
4
11
Hi. Hopefully I can add pictures further down in this thread via my phone. This will be a little long for the sake of being thorough.

Some basic background on our girl with the issue:
- 3 year old Barred Rock
- Great layer until this year
- Purchased from TS (only purchasing from breeders from now on, btw)
- No previous health problems
- On organic whole grain feed, probiotics, healthy occasional treats
- Free ranges only under supervision her whole life (we're fairly positive she didn't eat a foreign object)
- There aren't any trusted avian vets in our area

Back in mid-Feb (this year) our sweet girl had all the symptoms of what looked like an impacted crop. We isolated and attempted a number of natural means and methods over the course of about 4 days to see if it would pass, but nothing changed for the positive. We'd already done surgery on 2 of our other girls over the years, so we decided we needed to take this action.

Made the two incisions (skin, then crop) but there was an unusual amount of blood for crop surgery. I knew I was in the right place and didn't cut into another structure. I didn't see an impaction, but instead, what looked like a dark mass of tissue of an unknown size with some white dots on it in some places. The mass was attached to/inside her crop, with a bit of puss streaming out. I went ahead and got out as much infection as I could using sterile water and Vetericyn Plus. I didn't go any further with the surgery. I decided against giving her sutures, and instead packed it with sterile dressing and Makuna honey. We changed out her dressing every day, respraying with Vetericyn and packing with more Makuna.

We kept her in isolated triage for about a week. Her incision healed nicely. She did have a scab at the top of the incision that eventually fell off. It didn't look (or act or smell) necrotic. She also had a hard like "shell" under her skin that went away. Her skin was paper thin and the "shell" didn't look dark like dried blood, because that was my first thought. During this time her crop began to work, per normal. But then we saw a marble-sized protrusion in her crop area. Perhaps it was the aforementioned "shell"? It was well below her incision and sort of floated around under her skin, but still seemed attached. We found no other info through our research that matched similar circumstances.

Still in iso, her behavior became more and more depressed from being away from her sisters. She looked like she was giving up, and she would pace back and forth looking to the door to return to the coop. But physically, her tail was high, she was pooping fairly well, and her comb and stance was still normal (no penguin, no constant puffing up, or otherwise.) Deciding that we just wanted to give her the best for her remaining time with whatever was in her crop, and assessing that she didn't have symptoms of worms or other diseases, no infectious bronchitis or anything contagious, we put her back in with the flock so she'd have her other sisters for comfort. We expected her to pass. However, within a couple of days she bounced back to her old self. The protrusion even disappeared.

Fast forward to March, a few weeks later. I noticed that her abdomen below her vent was looking a little off and maybe swollen, and she no longer had her normal fluffy butt. She then became bare on her backside. It became apparent it was indeed swollen, so I checked her for ascities and a blocked egg. The swelling was as hard as a rock, had no fluid that I could feel, so it didn't look like it should or could be drained. She was still acting normal, with a nice red upright comb. We continued to watch and wait, and the swelling continued to grow.

It's now mid-May. She's waddling more, trying to navigate around the mass. At first it looked like it might be more on the left under her vent, but now it's fairly midline by the way she's walking. It's also wider than a softball, if I cup my hand under her. She's having a harder time getting up to roost, so we're lifting her up and down every day. She does NOT want to sleep anywhere else, and she also does not act like she's in pain, which is amazing. Yes, I do know they hide their pain very well, but she really is acting like it's a nuisance, but not killing her.

Also, she had one poop 2 days ago that didn't look right (see picture below.) It looks normal again after that one. Does it look like it has tape segments to anyone? No symptoms of tape worm, though. She pooped this after being on electrolytes that day, which when mixed into the water, the electrolytes made it a yellow green color.

She'll free range and peck around for bugs and such, but she's getting pretty thin from whatever is displacing her organs. We are supplementing her with elecrolytes, and soft foods like eggs with oregano, soft veg, and fruit. Once in a while now her comb tips will ting darker for a while and then go back to red (heart, I suspect.) On the bright side, we just got some new 5.5 week old chicks (they're still separated.) In an attempt to get her to eat more I sprinkled some chick feed in front of her. Our girl decided that it was absolutely delicious. She parked her face in a bowl and ate and ate. I know it has more protein and her liver is probably compromised in all that mess - but at the same time, she's actually eating and regained some much needed energy back today.

Ok, all that to say... I'd really just like to know if anyone has seen anything similar. I know this mass is not good. I think it may be an ovarian cyst. Or possibly salpingitis, but I don't know, given her behavior. Anyone know of a proven remedy for a cyst? Does one exist?

Regardless, when it comes time that she does pass, I will be doing a necropsy myself and will post pictures. Heartbreaking for us, but hopefully it will be helpful to others.

Thanks for listening.
 
Last edited:
Here are some pics, per above.
 

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