Sick hen with crop that feels like silly putty

[WildSuburbian]

Josephine, one of my more voracious hens (Light Brahma 8 months old) suddenly is not eating and her tail is drooping. Her crop is very big and feels like it is filled with silly putty. When palpating, I can make it into crazy shapes and it will stay like that until it relaxes back on its own after a few minutes. Whatever is in there is very dense and does not feel like the other girls crops at all. It is definitely not grass they have only a little hay in their nesting boxes, otherwise they have pine shavings.

The girls have a 25x16 caged run and their coop. Normally they go out every morning and evening for a supervised walk (we have hawks) but they have been confined for the past week and a half because of the late fall application our natural grass care guys use (I think it is lyme pellets). So their food has been 'normal' - pellets and fresh fruit and veggies every day, scratch and dried mealworms. Once a week Kefir and once a week cider vinegar soaked oats.

I cannot get her to drink. I've tried oil and cider vinegar water with electrolytes. She will only take down a tiny bit if I put some on my fingers and stroke the underside of her beak.

I have been massaging her crop (she does not mind) but it does not seem to change the feeling - I cannot detect rocks, or hay or pine shavings - it really feels like silly putty.

Please help!

 

[salt and pepper]

you've been doing the right things. you might need to do surgery on the crop if it is indeed an impacted crop. good luck!

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I have done crop surgery before. If it gets to that point feel free to PM me.

 

[WildSuburbian]

Thanks for the feedback! It helped me feel a LOT better that what I was doing was the right stuff.

I managed to get Josephine's crop emptied and she is right as rain.

I would imagine that Nurse Bartholomew (our kitten) may have helped since he stuck by her like glue.

Culprit may be the dirt bath we have made in a plastic bin. Hubby added ashes to the peat and sand which to my mind would make some great concrete once you have some water. We'll fix that right away!

 

[salt and pepper]

I'm sooooo glad your chicken got better!! I had a chicken with an impacted crop, and I was able to get her better by doing the exact same thing you did =) it works!

 

[Florryhowe]

Thanks for the feedback! It helped me feel a LOT better that what I was doing was the right stuff.

I managed to get Josephine's crop emptied and she is right as rain.

I would imagine that Nurse Bartholomew (our kitten) may have helped since he stuck by her like glue.

Culprit may be the dirt bath we have made in a plastic bin. Hubby added ashes to the peat and sand which to my mind would make some great concrete once you have some water. We'll fix that right away!

I too have a chicken with crop problems thus morning her crop is like e silly putty.. I think it could be the wood ash. Shall I continue with oil and massage?

 

[ChickieMomaNEPA]

Thanks for the feedback! It helped me feel a LOT better that what I was doing was the right stuff.

I managed to get Josephine's crop emptied and she is right as rain.

I would imagine that Nurse Bartholomew (our kitten) may have helped since he stuck by her like glue.

Culprit may be the dirt bath we have made in a plastic bin. Hubby added ashes to the peat and sand which to my mind would make some great concrete once you have some water. We'll fix that right away!

How did you get her crop to empty?!

 

[ChickieMomaNEPA]

I have done crop surgery before. If it gets to that point feel free to PM me.

Ode be interested in knowing how you did the procedure, my 5mo old Australorp has sour crop turned possible impacted crop. Thanks!