Slow Crop with Molt

[micstrachan]

This is not an emergency, but I thought it may (or may not), be helpful for some of us down the road.

Does anyone else have hens who get slow crops during molt? My Flash has a really slow crop right now. Little Mill also did for a couple days, but hers has cleared up. I think it might be from eating feathers. Also, Flash isn’t drinking water properly. She’ll drink it off the ground if I trickle a hose.

Anyway, I haven’t really been doing anything for her except for massaging a couple times a day. Things were not improving, so yesterday morning I figured I better start intervening. I went straight for the big guns and gave her a quarter cup molasses flush yesterday morning. Half before I walked the dog and half after. I massage her a bit before she went to roost that night, as well. This morning, her crop was still badly clogged. I had an early morning meeting, so there was nothing I could do for her besides a brief massage. Tonight after work, I gave her half a molasses flush and will give the second half before she goes to roost. I also gave her a candidase enzyme pill, which didn’t seem to hurt when Lucky had a slow crop, when she was dying last fall.

@azygous and @RoyalChick I thought you might be interested to see how this goes, since you were in the loop on the enzyme pill with Lucky. I put some coconut oil in the freezer and will be going out this hard, as I leave next Wednesday for a trip, and someone else will be looking after the chickens in my absence.

Flashy was having trouble with egg shells before molt, so I’m aware there might be more going on. I just want to do as much as I can to help resolve this before my trip. I don’t know why chickens have to do weird behaviors like not drinking or like eating weird things during molt.

 

[RoyalChick]

This is not an emergency, but I thought it may (or may not), be helpful for some of us down the road.

Does anyone else have hens who get slow crops during molt? My Flash has a really slow crop right now. Little Mill also did for a couple days, but hers has cleared up. I think it might be from eating feathers. Also, Flash isn’t drinking water properly. She’ll drink it off the ground if I trickle a hose.

Anyway, I haven’t really been doing anything for her except for massaging a couple times a day. Things were not improving, so yesterday morning I figured I better start intervening. I went straight for the big guns and gave her a quarter cup molasses flush yesterday morning. Half before I walked the dog and half after. I massage her a bit before she went to roost that night, as well. This morning, her crop was still badly clogged. I had an early morning meeting, so there was nothing I could do for her besides a brief massage. Tonight after work, I gave her half a molasses flush and will give the second half before she goes to roost. I also gave her a candidase enzyme pill, which didn’t seem to hurt when Lucky had a slow crop, when she was dying last fall.

@azygous and @RoyalChick I thought you might be interested to see how this goes, since you were in the loop on the enzyme pill with Lucky. I put some coconut oil in the freezer and will be going out this hard, as I leave next Wednesday for a trip, and someone else will be looking after the chickens in my absence.

Flashy was having trouble with egg shells before molt, so I’m aware there might be more going on. I just want to do as much as I can to help resolve this before my trip. I don’t know why chickens have to do weird behaviors like not drinking or like eating weird things during molt.

Sorry to hear about Flash.
What enzyme pill are you using?
I was using Cellulase which breaks down cellulose. Is that what you meant?

 

[micstrachan]

Last year I couldn’t find cellulase by itself in a hurry, so I found this thing called Candidase at Whole Foods that has cellulase and something else. I have to grab the bottle after I go inside.

 

[micstrachan]

Anyway, if she is still blocked up in the morning, she’ll get a bunch of frozen coconut oil and another pill. And then maybe one more molasses flush after work.

 

[micstrachan]

It was cellulase and protease.

The sweetheart is excitedly eating baby bird formula before bed. She’s hard to catch currently. But once I do catch her, she’s an excellent little patient.

 

[RoyalChick]

It was cellulase and protease.
View attachment 3635173

View attachment 3635174

The sweetheart is excitedly eating baby bird formula before bed. She’s hard to catch currently. But once I do catch her, she’s an excellent little patient.

View attachment 3635176

Oh I remember now.
She is such a pretty little thing. I do hope she gets better.

 

[azygous]

Oh, yes, absolutely, molt can bring on crop issues as well as egg issues from thin shells to egg binding. I've seen it all. I dread molt for this reason, even though I love their refurbished plumage once we all get through it.

I've also had molt cause anorexia where a hen will starve herself to the point where I have to intervene with tube feeding because she becomes too weak to walk. Practically all the hens' appetites fall off a cliff. My flock has been molting for a month already, and so far they're all eating like pigs demanding extra feedings. I'm giving them what they want because I know they could start starving themselves at any time.

You're handling this case as well as you can in my view. I can't suggest anything you haven't already thought of.

 

[RoyalChick]

Oh, yes, absolutely, molt can bring on crop issues as well as egg issues from thin shells to egg binding. I've seen it all. I dread molt for this reason, even though I love their refurbished plumage once we all get through it.

I've also had molt cause anorexia where a hen will starve herself to the point where I have to intervene with tube feeding because she becomes too weak to walk. Practically all the hens' appetites fall off a cliff. My flock has been molting for a month already, and so far they're all eating like pigs demanding extra feedings. I'm giving them what they want because I know they could start starving themselves at any time.

You're handling this case as well as you can in my view. I can't suggest anything you haven't already thought of.

Helpful information.
I have had one hen who refused commercial feed when she molted. She seemed to only be interested in earthworms!

 

[micstrachan]

Oh, yes, absolutely, molt can bring on crop issues as well as egg issues from thin shells to egg binding. I've seen it all. I dread molt for this reason, even though I love their refurbished plumage once we all get through it.

I've also had molt cause anorexia where a hen will starve herself to the point where I have to intervene with tube feeding because she becomes too weak to walk. Practically all the hens' appetites fall off a cliff. My flock has been molting for a month already, and so far they're all eating like pigs demanding extra feedings. I'm giving them what they want because I know they could start starving themselves at any time.

You're handling this case as well as you can in my view. I can't suggest anything you haven't already thought of.

Thank you. Little Mill starved herself to the point of neurological symptoms one year. You may remember. After the strange neurological symptoms, she fell from the roost. Something (maybe even someone on BYC?) told me to go check on her, and I did. I brought her in, warmed her up, and let her eat baby bird formula on her own. After a couple days of pampering indoors, she recovered. She also used to stuff herself on feathers during molt.

And remember Ester’s hard winter molt, also with neurological symptoms? She was indoors for two weeks and was my first tubing patient. Several months later, I had her euthanized and discovered she had advanced ovarian cancer that had spread to other organs and throughout her coelom. Maybe cancer was what caused her to suffer so badly from the molt, even though her only real symptom was not coming back into lay after molt.

 

[micstrachan]

Flash’s crop was still huge this morning. Maybe not as firm. She got a second enzyme capsule, a large dose of frozen coconut oil, and a little massage. They also all got a baby bird formula treat with buttermilk since so many of them are molting.

It’s a long work day today with board meeting, so I won’t be abke to check her until after she’s gone to bed.