Small Impacted Crop: To Perform Surgery or Not?

[592667]

Hello fellow chicken lovers!

I hope you guys can give me your opinions on my poor little chook, and her small impacted crop.

So....Let me start to explain....

2 weeks ago, my Rosie was acting constipated but had a large squishy crop. So, my first thought was sour crop. I gave her some yogurt, and a tiny bit of grit. Only 30 minutes later, she laid a long, soft shelled, egg. I noticed some egg white coming out of her vent, so I squeezed, and a second soft shelled, but it was regular shaped. 45 minutes later, she flew out of the hospital pen and was running around, scratching, and pecking. I knew that she might occasionally have two eggs, since she is a golden comet, a high production breed, and is only 8 months old.

Moving on.....

Last Friday, I noticed that Rosie had a firm crop. I massaged it, and gave her a lot of water and olive oil. She was very full from the water/oil so I massaged her only a few times (maybe 2) since she was acting sleepy/tired.

Saturday, her crop was harder, but not huge. I massaged it, but ( I believe) didn't give her oil. That morning she had another 2 soft shell eggs just like the ones I mentioned previously. Then, she started acting normal again! Odd...

Sunday, her crop was hard-ish but small. Definitely not a baseball or softball size, maybe a little smaller than an oval shaped golf ball. I gave her electrolytes and olive again, all throughout the day, massaging frequently.

Today, Monday, she was totally normal running around, clucking, pecking, etc.... I felt her crop but couldn't find the hard mass. After a few minutes of feeling around for it, I found it, it was not hard as a rock, built not completely soupy feeling. It was small like an oval golf ball, again, but very malleable. I gave her some apple cider vinegar, and massaged it already 2 times. I plan on giving her some more olive oil later.

So....All that leads me to my big question: Should I perform crop impaction surgery today on her? Or should I keep on massaging and giving olive oil and apple cider vinegar to her?

My fear is that if I let it go on too long, she will get sour crop!!

I have all the supplies to perform the surgery, and have binge watched crop impaction surgery videos.....What do you guys think??

I hope someone helps me today! I don't want to wait too long.

~ All The Best ~

 

[Sally PB]

Nothing to add here, except to say this thread is EXACTLY what I mean when I tell people how friendly and knowledgeable people are on BYC!

 

[azygous]

What you're doing is focusing on a secondary issue when the issue behind it is going untreated. Those double shell-less eggs are the reason Rosie's crop isn't emptying efficiently.

Because her reproductive system is in need of regulating, the double egg laying can cause frequent blockages which slow the gizzard and crop functions as everything comes out of the same chute in the end. (Pun alert)

The treatment is not crop surgery but calcium to regulate her cycle and to boost her calcium reserves. Get some calcium citrate plus D3 from the vitamin aisle where they sell people vitamins. It should be a minimum of 500mg. Give her one per day for a while until you see normal eggs with one per day being laid. Give the tablet directly into her beak.

Continue to monitor her crop each morning to see how it is emptying overnight. You may need to continue oil and massage each morning to encourage the crop contents to break up and go down. If it continues for too long, say three days, a molasses flush can help move things through and get her digestive system open and moving again.

There are things we can try before we resort to drastic crop surgery.

 

[azygous]

That's good to hear that she's reverted back to solid shells and one egg per cycle. I suggest you get the calcium and hold onto it in case this starts up again. I keep a bottle of calcium tablets in my run so I can pop a pill into a hen immediately if I see she is starting to have egg quality issues. Oyster shell is not as easily absorbed as the kind of calcium in a calcium citrate tablet, and not all hens absorb calcium easily.

As for the slow crop, it may take a while to get the digestive system back on track. Continue to monitor the crop, and give oil and massage. Be sure she's getting enough water and her water source is easy for her to use. Sometimes this is the problem, especially with nipple waterers. They can sometimes be poorly vented and the water is too hard for the chickens to extract. Just something else to check on.

Another thing you can do is give her yogurt or probiotics to boost the good microbes in her intestines to help digest her food more efficiently.

 

[casportpony]

hould I perform crop impaction surgery today on her?

Absolutely not! Try giving more water and see if that helps.

 

[592667]

Just wanted to update everyone on how Rosie is doing....

Sunday, I gave her probiotic yogurt and lots of olive oil. I didn't let her free range so she wouldn't make her impaction worse. The only food that was available to her was hen layer crumble feed (this is my usual feed for my flock, since they didn't like the pellets at all) and grit/oyster shells. I massaged it all throughout the day at different times. She didn't lay an egg that day, so, at the end of the day I gave her a crushed calcium tum in electrolytes.

Monday morning, she was acting normal and her crop was completely flat!! I didn't let her free range, and kept her in her run with only crumble feed, grit, and oyster shell all day. I gave her only a little bit of olive oil before bed, and some electrolytes. She didn't lay yesterday either, so I gave her another crushed calcium tum in some electrolytes. Oh, I also gave her the top of one clover, to ease her back into eating regular food again.

Today, her crop was flat again this morning and she is acting totally normal. So I let her out with the flock for a little bit, to eat some clover. She is back in the urn with the others, and has been going in and out of the henhouse.....When she does that she usually lays an egg sometime that day!! Finger crossed!!

So, I am going to keep giving her calcium tums in electrolytes, until she has laid an egg for at least 3 days right?

Thank you to everyone that has contributed to my problem!

 

[StPaulieGirls]

Do you have one with a crop problem?

Yes, I'm afraid so. We're on Day 2 of the oil & massage regime. She's very fiesty and making a few dehydrated green poops with urates. However, the mass in her crop - about tennis-ball-sized - was still there this morning. We'll do more oil and massage yet this evening and again through the day tomorrow. Also got Dulcolax and will try that evening and morning. She's not drinking as much water (with electrolytes) as I'd like, so I got tubing from the pet store this evening. Never done tube-anything, so a little nervous. Not as nervous as I will be about cutting her open, if it comes to that.

Poor girl is also in the middle of a hard molt, which maybe led to this, as we've got a couple birds that bully the molters.

We'll keep going with the conservative approach, figuring it defintely calls for a few more days at the least, but we wonder at what point one admits that it's just not working?

Thanks for asking.

Every blessing,
Kerri in Minnesota

 

[Painted Calls]

First rule of tube feeding is HYDRATE! Sometimes just purely giving fluids will move things through the crop.

Here is a link to Kathy's extensive tube feeding guide:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ng-guide-pictures-under-construction.1064392/

And some more good info:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/go-team-tube-feeding-updated-12-29-2019.805728/

Here are links to a couple of my posts on @micstrachan's thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/need-to-tube-severely-molting-hen.1437023/post-23800442

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/need-to-tube-severely-molting-hen.1437023/post-23801624

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/need-to-tube-severely-molting-hen.1437023/post-23839502

If you have any further questions, feel free to tag any of us. I'll be in and out this eve.

 

[micstrachan]

Hi. I’m sorry to hear about your hen’s crop. I have been afraid to tube for years, and finally got into a life or death situation with a hen who was molting so heavily in winter she completely stopped eating or drinking. i’ve had her inside for warmth and tubing for two weeks. I’m just transitioning her back outside now.

I have found that just the fluid gets the crop going. I swear her digestion seems more active if I tube fluids before anything else. If you do decide to tube fluids, I have found that remaining calm seems to be the most important factor. That combined with the upper beak grasp described by @Overo Mare in her video really help. I need to read this thread before commenting on treating the crop itself. However, if you have determined that she needs fluid in her crop, I highly recommend it. I would start with a low volume until you get a little experience and confidence, especially if her crop is already full.

Edited: I had some voice to text errors... warmth, not worms!

 

[MarkJr]

Is it empty in the morning before she’s exposed to any food?

My girls have various stages of gluttony at all times. If it’s empty in the morning, I don’t worry at all about it.