Small Impacted Crop: To Perform Surgery or Not?

[ChickenKeeper8]

I don’t have any penicillin right now, I’ll have to get it tomorrow. So I’m debating whether or not to give her anything from home....Ibuprofen, Tylenol, aspirin, and such are not antibiotics....So I probably shouldn’t give it to her.

 

[azygous]

The only pain reliever I feel comfortable recommending for chickens is 81 grain chewable aspirin.

 

[ChickenKeeper8]

Okay. Thanks for your recommendation.
do you think the aspirin will help her with her possible infection? Or should I wait until tomorrow to get the penicillin for her?

 

[azygous]

Aspirin only relieves pain and reduces infammation and fever. It is not an anti-microbial.

 

[ChickenKeeper8]

Thanks for all your help.
I’ll get some penicillin tomorrow when the farm store opens.
I hope she’ll be alright through the night🤍

thanks again!

 

[StPaulieGirls]

Wondering what the outcome was for your hen?

 

[casportpony]

Wondering what the outcome was for your hen?

Do you have one with a crop 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

 

[casportpony]

@Overo Mare, @micstrachan, can you share your tubing experience?

 

[Overo Mare]

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.