Sour/clogged crop *OH GOSH now what do I do?? UPDATE post #5

[100AcreFarm]

But I do have a question. I've been treating her for the past few days with variations on baking soda water to flush, ACV water, olive oil and bread. Today she laid a JUMBO egg! I'm surprised she had it in her to do that as much abuse as I've been heaping on her innards! With those less than tasty ingredients on board not to mention the sour nasty ick in her digestive tract, would this egg be safe to eat or should I toss it? Would it taste gross due to her treatment diet? Anybody have experience with this?

I'm so pleased that she's doing better. This morning I wasn't so sure how it would go as I think she'd gorged on pine shavings from their bedding. I was gone for about 7 hours and worried about what I'd find when I got home. Well, I came home to not only this big beautiful egg but a much smaller and less engorged crop.

The droppings in her cage were dark green/brown and had alot of fibrous bits in it. Much better than the projectile stuff she'd been firing out! She seems a much happier birdie this evening although she's not impressed with having me anywhere near her. Wonder why?

I figure we'll have a successful ending or she'll trick me and drop dead. Chickens are so unpredictably odd!

I'll be gone to work all day tomorrow so won't be able to check this thread till late afternoon

 

[Daisygirl]

Congrats on the recovery of your girl!
I have no idea about the egg - - - I'd find a really brave person in your household to act as "guineapig" and cook up scrambled egg with it, or something...

 

[tulie13]

I think the egg should be OK, it's not like she had toxic stuff in her system, just a plug of pine shavings. At this point, since things seem to be moving along, I would just keep trying to get ACV down her, make sure the water has 2-3 Tablespoons per gallon, and that is the only drinking source. Good job, good luck, and keep us updated!

 

[100AcreFarm]

I think instead of letting one of us be a guinea pig I'll boil it up with some others (I have plenty) and give it back to her! She's still got a bit of stuff inside to work out but I got about a tablespoon of strong vinegar water down her this evening and she's had bread with oil and is drinking her ACV water like a good girl. Oh, she wasn't terribly impressed with the oily bread so I drizzled a tiny bit (1/4 tsp maybe) of honey over it. It disappeared in a hurry! I hope that was an ok thing to do. She's really hungry but I'm not sure how much to let her have yet. She had bread with milk this morning, some yogurt and applesauce this afternoon and just cleaned out the last half tsp or so of remaining yogurt in the container. And begging for more! How much should I let her have? She's quite thin and I'm sort of afraid of putting her back outside without some decent fat on her. It's in the 30's and snowy here this week.
I read here somewhere about losing birds after moving them from the warm inside back to the cold outside. I'm thinking to gradually move her back outside over a few days. We keep the house between 64-70 so I'll move her first to the mudroom which is probably 10 degree's cooler than the house then to the garage which is unheated but stays in the 40's then to outside. Sound ok or should I plan differently?

 

[100AcreFarm]

Ok, I'm really worried now! I thought she was doing much better. Her crop was much smaller but still a little puffy and smelly and I wasn't sure if there was still something lodged in there or if it was just inflamed and stretched out from being impacted. She acted perfectly normal and was pooping fairly normally too with bits of digested fiber-looking stuff in it. I was feeling cautiously optimistic at this point.

Throughout today she's been eating small amounts of applesauce, bread and milk, egg yolk and yogurt because I thought she was ready for soft stuff. WELL, tonight I was going to cover her cage so she could go to sleep but decided to feel her crop because it looked too big for what she had today. As I was squeezing she seemed to burp a few times and stretched her neck up. All of a sudden up it came. Gobs of mushed disintegrated bread. I ran to the bathroom with her to work up the rest since she was obviously in puke mode. After she slung her head around a couple times and splattered my counter, toilet, wall, mirror etc. I ran to the mudroom bathroom which is already a place for dirty stuff to be dealt with. She proceeded to chuck into the laundry sink and every time I squeezed upward on her crop another big ole mess came up. There was a whole lot of grass (including an intact dandelion leaf) which explains her issue. Shortly into this process she passed out and I was afraid I'd killed her! Then she'd seem to come to and toss her head again and fling goo all over some more. She stayed really limp though and was gasping. I'm really afraid that she aspirated some because her mouth was so full continually. It just kept coming up even when I wasn't helping her. She finally was able to start sorting herself out but still was gasping through her mouth. I cleaned out her mouth and upper throat with my finger as best I could to try to clear things but I know she had to have sucked some in.

Now she's on her roost in the cage, just sitting there with her tail down, looking morose. Ever few minutes she'll let out a few loud barking/gurgling coughs. I held her chest to my ear and can hear breathing sounds but sometimes some gurgles too and I'm not sure where that's coming from. That cough sounds awful!

Part of me wants to shoot some more baking soda water down there and make sure she's cleaned out but I don't think she's up for that just now. What we got up so far smelled like tuna which is something she's never had. If she lives through this I'm naming her Charlie after Charlie the tuna from the Starkist commercials!

When I was done torturing her I headed for the shower. I had chicken puke all over me, clothes, hands, hair...blech!!!

No one warned me about this part of the adventure!

If she did aspirate is there anything I can do about that or is it just wait and see? Of course she does this on the weekend when the feed store which might have antibiotics or something is closed. Just like my kids...always get sick on the weekend or after hours!

 

[PandoraTaylor]

I would give her AVC & Electrolytes in water.....nothing else for tonight.

Start over tomorrow with the yogurt & crumbles.

 

[speckledhen]

You are very lucky she didn't die in your arms. My best blue Orp hen did that last year when she started upchucking as I was carrying her to the house to deal with her sour crop.

 

[100AcreFarm]

Quote:
Don't I know it!! It was the freakiest thing! Well, that is, not quite as freaky as being splattered with chicken vomit but it was an adventure nonetheless. It was scary, I truly thought she was dead. Then she coughed like a dying hyena ALL NIGHT LONG!! I had 4 hours of very broken up sleep before having to perform with handbells at church at 8am. She was still coughing horribly when I left this morning. I've been home now for about 1 1/2 hrs and have heard her cough mildly 2-3 times so maybe she managed to clear out whatever she inhaled??

It's an improvement over the every 2-3 minute loud coughing all night.

Her crop is nice and flat now and I gave her ACV & electrolytes in her water and a half slice of cracked grain bread with a little oil to hopefully help loosen anything that might be left. I'm pretty sure there's a little more in there as I saw a few blades of grass in her poop a while ago and I can still feel a very small bit of stuff way in the bottom of her crop.

Maybe aspiration isn't necessarily the death sentence I thought it was?

Are there any guidelines for how much food I should be giving her at this point? A little whenever she complains or a set amount of various things per day? This is my first experience with this and I don't want to make it worse by overfilling her or starve her with not enough.

I'm gonna take a nap...

 

[Country4ever]

I had a hen die on me when I tried to lavage her stomach..........but I think she had alot more going on than just aspiration.
I think you're feeding her too much. I wouldn't give her anything but water with electrolytes for a couple days. Then I would give her yogurt in small amounts, with probiotic powder added to it. Sometimes they just need more time with nothing in them to heal.

You were lucky to get so much stuff up. The problem might be further down the GI tract, rather than just the crop.
Definitely separate her from the others, so you can monitor her intake and output better.
You don't want her crop to stay stretched out. I had a hen that probably died from that. Once it gets stretched out, the nerves no longer function and they essentially can't pass any food through and die of starvation.
Good luck. You're working really hard to help her!

 

[100AcreFarm]

She's in the house in my dog kennel for now. My brilliant hubby made a really sweet roost in there so she's sittin' pretty whether she realizes it or not! She doesn't realize that 'Baby it's COLD outside'.

I see what you're saying about giving her a couple days with nothing but electrolyte water and it makes sense. She makes it obvious that she wants food though. She'll peck in her dish and then look at us and whine. She'll be inside for a while longer. I hope I don't have too much trouble getting her moved back outside in the cold.