Surgery a few days ago, was doing great, now lethargic

[Ccort]

No improvement now for the last couple days. Not eating enough on her own, still tired, still the green watery poop.
Anyone with experience to offer help? Is she not going to get better and slowly starve?

 

[OwO]

No improvement now for the last couple days. Not eating enough on her own, still tired, still the green watery poop.
Anyone with experience to offer help? Is she not going to get better and slowly starve?

I still recommend trying to make your own crop bra if her's isn't emptying. Helped my elderly hen a lot

 

[BelovedBirds]

No improvement now for the last couple days. Not eating enough on her own, still tired, still the green watery poop.
Anyone with experience to offer help? Is she not going to get better and slowly starve?

have you tried garlic water? What food is she currently on?

I would want to try starving the yeast infection. But I'd be worried about starving her in the process.
The treatments Ive heard of, are keeping the hen indoors away from food, including grass etc. Giving her only garlic water, and doing this for 24 hours. This starves the yeast and helps to empty the crop basically. Then they gradually reintroduce food. And start by reintroducing those healthy bacteria cultures back to the bird using yogurt, scrambled egg etc. Small meals, continuing the garlic water. Eventually you would wean her back onto normal foods.

If she's still eating, her crop isnt being able to fully empty, and the yeast has a good environment to keep thriving.

I've never dealt with sour crop, I dont have that experience, I am merely mentioning a method that I've heard great success with. Her situation is somewhat unique, if she's not been eating enough, she'll be weaker and may not handle the fasting period well. So I wouldnt do this just yet, I just want to offer hope that there are other methods on treatment, and I'm sure something will work.
I don't want to give you bad advice in this situation, but I just wanted to throw this information out there. I can find some sources on this in the morning, fron where I found this information.

Her poop is likely watery due to not eating much, and is green due to a combination if not eating, and it is a sign her body is trying to fight an infection. I'm not surprised by her faeces at present.

How tired exactly is she? Is she active in bursts, preening, foraging? Is she still on medications?

 

[Ccort]

I still recommend trying to make your own crop bra if her's isn't emptying. Helped my elderly hen a lot

I literally don't know how to sew a button. I even asked my MIL for help from a friend of hers to help Maybelle but she wouldn't.
Her crop isn't large. It's not empty in the morning but not big either. Not sure if that matters.

I would love to try a crop bra and not the least but opposed but simply too stupid to make one.

 

[Ccort]

have you tried garlic water? What food is she currently on?

I would want to try starving the yeast infection. But I'd be worried about starving her in the process.
The treatments Ive heard of, are keeping the hen indoors away from food, including grass etc. Giving her only garlic water, and doing this for 24 hours. This starves the yeast and helps to empty the crop basically. Then they gradually reintroduce food. And start by reintroducing those healthy bacteria cultures back to the bird using yogurt, scrambled egg etc. Small meals, continuing the garlic water. Eventually you would wean her back onto normal foods.

If she's still eating, her crop isnt being able to fully empty, and the yeast has a good environment to keep thriving.

I've never dealt with sour crop, I dont have that experience, I am merely mentioning a method that I've heard great success with. Her situation is somewhat unique, if she's not been eating enough, she'll be weaker and may not handle the fasting period well. So I wouldnt do this just yet, I just want to offer hope that there are other methods on treatment, and I'm sure something will work.
I don't want to give you bad advice in this situation, but I just wanted to throw this information out there. I can find some sources on this in the morning, fron where I found this information.

Her poop is likely watery due to not eating much, and is green due to a combination if not eating, and it is a sign her body is trying to fight an infection. I'm not surprised by her faeces at present.

How tired exactly is she? Is she active in bursts, preening, foraging? Is she still on medications?

I am giving garlic water. I tried stopping tube feeding today from about 830 to 230 in hope she would eat on her own, but she would not. She's pretty much eating nothing but raw egg through a syringe...about 80 ish ml a day. I ordered Oxbow Critical Care and of course, it was supposed to be delivered yesterday but something went wrong and is now scheduled for tonight.
I am starting to feel cruel shoving a tube down her throat for a whole week now.
She's still on a whole load of meds, including the two antibiotics, the sour crop medicine, the Reglan type med for motility. I listed them all earlier in the thread, just not sure the names of the top of my head. I'm starting to wonder if she should be on all these?!
I would call her lethargic still. I took her out during the warmer part of the day so she can bathe, roost, move around but she soon falls asleep.
I have spent a good portion of my day in tears, feeling lost and not knowing what to do. I truly expected her to be better by now. Maybe not fully, but certainly eating independently and with more energy. I'm concerned about the all-day long diahrea as well.

I did "starve" the infection for twenty four hours initially but am very hesitant to do that again since she's not had a real meal now in a week and a half and already seems tired.

 

[Ccort]

The food came that the vet recommended for tube feeding and after all this, it won't actually even go through the tube. So I just gave the "In Tune"baby bird food, first ingredient brown rice. Contains Brewers yeast. Am I killing Maybelle?

 

[Eggcessive]

I would ‘t worry about the brewers yeast. A complete feed should contain b vitamins, and that is probably what that is for. I would like to have more answers to your questions, but I don’t. I think the kind of surgery she had is not done by too many people. There is a lot of risk of complications involved in the surgery.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I feel like you just need a hug.

 

[Morrigan]

Is it possible antibiotics could be messing with her crop and digestion. When is she due to be done with them?

I'm so very sorry to hear you are in tears. You have done so much for Maybelle. I know how hard is to try your very best for a beloved pet and feel like it is just not enough.

As to where to go from here. If have an animal that is clearly not responding to rounds of medication/treatment, I go down one of two paths. If I think the animal is actively suffering/in pain, I will help him or her to the other side. However, if I don't think there is active suffering and there seems to be some quality of life left, I will remove all medications and give the animal access to all its favorite things -- food, sunshine, love etc. I once had an old hen surprise me and rally for another couple of quality months after I just let her be. If nothing else, you made their final days as loving and stress-free as possible.

I don't know if you are at that point yet or not, and what's right for me may not be what's right for you. Sending positive thoughts your way.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It may be a good idea to contact your vet again to get their input.

What was the timeline your vet gave you for recovery from the surgery? You have to think that there still may be inflammation from the surgery itself. The vet said they removed the "Uterus" which is the shell gland, seems complicated and actually confusing but I digress.
The large intestine "connects" to the cloaca past the shell gland, so I can see it taking a while to heal along with inflammation.
The crop may be backing up due to inflammation in the intestines.

Keep working on it and see how it goes. @Morrigan is correct, that medications can also affect the system, so you may see improvement once you finish the prescribed meds.