This chicken's crop issues are driving me NUTS!

[tulie13]

Of course she's going downhill again, RIGHT BEFORE I have to get on a plane and leave town for an overnight trip.

So I may get back to a dead chicken.

Her crop seems to fill with liquid or oil, whichever I am giving, and then it just SITS THERE. The crop also sometimes gets larger with air. I'm trying to push the liquid contents down, which has been working for the last few days, but all of a sudden it seems like it doesn't want to go DOWN, only UP.

So now my bird may die of hunger/thirst before I get back from my trip and can do the surgery.

I'm so upset about this, I should have gone on and done it late last week, but I thought after getting that THING out of her that whatever was blocking her was cleared. But now nothing is going DOWN.

She's been on olive oil + vitamin/electrolyte/amino acid water for the last 3 days, NO SOLID FOOD whatsoever, and her crop still fills up and sits there.

I'm going to try our State Agricultural office in the morning before I leave and see if I can get any more info about crops, particularly how long it should take a 100% LIQUID filled crop to empty into the stomach.

 

[faykokoWV]

sorry to hear about your situation. I hope your chicken is ok while you're gone and that you are able to fix it when you return.

 

[TexasVet]

I had a hen like that too, and she drove me nuts. Every two days I had to hold her upside down and massage her crop to get her to throw up all that nasty, slimy stuff in her crop. And you know what? She died a couple of months later anyway.

In hindsight, I wish I'd but open her crop after she died to see what was stuck in there.

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.CountryChickens.com, www.PivotalForce.com

 

[threehorses]

When you say no solids, are you only feeding the amino acids mixture as her nutrition? Or are you using crumbles still?

Are you using any probiotics?

I'd cease the oil. It's possible that there might be some emulsion going on in there that isn't helping at this point.

OK, change of strategies.

Have you considered a parrot baby formula? It has probiotics, won't need to be as warm as they suggest for babies (just warmish), is easily dissolved, more easily absorbed, and is nutritionally balanced. Of course, it's balanced for baby birds, but then again your bird could use more nourishment.

When my parrot had a digestive disorder that disallowed her from having normal digestive tract movement (soooo very similar to your bird's slow crop, but for a different reason) I used that and babyfood applesauce strictly. The applesauce was added as a method of making sure the digestive tract cleaned out by the end of the day. It wouldn't otherwise. The parrot formula was to provide complete nutrition although she was an adult. This was the order of a very highly respected avian specialist.

I've heard of people using formula here for less pressing reasons. I would highly recommend it. I feel that it will be more nutritionally balanced and more absorbable than the amino mixture. It's worth a shot. The mixture you're giving is supposed to be given in conjunction with a complete diet. Not as the complete diet. So get the ease of that and everything in it while simultaneously giving her nutrition - good strong nutrition.

She'll be ok overnight. So take a deep breath and regroup. It might be that this is making you so stressed that the overnight trip might be unintentionally good for you. You can take the time to refocus.

 

[tulie13]

Thanks - I'm just afraid to give her anything even semi-solid as even the liquids don't seem to be going down. I'll stop the oil for now, hubby will have problems doing that on his own anyway. And yes when I say "no solids", I mean NO SOLIDS, not even moistened crumbles or egg yolk. Only liquids and oil, and it's not going down.

I gave her a little Sulmet water a little while ago, perhaps the antibiotic will kill some sort of bacteria that is in her crop. Then tomorrow while I'm gone, hubby is going to keep her on liquids (Vitamin + Electrolyte + probiotics), no oil. Depending on what is going on, I may get him to try some of the Amino Acid liquid (no oil, just amino acids + vitamins + sugar). I'll be back Wednesday evening.

I don't know that I can convince my hubby to get baby parrot formula while I'm gone, but he would probably be willing to go to the grocery store and get some baby applesauce. We could do that plus some vitamin/electrolyte/probiotic powder (just a tiny bit) in the applesauce? And ACV water? How does that sound? I know it's not complete nutrition, but for a day or two just to see if SOMETHING will go through, until I can get back from my trip...

 

[threehorses]

Parrot formula is'nt even semi solid. It's perfect for getting past weird spots. The applesauce will help it go down; if he'll get that to add to whatever, I bet it'll help. It worked remarkably on my poor bird and nothing else was working - not even the products designed for birds with nearly no digestion. It's worth a shot. It won't hurt in small amounts. It only takes a little. 1/2 teaspoon will do it. 1/4 teaspoon is better than nothing.

Thanks for the clarification on the no solids - just wanted to make sure I wasn't assuming incorrectly.

On the Sulmet, a word of caution that it will decrease her compromised good bacteria she has so keep up good probiotics as you've planned. And unfortunately you can't one-day treat with antibiotics. It causes antibiotic resistance.

So you'll have to decide what to do there.

As for the amino acids and vitamins not nourishing the bird enough for her to get better...for a day or two if that's what you have, it's certainly better than nothing and has gotten her this far.

Of course, real life has the worst timing doesn't it? I feel so bad for you because I know how these sort of bad-timing things feel; frustrating, maddening, stressful. I'm serious about making sure to take care of yourself. (Going into nagging mode lol).

Quote: