Treating crop issue

[mullys]

About 10 days ago our 1.5 yr old layer had an impacted crop. We are new to chicks so called our vet for advice. We began oil in scrambled eggs which she ate readily. We brought her indoors and under a heat lamp and massaged repeatedly. Our vet tried to make her vomit 3 x over 3 days but she has never vomited to date.
After about 6 days the crop reduced. She has been drinking all along and eating scrambled eggs, canned corn, soft baby cereal (pablum), meal worms (alive and dead) until today! Now she has lost her interest in all food.

She still drinks water. On the 4th day our vet recommended Nystatin for 7 days 3mls twice a day.- today is the 5th day and she seems to be going downhill. We stopped the Nystatin. She won't eat today and her crop is flaccid but has water in it (squishy)
We have been putting electrolytes in her water. She is less active and seems tired. Not interested in worms

How can I tell if she is dehydrated? and what more can we do?
Thanks for any help, all we are doing now is crying over her.

 

[ten chicks]

About 10 days ago our 1.5 yr old layer had an impacted crop. We are new to chicks so called our vet for advice. We began oil in scrambled eggs which she ate readily. We brought her indoors and under a heat lamp and massaged repeatedly. Our vet tried to make her vomit 3 x over 3 days but she has never vomited to date.
After about 6 days the crop reduced. She has been drinking all along and eating scrambled eggs, canned corn, soft baby cereal (pablum), meal worms (alive and dead) until today! Now she has lost her interest in all food.

She still drinks water. On the 4th day our vet recommended Nystatin for 7 days 3mls twice a day.- today is the 5th day and she seems to be going downhill. We stopped the Nystatin. She won't eat today and her crop is flaccid but has water in it (squishy)
We have been putting electrolytes in her water. She is less active and seems tired. Not interested in worms

How can I tell if she is dehydrated? and what more can we do?
Thanks for any help, all we are doing now is crying over her.

Nystatin is used to treat fungal and yeast infections so my first guess of possibly her having sour crop now which can result from impacted crop is probably not the issue. Has she been actually eating? If not,then she may be starving/dehydrated,chickens body shuts down very fast if they have not eaten may only take a couple of days. Have you been giving her grit? Even though she has been on a semi soft diet,she still needs grit to digest food given to her. If she does not resume eating/drinking,you may want to consider tube feeding her,very easy to do. Can you get her to drink? As her crop ever completely emptied? There is the concern for pendulous crop,a condition where the crop muscle does not snap back into shape after a prolonged issue with impacted crop.

 

[casportpony]

It takes ~30ml per 2.2 pounds every 6-8 hours to keep a bird hydrated, so if she's been drinking less than that she probably needs fluids.

-Kathy

 

[mullys]

I'm going to the vet today to get the supplies for tube feeding. She's just standing, or sitting wherever you leave her. She won't even look at food. Its been 2 weeks since we noticed, about one week since her crop emptied but it never fully empties and feels like it's full of water?
I can hear it squishing. The vet is no help at all.
To complicate matters we are going away for a week and can't cancel, although we have discussed it!
By Friday she has to be well enough to leave or euthanized. We've pretty much decided we don't want any more chickens as you can't get any vet backup and what you do get is unhelpful. So discouraged I feel like I'm useless . She is likely to turn around in three days?

 

[ten chicks]

I'm going to the vet today to get the supplies for tube feeding. She's just standing, or sitting wherever you leave her. She won't even look at food. Its been 2 weeks since we noticed, about one week since her crop emptied but it never fully empties and feels like it's full of water?
I can hear it squishing. The vet is no help at all.
To complicate matters we are going away for a week and can't cancel, although we have discussed it!
By Friday she has to be well enough to leave or euthanized. We've pretty much decided we don't want any more chickens as you can't get any vet backup and what you do get is unhelpful. So discouraged I feel like I'm useless . She is likely to turn around in three days?

First don't get discouraged,and you are definitely not useless,these issues do happen. One of the most common causes of impacted crop is from eating long grass or long plant material,it becomes knotted/twisted and cannot be digested. Most vets have little or no knowledge about chickens,we all do the best we can with limited resources. With her squishy crop,is there any odor coming from crop,asking b/c of sour crop?

If you are not familiar with tube feeding,i would pm Casportpony(Kathy) she is extremely knowledgeable about tube feeding. I recently tube fed a sick silkie roo,he stopped eating was basically comatose,he is now perfectly fine,but lives in my house as he thinks he is now one of my children,sleeps in a cat bed at night. He goes out during the day,but never wants to be away from me for long,he is my favorite and i love this little guy.

 

[mullys]

An update:
Well I took Pippa to see her vet, possibly for euth. She seemed a lot brighter at the vets, of course.
Her crop is definitely sour now and nothing is moving through. No poo of any kind. And no eating. Good news is I have now mastered tubing her. Her crop is full of grass but fermenting yucky bits..He suggested I gently add then withdraw a small amount. I have gotten out many small pieces of grass-what a smell! I think the tube he gave me is too small it keeps clogging up.
There is a lot of liquid in her crop but it can't get through. What can I do to help digest the grass? I think the water and food moved through when it was solid grass blades but now it is like grass puree.

 

[purpletree23]

Sorry to say this but I think she needs to have her crop opened up and all of that mess taken out. But because you are going away and can't cancel the best thing to do is to put her down. No need to be discouraged or feel like you are useless. These things happen and sometimes things can be fixed and sometimes not. It's not your fault. So many things can go wrong with chickens just like other animals. She might have had a physical deformity in her digestive system and it finally showed up.

This is not your fault, don't be hard on yourself. I had to put down a hen just a week ago. She wasn't my first and won't be my last. No matter how hard we try to keep them healthy and from harm bad things happen. I tried everything but in the end she was not responding to anything I did and it was time for her to go. I cried like a baby but that night I knew she was no longer ill and was in a better place.

 

[mullys]

After tubing down 60mls warm electrolyte solution I was able to make Pippa vomit. ( First time three weeks) Man, that was scary but done successfully. The stuff that came out was like a dead animal was down there.
I called our vet and told him it was sour crop and now possibly crop stasis, LOL I think he's learning as much as I am.
She is still not eating but showed some interest in her mash. I didn't let her have more than 2 pecks of it. Offered a little scrambled egg.
Yesterday I must have filled and aspirated 4 times to flush out her crop. It emptied about half last night. She's miserable today- I guess that's normal. I don't think we are out of the woods yet but try to be hopeful.

When I was massaging her crop just now she spit up a little so I tipped her sideways (as instructed by Dr Sean, not upside down-ever) She vomited a little bit stinky fluids but no solid grass, crap, much more dilute. Her poops have improved about 75%. very little water portion and more white and black portion.
Dr Sean is going to plate the samples from her crop and poop to check for bacteria. I hope I'll hear today.
Her comb is still a little folded over and dark red Dr Sean is going to look after her while we are away. The antibiotics will take 7-10 days and we leave Sat am. Our last holiday together, we see that now. Anyway, can;t afford anymore! hahaha

Thanks so much for your help. It was casportpony's post on hydration that made me get over my "squeemishness" about tubing and it may yet save her. So much less trauma all around.
To add to our misery our 5 year old guinea pig Ethel died VERY suddenly last night. We are heart broken. Please Lord, enough.

 

[ten chicks]

After tubing down 60mls warm electrolyte solution I was able to make Pippa vomit. ( First time three weeks) Man, that was scary but done successfully. The stuff that came out was like a dead animal was down there.
I called our vet and told him it was sour crop and now possibly crop stasis, LOL I think he's learning as much as I am.
She is still not eating but showed some interest in her mash. I didn't let her have more than 2 pecks of it. Offered a little scrambled egg.
Yesterday I must have filled and aspirated 4 times to flush out her crop. It emptied about half last night. She's miserable today- I guess that's normal. I don't think we are out of the woods yet but try to be hopeful.

When I was massaging her crop just now she spit up a little so I tipped her sideways (as instructed by Dr Sean, not upside down-ever) She vomited a little bit stinky fluids but no solid grass, crap, much more dilute. Her poops have improved about 75%. very little water portion and more white and black portion.
Dr Sean is going to plate the samples from her crop and poop to check for bacteria. I hope I'll hear today.
Her comb is still a little folded over and dark red Dr Sean is going to look after her while we are away. The antibiotics will take 7-10 days and we leave Sat am. Our last holiday together, we see that now. Anyway, can;t afford anymore! hahaha

Thanks so much for your help. It was casportpony's post on hydration that made me get over my "squeemishness" about tubing and it may yet save her. So much less trauma all around.
To add to our misery our 5 year old guinea pig Ethel died VERY suddenly last night. We are heart broken. Please Lord, enough.

Happy to hear she is starting to recover,excellent that your vet is looking after her till your return. My condolences for Ethel,my daughters have guinea pigs so i know how attached we become to them,such sweet little fur balls.

 

[mullys]

An update
Wow things change fast.
Well, she's gone. my beautiful Pippa. I tube fed her for two days and still she went downhill. She kept pooping water, although it firmed up a little about once a day. She was tired and couldn't keep her eyes open. She only lay down and would not stand for long. She was too thin. Her breath remained horrible.To date the vet hasn't called me back, even though I called yesterday morning regarding her condition. I guess he never really intended to care for her? What happened to the tests? I think she needed antibiotics.

I'm so disappointed. in myself - I bailed on her. We are going away tomorrow and could not find anyone to care for her. We discussed cancelling and losing $4000.00. We're not bad people, my sister was just "retired' and our trip has been fully paid for. It's our last one for sure.
I think if I could have tube fed her until her appetite came back.....if only this had happened a month ago. I really believe she could have come back but I don't know- how long does tube feeding go on? She hated it and stressed herself out fighting it. Her crop was emptying but not fully and had no tone. She had lost so much weight. She stopped drinking. We stayed up last night crying about what to do.
I don't think we are cut out to have chickens but we still have four more. I'm very appreciative for this site, you guys were the only source of good advice, I had to tell my vet what was going on. Thanks to all.


Pippa - Blessed be.