Two chickens dead so far from impacted crop

[andreabc]

I opened the crop of the last one and it was full of straw. We are removing the straw and feeding them more (they are free range.) The other chickens seem fine, but I'm afraid they might be partially impacted too from eating straw. I'm guessing straw stays in the crop forever? What should we do in terms of determining if the other chickens might be developing a problem and is there anything we can give them (I read about mineral oil) to get the straw that they might have in their crop to pass.

 

[willowcol]

I used olive oil and vinegar water on mine with an impacted crop. You have to massage the crop after to brake up the blockage. It took 3-4 times doing it before the blockage was gone. I might add some grit to thier diet, maybe the dirt in your yard isn't working (if you give grit then no idea). I use straw in my coops and thats not what impacted mine so not sure on that. Good luck.

 

[LynneP]

I've gone through this recently with an 11-month old hen who ingested some of her nest- alfalfa. I put together some detailed observations and treatment as guided by some experienced poultry folk.

Please keep in mind that I am not a veterinarian, technician, or experienced owner but the hen pulled through, and is doing well now and has resumed laying. It takes a lot of work to resolve this, and if you can't devote the time you may wish to take your hens to veterinarian.

There are injections to help with this, I used traditional acid environment/lubrication/massage techniques.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-sick-hen

If you want clarification on any of this, please let me know.

Scroll on the page, please, to Incident 03...