Update (pg 11): Daisy's crop - successful surgery and now eating!

[AndreaS]

Great! Maybe she Just is having a hard molt. Isn't aloe Vera juice a diarrheatic?

 

[caralouise1974]

Oh, diuretic? That's not good. Will stop that then.

She's just wolfed down some tinned tuna (in spring water, not oil) and her crop is nice and squishy and full. She's still sitting down a lot, and the poo is still clear liquid with green bits in it, but I'm pleased she's got her appetite back.

Fingers crossed...

 

[caralouise1974]

Okay, so her crop is now full of farmed maggots (not the yuccy ones from the compost heap!), broccoli, cherry tomatoes and sunflower hearts, but the poo is still clear fluid. Could her gizzard be impacted?

 

[caralouise1974]

Poo still clear - am now getting more worried that it could be a gizzard issue. Crop doesn't seem to be emptying, but of course I won't know for sure till tomorrow morning...

 

[AndreaS]

Has her crop been full before now? I've never had to deal with impactions, but shouldn't that have been obvious if it were the problem? I'd just keep an eye out for poops, like you have been, and see if her crop empties by the morning.

I'm in a little over my head making suggestions here....you probably know just as much about this as I do.......but I do know that I tend to worry myself to death over my girls when somethings not quite right, and sometimes I jump to conclusions. I start reading about all the potential problems, and before you know it, I'm driving myself crazy over analysing everything they do!

I'll be waiting to hear how she does.....keeping my fingers crossed for you and her!

 

[caralouise1974]

Quote:
She hasn't really been eating for a few days, so the crop has been empty most of the time. I was just worrying that maybe the problem was further down the digestive tract, and that the reason she hasn't been eating is that nothing's getting past the gizzard. In which case, I would assume that the crop, when she did eat, would simply back up and get full without the food being able to shift further along.

But, you're quite right, I have worried myself over nothing many times before! And the one time there was something seriously wrong (I lost my favourite girl to a crop impaction last winter) I didn't panic because I thought I could deal with it easily. In the end, she died on the operating table at the vets and I simply didn't see it coming. Every other time I've spent sleepless nights crying and fretting, all has ended up being fine!

 

[feathersnuggles]

I had a pullet, about 7-8 months old last fall, who went into a mini-molt and had symptoms like yours -- except her comb became a little less red. I posted and Speckledhen told me they can have a mini molt; I would have never guessed it. My girl dropped feathers here and there, but not like a hard molt. She stopped laying eggs. She nearly stopped eating and she became quite a bit thinner. I started checking her crop at night, on the roost, and found it was empty. That wasn't her usual robust appetite. So, I brought her inside, nearly every evening, and hand-fed her something nutritious with some extra vitamins, protein and fat. Usually it was a scrambled egg or scraps of fish (lucky girl got salmon a few times!). This went on for a couple months. She eventually came through it, and her appetite came back, her feathers were luxurious and her eggs vastly improved.

Maybe yours is in a type of mini-molt too?

 

[AndreaS]

I so hope its just a molt! And i'm so sorry to hear about your other hen, i'm paranoid as can be over my girls......i just adore them. Never in my life did i think that having a flock would add so much joy to my life. I just wanted organic, cruelty free eggs, and now, honestly.....i wouldnt even care if they didnt lay at all as long as they are healthy and happy. Its funny, isnt it?

I didn't know they could get gizzard impactions as well, can anything be done for that? Can you treat it at home, same as a crop impaction? I imagine surgery would be drastically different.

I know we're probably on a big time difference, but I'll be checking to see if her crop is empty in the morning. These things just have to occur on the weekend, don't they? Ugh!

I'm sorry I'm not much help to you. Wish I had some useful information to share.

 

[caralouise1974]

Sadly, her crop is still 3/4 full this morning, and there's no poo in the coop which could have been from her (I know exactly where each of my girls sleeps!). She's very bright today, so it seems that something from yesterday must've made it through, but I think we're looking at feathers from her preening during this moult being ingested and then blocking up either the crop or gizzard.

Anyone ever tried feeding the stuff they give to cats for hairballs to try and sort this problem out? I don't want her to have surgery and die on the table like poor Henny Penny.

 

[AndreaS]

Oh no...will feeding olive oil and massaging the crop help, like with a crop impaction? If the impaction is in the gizzard....I don't know if crop massage would hurt more than it would help. Olive oil couldn't hurt though.

I don't know anything about the hair ball stuff for cats. I'm hoping someone else will chime in here. I'm glad to hear that she seems perky though.