young roo with a huge chest/crop

[threehorses]

Sounds like grass clogging up the crop and causing sour crop since he had access to grass but not grit larger than sand. Now we've got something to work with!

I'm not very well versed with emptying a sour crop - I'll get someone else to chime in on this. My forte' is the after care.

Once you get the crop emptied, you'll want to keep her on only easily dissolvable foods for at least a week. What's going on is that green is soured, rotting food. There will be bad bacteria and yeast in there now. What's trickling through the blockage will be mildly toxic and will cause problems for her good bacteria.

So you want to get the crop clean, try to do damage control on the pH and bacteria of the gut, keep the digestive track on mild easy to digest foods while it gets back in shape.

Now's the time for probiotics, apple cider vinegar in the water (to clear up that pH and put more good bacteria in), watching the poop carefully, giving him egg yolks and wetted crumbles and yogurt or whatever probiotic you choose. As an alternative (or in combination with) organic apple cider vinegar, you can use applesauce (I prefer unsweetened) because the pectin will help cleanse the digestive tract and feed good bacteria, the pH will help as well, and it's very tiny, easily passed, and birds like the taste so you can add it to your mixture to get them to eat it. Forgive me if I already said this (I suspect I have) because i just want to get this info back out to you quickly so you can take the next steps.

Let's see what I can get working on the soured crop.

 

[threehorses]

Here's an article pretty much outlining crop cleansing. It's by a friend of mine of old, Alan, and based on a lot of information that Glenda Heywood has said. I think her follow up recipe is changed now. We can get that for you if it's not already here. But it's good stuff.

http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/ImpactedCrop_OldWay.html

 

[Zgoatlady]

Thank you, Im going to read it, I just thought Id let you know, its like a green dirty water and I did it till no more came out the crop went down so much and I put him down he acted fine.
But Im going to read that now and see what it says.

 

[Zgoatlady]

Oh my gosh, it sounds like Ive started it, so now I have to keep feeding him alone, my son but him with the rest of the chicks because we felt sorry for him.
So I'll go and do what the rest said to do. Thank you so so much.
Just need to find the meds to put in the water.
Cheri

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

FLUSHING FOR SOUR OR IMPACTED CROP IS THIS

very simple
mix the 1 pt of warm water
1/2 cup of baking soda
mix good and fill a child'sd ear syringe with the baking soda water

put the chicken on the table in front of you
if there is some one to hold the chicken it is easier to do

now take the filled syringe and put it in the back of the throat of the chicken
ex[ell all the water
now lay the syringe down
take your hand and bring it up tightly against the crop of the chicken
all the while pushing on the hand to breing up the spoiled feed etc out of the crop
the chicken will not hold it back but as chickens do not vomit you are the one bringing the spoiled feed out the beak

do not turn the chicken upside down
chickens do not throw up but you have to push it out the beak


do the flushing at least three times and let the bird rest
DO NOT FEED IT FOR 24 HRS
let it rest and then only feed it
one sliced of bread soaked in milk
into the milk cut a 1000 mg capsule of Vitamin E and crush 1 tablet of selinium and mix with the soaked bread
feed this twice a day for a week

also have 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar in qt of water

by now he is getting better

then you can see if he does alright on the crumble chicken feed

DO NOT FEED Him ANY WHOLE OR CRACKED GRAINS ALL THIS TIME


IF IT IS A LARGE BALL OF GRASS IT WILL NEED SURGERY
the surgery is best done when you have some one to hold the chicken on a table

I had no problem doing this as I did it on young pigeons which get large grains stuck in the crop hole

remember that there are two layers of skin to cut
the outter skin and the skin over the crop

make sure the insision is large enough to take out the large size ball of grass

then use 1 pat water and 2 parts iodine wash to clean the crop be fore stiching the flesh up again
and keep the skin flushed twice daily and it will heal


***
YOU NEED TO STUDY AND DO THIS NOW
CROP SURGERY???
AT WORST SIDE you may have to do this: A
friend of BYC made this up for impacted crop surrgery
more professional than mine

Items Needed:

Betadine solution
Isopropyl Alcohol
Gauze Pads
Razor blade or Exacto-knife
Tweezers (surgical - if available, find at Vet Supply or Pet)
Hand Towel
Sutures or Heavy weight Thread
Sharpie sewing needle that will accommodate thread
Scissors
Antibiotic ointment
access to warm water, preferably a kitchen sprayer

To perform the surgery, a "surgeon" and "assistant" are needed. The assistant holds the bird, wrapped in a hand towel,from behind being sure to keep the wings secure and unflapping.

(1. Approximately 1/3 of the way down the crop, located on the right the breast; push back the feathers and have the assistant hold the feathers away from the site. Place a few drops of betadine solution on a gauze pad and clean the dermis of the crop at the site of the incision.

(2. Wipe the area with an alcohol pad. Allow to dry.

(3. Holding the skin slightly spread, cut through the outer dermis with the cutting tool. The opening needs to be only 3/4" - 1" in length. (The incision that we made was more horizontal than vertical.) The skin is fairly tough, so you may have to apply several strokes. The tool will pass through the outer dermis and you might encounter adipose (fat) and then flesh before entering the crop.

(4. Once the crop has been opened, material may start to be seen through the opening. Place the bird over the sink and massage the crop so that the contents move towards the opening. The surgeon can grab the contents and dispose in the sink. Once the material is removed, rise the site thoroughly with warm water. Additional material may come to the surface, massage the crop to feel if there are any additional contents. (Tweezers may be needed to remove blades of grass or in our case a cigarette filter.)

-Be careful not to tear the skin around the site with the massaging.

(5. Rinse the site again. Pat dry with a gauze pad. Take a minimum of a dime size dose of antibiotic ointment and "pack" the site - lightly smearing the cream or ointment into the site.

(6. Thread your needle, cutting a 12" section of doubled thread. Knot the end, leaving a 1/2" tail. Place 3-4 stitches through the dermis, catching the lining of the crop. End the stitches with a knot on the opposite end from which you started.

(7. Allow the "patient" to recuperate isolated from the flock. Use newspaper for bedding, offer water and withhold grain. Offer plain yogurt 6-8 hours after. Yogurt and mash/grain can be offered on day 2. Water at all times.

(8. Keep an eye on the incision, being sure that there is no tearing or redness. The stitches can be removed 7 days after surgery. Apply antibiotic ointment to the site.

We put our girl back with the flock on day 4, watching her closely.

I hope that this helps for future reference.


and the surgery you probably won't need but will include
keep us posted how your helping her


email me with any questions

 

[Zgoatlady]

So I checked on him this morning and his crop was way down like last night but the thing is it was like banty egg size or so and felt firm. Could the fart be eating the dirt he's living on. I didnt put food in with him last night oh he did have the mash but I dont think he ate it.
So what I left him with was raw egg yolks , I hope he will eat it.
Do you think I should put him in a dog kennel tonight or even today. I do know when hes with his friends he seems very happy and looks for goodies on the ground and around.

 

[threehorses]

Well I'd probably cook the egg yolks. I never let mine eat raw because then they scavenge their own eggs - they get a taste for it, and then I'll never get my own eggs for breakfast!

So is the crop full now? or was it banty egged sized last night? Definitely good that it went down, and yes - he could be eating dirt or sand. But likely something has happened that just slowed his crop.

Did it smell bad today?

 

[Zgoatlady]

Hi,
I will cook the eggs from now on didn’t think they would do that .
No there hasn’t been a bad smell at all.
I havent looked at him since Ive been home will go out in a little bit and check on him at milking timed. Its going to be crazy here my son hurt his ankle and cant walk so Im going to have to do most of the chores with my husband.
I have the best husband in the world.

 

[logansmommy7]

One evening not too long ago I thought and freaked out a little, that one of my hens had a crop problem because you could see what looked like a baseball on the front of her. I just knew there was something wrong and she would be dead....but the next morning it wasn't there anymore and I figured out that her crop must have just been full! Night time it looks like this on her and on the others I have noticed. They have full bellies!!

 

[Zgoatlady]

He's gone, last night I didnt want him to be alone all night long again so I had in the the bathroom in a box next to my chicks. I knew he wasnt doing going good last night and really just didnt want him to die alone.
Went to bed and my husband checked on him in the am and he was gone

I really want to thank all of you for your help, at times like this I really wonder why I have animals becasue it hurts so when you lose them.