Crop problems can be really frustrating. This article is meant to complement the two articles below:
- Crop Treatment by Azygous
- Crop Treatment by TwoCrows
However, if you don't have time to read these two articles, you can still try the methods that I am about to introduce. My article is also meant to be standing alone.
1. Important information
What is it for: Slow or impacted crop
What is the cure: Slippery Elm and/or Metoclopramide
Dosage information on Slippery Elm: 26.6mg - 53.2mg by mouth once every 12 hours. Use as needed. More dosage information right below 2nd picture.
Dosage information on Metoclopramide (needs prescription): "Give 1.4ml by mouth once every 8 to 12 hours". We were given metoclopramide HCL 5MG/5ML and the 1.4ml dosage was calculated on Light's 2.5kg weight.
Suggested use: If you have no access to vet, then only use slippery elm. It is probably still good to massage their crop 5-10 minutes after the medicine.
Slippery Elm is a natural remedy and does not need prescription. We first encountered this at our avian vet when they prescribed it to our chicken. The dosage information is extracted from the picture below. It was in liquid already (and yes very slimy) and administrated through syringe.
Later we found out that this can be bought online or at local health foods store, such as the following. They are in the form of powder in capsules.
As the bottle says, slippery elm is traditionally used to smooth the GI tract.
Each capsule is 400mg. With some conversion,
each capsule ≈ 10 doses worth of powder ≈ 5 days of usage.
After getting the powder, I mix it with very little water and use a syringe to give it to our sweeties. A small accurate scale can be helpful, however, my impression is that it does not need to be that exact.
2. Are they effective?
The short answer is yes in our experience.
Round 1: Our chicken Light had a very persistent crop problem started around June 25th(ish), 2023. We read everything on BYC. We followed diligently the guidance by twocrows and azygous. I even had very specific help from @TwoCrows . We became the crop experts after a month of dealing with it. Finally we were able to have an appointment with a vet two hours away on July 25th. They did some initial procedure (not a crop surgery) that cleared half of the crop, and they gave us the two medicines I have described. So yes, I understand how frustrating crop problems can be. We are so thankful that Light's crop cleared within a few days. (Empty crop on July 30th with more details here.)
Round 2: Light got an implant on June 25th, 2024. She went through a small molt as expected. She then had a crop issue after/in the molt, around July 9th. We started to give her metoclopramide on July 10th. It wasn't quite working so we added slippery elm starting July 12th. Her crop was already smaller in the afternoon of July 12th!
(However, I do want to add that we also dewormed the whole flock, including Light, on July 11th as roundworm were found in poop. It could be that it was the dewormer.)
Round 3: Light started to have a slow crop around February 24th. It wasn't too bad but it seemed to be slowly getting a tiny bit bigger every day, so on February 28th we started to give her slippery elm (only once a day) and metoclopramide (as described) and it worked once again! Her crop got smaller the next morning, and on the 2nd morning (3/2) it was empty!
From another BYC member's experience.
Light!
I wish all BYCers luck in dealing with crop issues.
- Crop Treatment by Azygous
- Crop Treatment by TwoCrows
However, if you don't have time to read these two articles, you can still try the methods that I am about to introduce. My article is also meant to be standing alone.
1. Important information
What is it for: Slow or impacted crop
What is the cure: Slippery Elm and/or Metoclopramide
Dosage information on Slippery Elm: 26.6mg - 53.2mg by mouth once every 12 hours. Use as needed. More dosage information right below 2nd picture.
Dosage information on Metoclopramide (needs prescription): "Give 1.4ml by mouth once every 8 to 12 hours". We were given metoclopramide HCL 5MG/5ML and the 1.4ml dosage was calculated on Light's 2.5kg weight.
Suggested use: If you have no access to vet, then only use slippery elm. It is probably still good to massage their crop 5-10 minutes after the medicine.
Slippery Elm is a natural remedy and does not need prescription. We first encountered this at our avian vet when they prescribed it to our chicken. The dosage information is extracted from the picture below. It was in liquid already (and yes very slimy) and administrated through syringe.
Later we found out that this can be bought online or at local health foods store, such as the following. They are in the form of powder in capsules.
As the bottle says, slippery elm is traditionally used to smooth the GI tract.
Each capsule is 400mg. With some conversion,
each capsule ≈ 10 doses worth of powder ≈ 5 days of usage.
After getting the powder, I mix it with very little water and use a syringe to give it to our sweeties. A small accurate scale can be helpful, however, my impression is that it does not need to be that exact.
2. Are they effective?
The short answer is yes in our experience.
Round 1: Our chicken Light had a very persistent crop problem started around June 25th(ish), 2023. We read everything on BYC. We followed diligently the guidance by twocrows and azygous. I even had very specific help from @TwoCrows . We became the crop experts after a month of dealing with it. Finally we were able to have an appointment with a vet two hours away on July 25th. They did some initial procedure (not a crop surgery) that cleared half of the crop, and they gave us the two medicines I have described. So yes, I understand how frustrating crop problems can be. We are so thankful that Light's crop cleared within a few days. (Empty crop on July 30th with more details here.)
Round 2: Light got an implant on June 25th, 2024. She went through a small molt as expected. She then had a crop issue after/in the molt, around July 9th. We started to give her metoclopramide on July 10th. It wasn't quite working so we added slippery elm starting July 12th. Her crop was already smaller in the afternoon of July 12th!
(However, I do want to add that we also dewormed the whole flock, including Light, on July 11th as roundworm were found in poop. It could be that it was the dewormer.)
Round 3: Light started to have a slow crop around February 24th. It wasn't too bad but it seemed to be slowly getting a tiny bit bigger every day, so on February 28th we started to give her slippery elm (only once a day) and metoclopramide (as described) and it worked once again! Her crop got smaller the next morning, and on the 2nd morning (3/2) it was empty!
From another BYC member's experience.
Light!
I wish all BYCers luck in dealing with crop issues.
