Crop full of chicken scratch, not emptying?

[Chikenshiken]

My 1 and a half year old bantam roo has had a crop full of what feels like chicken scratch for two days now. I don’t know if this is impacted crop but I know it definitely isn’t sour crop. I dosed him twice with 10ml vegetable oil and massaged his crop, it didn’t seem to go down any. It feels the size of a gold ball, not hard and I can move the grains around in the crop easily.

Is this caused by lack of grit, is this still impacted crop?

 

[Kiki]

Do you only feed him scratch?
Grit is needed if you are feeding whole grains.


Get some pelleted or crumbled feed and don't feed any scratch for a while (or ever again) and see if his crop gets better.

 

[ChicNmom]

Is anything at all coming out the back end?

They do need grit. If you free range him he should be able to find it outside but I still keep some in the run of my coop JIC.

You can give him a stool softener in addition to the oil and massage treatments. No scratch or solid food until the crop goes down.

 

[Chikenshiken]

Do you only feed him scratch?
Grit is needed if you are feeding whole grains.


Get some pelleted or crumbled feed and don't feed any scratch for a while (or ever again) and see if his crop gets better.

I give it to them as a treat sometimes which is why I’m surprised this is happening. They are all on pellets regularly but I’ll withhold the scratch. I’m just scared in the fact that it isn’t going down at all

He’s still pooping and eating and drinking fine but I can tell he isn’t feeling well as he isn’t crowing today and was a little sluggish today and yesterday

I’m still a little uniformed about grit I guess I was under the impression that they would get natural grit by free raining

 

[Chikenshiken]

Is anything at all coming out the back end?

They do need grit. If you free range him he should be able to find it outside but I still keep some in the run of my coop JIC.

You can give him a stool softener in addition to the oil and massage treatments. No scratch or solid food until the crop goes down.

Yeah he’s still passing food but his stool is a little watery which is concerning. I have read about stool softener, what brand do you use??

I’m also in a bit of a difficult situation right now as I’m not home and I have to relay all this info to my chicken babysitter which is stressing me out, I won’t be home for a week.

 

[Kiki]

Yeah he’s still passing food but his stool is a little watery which is concerning. I have read about stool softener, what brand do you use??

I’m also in a bit of a difficult situation right now as I’m not home and I have to relay all this info to my chicken babysitter which is stressing me out, I won’t be home for a week.

Don't give him anything but the pelleted feed, no oil or scratch.

 

[ChicNmom]

Yeah he’s still passing food but his stool is a little watery which is concerning. I have read about stool softener, what brand do you use??

I’m also in a bit of a difficult situation right now as I’m not home and I have to relay all this info to my chicken babysitter which is stressing me out, I won’t be home for a week.

OK, It's good that something is moving through.

There is some good information in this article with the recommended stool softener. Your chicken sitter will have to open his beak and shove the pill in. Don't let him spit it out.

Crop massage is still good. I use a little bit of coconut oil.

I would not give him scratch or pellets until some of this mass moves through him. He already isn't getting any nutrition or calories from whatever is sitting in his crop. More hard food will just clog him up further.

Electrolytes in the water might be a good idea. If more moves through him and the crop goes down then I would make a little feed mash with dry feed and water to give him.

 

[Eggcessive]

In your other thread recently, you had said that you lost a rooster possibly that had eaten too much oyster shell. Do you have water in separate locations around the chicken yard and run? Are they taking enough? In hot weather I place flat pans of water in the shade so everyone gets plenty of water, and can even stand in the water to cool off. To get more fluids in them, I offer some pellets or crumbles with water added.

 

[Chikenshiken]

In your other thread recently, you had said that you lost a rooster possibly that had eaten too much oyster shell. Do you have water in separate locations around the chicken yard and run? Are they taking enough? In hot weather I place flat pans of water in the shade so everyone gets plenty of water, and can even stand in the water to cool off. To get more fluids in them, I offer some pellets or crumbles with water added.

I have 4 big water bowls I sit around the yard so I know water isn’t the issue I’m still not sure that rooster did or did not eat oyster shells as I wasn’t comfortable doing a necropsy but his crop felt extremely different to what’s happening now. His felt hard and like he may have eaten rocks while my current roo just feels like he ate too much scratch grain. I’ve also instructed my chicken babysitter to wet all the pellets from now on just incase

 

[ChicNmom]

@Chikenshiken

The article didn't attach.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ntion-and-treatments-of-crop-disorders.67194/


Is there something in the yard/coop/run they could be getting into?

Aside from the usual crop impactions I had a hen that decided to eat straw. It took almost a month to get that to work through her. I used digestive enzymes to help break it up.

I also had a hen with an impacted gizzard. She had eaten an old .22 shell casing.