Huge Impacted crop? Love her!!!

[LLvida]

Hello friends. We’ve never had an impacted crop before. This is a 3yo hen who we love, and she started looking off a few days ago.

When I picked her up yesterday morning she was very light and her crop was super full. I read up on impacted crop and assumed that was it.

I’ve given two rounds of oil and massaged her many times. The food ball feels like grain and maybe some small rocks and it does move. I’ve held her upside down while massaging forward. I felt gastric movement/sounds last night during the massage, and she was drinking and swallowing.

She lived through the night but not much change. The crop still feels full. She still is happy to drink but she looks terrible- doesn’t want to walk much and fluffed up.

Usually I use nutridrench in a sick chicken but if her crop is impacted I’m guessing the supplement cant be ingested. I feel like she is starving before my eyes and I can’t fix it. Please help!!!

 

[Eggcessive]

Do you put out granite poultry grit for their gizzards to grind food? Have you wormed her recently? I would not make her vomit again, because it could cause her to choke to death. Offer water and the NutriDrench would be good daily for a couple of days. Is she pooping, and what does that look like? This morning was the crop full and firm or squishy? If it is firm, massage it several times a day. I would cut up some chilled coconut oil into small pieces for her to peck. Offer more water and NutriDrench. If her crop empties a bit, then tomorrow, offer some very very watery crumbles. Many times there can be other problems such as reproductive problems or worms that can cause the crop to slow. This is a good article on treating crop problems:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[LLvida]

Thank you so much for writing back! We do offer grit however we moved the coop recently and it’s possible she had less access. It was full this morning, but more squishy and I can move the contents around easily, feels the same as it did last night.

She did not ever vomit despite upside down and lots of massaging. Since she was feeling ill, I decided I would not continue the upside down therapy as the crop seemed squishy enough.

I am about to offer coconut oil and nutridrench- thank you!!

 

[LLvida]

She is making a small amount of poop and it seems very liquidy.

 

[LLvida]

Here is a pic of her poop. Not much change today. Lots of massage. Some smell so it feels more like sour crop. I made a crop bra from a disposable mask which seems to be increasing digestive noises which makes me hopeful.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

If you are noticing a smell, then treat for Sour Crop according to the article previously linked.

It can take days to weeks to resolve a crop issue depending on what is causing the crop symptom(s).

See that she is drinking well and eating her normal feed. Hopefully you can get this taken care of fairly quickly.