Crop impaction, again?

[Beckyy]

One of our youngest hybrids (7/8 months old bluebell hybrid) recently experienced crop impaction. Despite trying massage and warm olive oil at home I had to take her to the vets where they surgically emptied her crop. Afterwards on their instruction I gave her 2 ml liquid paraffin twice daily for 5 days.

A few weeks on and she's been great, no bother at all. However today I noticed her crop is looking a little large again, and she has been making the same gagging reflex movements (lifts her head and looks like she's trying to rearrange everything). Her crop feels quite soft, however she's eating and drinking well. I haven't seen her pass anything, but haven't been able to watch all day. Previously this stage lasted a couple of days before I felt there was no chance of things sorting themselves out and her crop got bigger than I was happy with.

Most of the stuff the vets removed was grass, and she's pecking away at the lawn like crazy still. I'm a bit concerned I may end up back at the vets with another £100+ bill which I would really rather not have!

I will give her more liquid paraffin before bed and a good massage and check in the morning.

Just wondering if anybody had any tips or have experienced this multiple times with 1 hen?

None of our other girls have ever suffered with it, they're fed organic layers pellets and free range with access to grit. Corn, meal worms and cabbage a couple of times a week.

 

[dinosaw]

Beckyy ,once the crop has been weakened which is inevitable after surgery then there will be further problems. In this case it sounds more like pendulous crop rather than impacted crop which manifests as a hard ball rather than a soft one. Obviously without seeing the bird that is just an impression. I would keep her off the grass given her situation and if you can isolate her for a day you can then check if she has been pooing, if she is passing solid poos then it is probably nothing to worry about, long term though you may find you have to restrict her diet to pellets. The BHWT has a little bit on pendulous crop versus impacted crop here

http://www.bhwt.org.uk/information/crop-diseases-in-chickens/

Hope she looks better tomorrow.

 

[Beckyy]

Thank you for the prompt replay dinosaw!

It does indeed seem like pendulous crop. I've just had another massage and it's definitely not hard like it was with the impaction, i could feel all the food and grit moving around whereas now it feels quite soft. It would make sense for the muscle tone to be damaged after an op so hopefully it will be a less serious case of that. I'll see how she's doing in the morning.

Maybe time to invest in a crop bra? 0

 

[rick]

Maybe time to invest in a crop bra? 0

Well I’ve seen chicken hi-vis jackets so that actually sounds like a pretty reasonable idea.

 

[Beckyy]

Her crop hasn't emptied over night, it still feels soft but is heavy.

I can't separate her from the flock this morning but after work would be able to put her in a pen in the house for a bit, not ideal but will give me a chance to check if she's passing etc.

 

[Beckyy]

So I have hen in the kitchen in a pen this morning, not ideal so hoping to only have her in for a few hours. She's eating pellets and drinking well, she's done one totally normal good sized poo. However her crop is still feeling quite full and soft. She's also still doing the gulping/extending her neck movements after eating a bit.

Part of me is wondering if she's passing the pellets but all the grass she's eating it getting stuck? The problem I have is there really is no way I can keep her off the grass, all our girls free range and we don't have a large enough area of anything without grass that I could pen her in.

Once's she's done a couple more poos I'll give her some more liquid paraffin, another massage and put her back outside to see how things go.

 

[dinosaw]

It could be that she is just emptying her crop very slowly Beckyy. In the short term provided the food is going in one end and coming out the other there isn't a problem. Where a problem might arise is if some of the material in the crop won't shift at all and starts to ferment in there then she could get a case of sour crop. Unfortunately with a weakened crop there isn't really a lot that you can do about her going forward other than leave her to her own devices and cross your fingers that the crop will manage well enough not to impact. From what you describe she sounds alright to me for the moment. My advice would be to keep an eye on her, keep up the massaging and if she suffers another impaction then you will need to consider whether it would be kinder to dispatch.