Case Study: Impacted Crop Surgery 2

Understanding your chickens’ digestive system will help you navigate any problems that might affect it. The crop is located on the right side of the upper chest of the chicken. If it’s firm, it’s full.  A healthy full crop should be about the size of a plum, full at bedtime and empty in the morning. A full crop at night is a good thing; if it’s still full in the morning that’s cause for concern. 

Various crop issues can affect digestion, which can be serious, or even life threatening.

Sour crop: Occurs when the crop empties slowly, allowing food to sit, ferment and develop a yeast infection (candida albicans). The crop feels large and squishy, not firm. You may hear gases or gurgling if you touch it. I don’t have a great sense of smell, but if you do, your bird’s breath might smell bad.  

Impacted Crop: An impacted crop will be firm and large like a tennis ball, may be tender to touch and does not empty overnight. The result of a severe impaction is certain death.

In dealing with any major chicken health issues, particularly surgery, I’d recommend taking your bird to the veterinarian. The following is Wendy’s story bout her hen’s trip to both a skilled and inexpensive vet to resolve her impacted crop.

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Sammy, Easter Egger, 1 year old

Day 1: I had observed that Sammy’s crop looked very enlarged in the morning. I mean, huge! I took a photo and sent it to a friend who has experience with chickens. She said that Sammy had a “pendulous crop” and that could point to several issues. She advised me to get a chicken bra, syringe olive oil into her beak daily and massage her crop. When palpating her crop, I could feel a ball of grain and grit that hadn’t been emptied out. I kept up this treatment daily.

Day 8: The chicken bra arrived from Amazon. It proved to be a disaster as Sammy would have none of it! She would pull it off, get her head caught in it and fight it until I figured that it was a safety issue. I kept administering oil and massaging.

Three weeks later

Day 1: Things were not improving at all. I decided to switch to chick starter food as I thought it would be easier for her to digest.

Day 2: When I picked Sammy up to massage her crop, she threw up a large amount of yellowish liquid. It didn’t seem to have an odour, but she did it each time I held her. Her crop still wasn’t emptying. I brought her into the house to stay in our ‘hospital cage’.

Day 3: Sammy was very weak this morning. She was throwing up continuously and now her breath was starting to develop an odour, so I thought she may have sour crop. I withheld food for three days, administered Monistat orally for seven days and continued to provide oil and massage. Her crop was now getting very squishy. I started researching symptoms of water belly.

One week later:

Day 1: Sammy was clearly very sick. She was lethargic, and when she was able to get up, she walked with a pronounced high-stepping gait, almost like marching. Her neck was spasming and her head was flipping back. Her crop had become even more huge and squishy, but with a rock-hard ball inside. What I had been doing clearly wasn’t helping.

Day 2: Sammy was hunched over and couldn’t move. Her eyes remained closed, and her comb was dry and pale. She had become emaciated and the mass in her crop was now solid. I couldn’t keep her suffering and felt that I needed to euthanize her. I don’t have the emotional ability to cull so I searched for a vet who could help.

I finally found that the Langley Animal Hospital would treat chickens and that the chicken vet was in! I was able to get an emergency appointment that afternoon and made the tearful, hour-long drive hoping that Sammy wouldn’t die on the way.

The vet agreed that it was a very impacted crop and that I had done all the right things. And that there was one more thing we could try – surgery! How much would THAT cost? $40! Let’s try it.

The vet took her into the back for about 30 minutes. I could hear her call the other staff (including the front desk) back to the treatment room. They were oohing and aahing and laughing! When Sammy was brought back out, she looked half the size. The vet said that it had been the largest crop impaction she had ever seen. She had removed 2½ pounds of impacted food and brought out the contents of the crop to display to me.

Final diagnosis: Sammy has an eating disorder. She eats and eats and eats and doesn’t seem to have a switch that turns off when her crop is full!

Post-surgery instructions: have her remain in the hospital cage at home until the two stitches are absorbed, feed her a liquid diet for three days, and to continue the oil and massage indefinitely.  Sammy spent several days in her cage, happily drinking vegetable soup and acting like she was on the Gold Floor of a Fairmont Hotel.

Four months later:

Sammy is relatively healthy now. Her flipping head and marching gait have disappeared and she is getting along well with the flock. She is still food obsessed but I can get her crop to empty with daily massage and weekly oil drops (the vet recommended mineral oil instead of olive oil).  She hasn’t laid any of her pretty blue eggs since she got sick, but spring is coming, and we are hopeful!

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Thanks to Wendy Borelli for sharing her story and photos, used with permission.