# Impacted crop help needed



## Wyandotter (Dec 13, 2015)

One of my 5 year old Buff Orps has had a impacted/slowish crop for about a week now. I've been massaging it everyday and it seems to be a little smaller in the morning but not fully. She does eat a little and she drinks. She seems to be loosing weight. I have given her tomatoes to help her crop and it does seem to help with the massaging. 

How can I make her crop empty fully?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Other than what you're doing there isn't much more short of surgery that can be done. You can try offering a small amount of grit. Just not sure how much that will help now.

Do you know what she might have eaten that caused this blockage?


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

You're on the right track with tomatoes, now give her tomato juice using a syringe without a needle. Hopefully the tomato juice will get things moving again whether it's impacted crop or impacted gizzard.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

I think lots of water , and I used bread soaked in oil . But the best is to give her liquids to soften the lump up and message it 3-4 times a day in sortof a down ward motion. It felt to me like finger pressing clay. When it starts to break up, you'll see it in her poop.


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## Wyandotter (Dec 13, 2015)

Thanks everyone! I didn't mention it before but her abdomen feels larger and fuller than usual but it has been for a while now? Is that impacted gizzard?


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

I hope it's not water belly or egg yolk peritonitis (EYP.)


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

How does her belly compare to another of your hen's? Is there a substantial difference? One of mine had EYP and her abd. was hard and big. Another of my hens had water belly and you could feel that her belly was filled with fluid.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Another question, did this bird have issues a month or so ago?


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## Wyandotter (Dec 13, 2015)

Her belly has been like that for about a month or two. She's had about 4 impacted crops from eating so much grass.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

The solution to the impacted crop is to remove the grass. She's evidently gorging herself on it and it's wadding up into a gooey mass that can't be processed.


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## Wyandotter (Dec 13, 2015)

How do I remove the grass? I don't think I could do the surgery or the through up thing to her...


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

No, I don't mean that. I mean keep her off the grass, don't feed her any at all. If you've been tossing cut grass to them that is one of the biggest causes for impacted crop so don't do that any more.


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## Wyandotter (Dec 13, 2015)

Oh okay. I've been letting her free range on tall grass.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

At least she's doing it to herself. So many think it's a great idea to put handfuls of grass in their chicken pens and end up with problems. 

Some are piggies and gorge on stuff more than they should. It sounds very much like that's what she's doing.


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## casportpony (Aug 22, 2015)

Can you post some picutures of her poop?


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## Wyandotter (Dec 13, 2015)

I will try to get one. Can I give her tomato paste to help her crop like tomato juice?


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

What about canned diced tomatoes?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

One of the things that concerns me about all of these tomato products is the salt content. They are generally very high in salt and could end up causing other problems.


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## casportpony (Aug 22, 2015)

I am not suggesting that you or anyone else do the surgery, but if someone decides to, this link has info on how it's done.
http://avianmedicine.net/content/uploads/2013/03/41.pdf

.


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## Wyandotter (Dec 13, 2015)

The tomato juice I gave her is low sodium. What problems could too much salt cause?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Just like with us the biggest one is making her very thirsty and causing her to over drink which can knock off her electrolytes. This explains that excess salt is toxic to chickens. Something I didn't know is that they can tolerate a higher salt content in their feed than they can in a solution.

https://archive.org/stream/toxicityofsaltfo00mitc/toxicityofsaltfo00mitc_djvu.txt


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## Wyandotter (Dec 13, 2015)

Oh okay. Thanks for the info. 
Nothing I do seems to help her crop. I've given her tomato juice, crop massages and probiotics (yogurt). What else should I try?


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## casportpony (Aug 22, 2015)

Wyandotter said:


> Oh okay. Thanks for the info.
> Nothing I do seems to help her crop. I've given her tomato juice, crop massages and probiotics (yogurt). What else should I try?


Has she been de-wormed with Safeguard or Valbazen? What does her poop look like?

.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

My first one too a week before I saw her stool chunks of stuff poop out.


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