Impacted Crop / Crop Bound
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Impacted Crop / Crop Bound
by Admin Sun Dec 22, 2013 11:19 pm
It usually occures when the gizzard (chest) seems to be unaturally large. If left untreated, the bird will end up starving, shriveling up, green droppings, and then dying. I've had this case happen to one of my best hens when I first started.
If you feel the crop and it's hard and rough, it has been impacted. This is due to feed being trapped in the crop and the chicken cann't swallow down the gizzard. Hay, and certain types of grass seem to be a common type of plant that seems to get trapped.
Who knows what factors cause impacted to occur. Probably birds with different hormones and acids in the system. 3 brothers who share the same meal and lifestyle, and why does only 1 get an impacted crop?
Sometimes, the crop is mushy and liquidy. You can sometimes squeeze it all out. Some have opted to giving the birds a teaspoon of oil so that the food inside the crop gets mushy and moist, and then it's forced back out the mouth.
People often suspect something is wrong with a chick or chicken if their crop is full. In the case of chicks or juvenile birds this is usually normal as they will eat quite a bit during this fast growth period. It often happens with full grown chickens as well and is usually normal as long as they all have the same sized bulge. You shouldn't worry unless one chicken has a much larger crop than the rest, or the chicken is acting "funny" indicating distress.
If the crop is "hard" to the touch, the crop could be impacted. This happens when feed is "stuck" in the crop and the chicken can't "swallow" or pass the feed on down to the proventriculous and gizzard.
How it happens:
The crop may occasionally become impacted when feed is withheld prior to worming, causing chickens to eat too much afterwards. Crops may also get packed when birds are free ranged where little is available to eat but tough, fibrous vegetation. Even if the bird continues to eat nutrition cannot get through. The swollen crop may cut off the windpipe, suffocating the bird. Crop impaction is not likely to occur in properly fed birds.
Symptoms:
In mature birds: distended, sour-smelling crop filled with feed and roughage. The crop feels hard when pressed between fingers. Emaciation.
Prevention:
Provide proper rations and plenty of clean, fresh water. If feed is withheld prior to worming, offer a moistened ration 1 hour after worming.
Treatment:
Gail Damerow's "Chicken Health Handbook" lists the treatment as follows:
Disinfect skin, slit through skin with very sharp blade, pull skin aside and slit through crop, clean out crop, isolate bird and keep wound clean until it heals.
Here are some more things that people did that seemed to solve their problems...
Be warned, that each bird varies from eachother, and these things are NOT reccomended. It needs a veterarnian if you wish to seek professional help.
1. Mix a tea spoon of Epsom salts in a half cup of warm water. Use a syringe and give him a few syringes full. Massage his crop gently. Take his feed away. He should have a few good dumps. If he's still stopped up the next day do it again. He should be clear after that.Feed him a slice of bread soaked in milk if he's empty. Buy it in any pharmacy or drug store. Too much table salt is TOXIC to chickens do not give table salt. You need to act fast as he can die from crop bound. Take his feed away and use the method above.
2. you can cut a half inch cut in craw and clean out try to wash out with saline water and stitch up feed buttermilk or canned milk for a week with bread pieces in it and give a shot of antibiotic and the first few feedings of grain put milk or butter milk on it should be fine in a couple weeks to feed grains again
3. all you need to do is get warm water fill his craw up and masage it in the craw and turn him upside down and shake it head and the feed will come out take you time and let him or her get over it once the craw is empty feed mike and bread for 2 days and back to his regular feet you call this craw bound
4. A good dose of mineral oil works good if caught soon. There are many reasons a fowl gets crop bound but grass isint one of them. Most times they will get it when coming down with the greens. Like anything it must be treated early to get stisfactory results. If it is hard you will need to get some water in there to lossen it abit first then try mineral oil.
5. if the impaction moves into the digestive system, you will lose the bird anyway because it w/not pass .. i've had this happen after my birds got into some fresh horse hay, lost quite a few birds and when we opened the birds, they were all impacted inside w/grass and hay. Bad food w/also cause this as it ferments inside the crop and hardens up. I hope the article below helps you understand how to do this for your bird.
Impacted Crop
By Alan Stanford, Ph.D.
Impacted crops are not caused by your birds needing more grit. Grit is indeed necessary for birds that eat other than commercial feed; they need grit when they eat scratch grains, greens, and when they free range. Birds use grit in their gizzards to grind food; but the gizzard is far "downstream" from the crop. The crop is a kind of foyer into which all the food packs before moving into the digestive system.
Things that cause impacted crops are anything a bird eats that is too big to move into the digestive system. Some of these too big things are whole grain (especially for small birds), grapes, and greens. When free ranging birds eat greens they rip off small pieces and these pieces pass freely out of the crop. One way I caused impacted crops in our flock was letting the flock out on once long, freshly mown grass. They have no problem with long unmown grass because they can rip off little pieces. Long strands of fresh cut grass pile up in the gizzard and can't get out.
You need to flush and empty an impacted crop. You can use an eyedropper, a syringe without a needle, or a child’s ear syringe. Be sure to put the dropper or syringe all the way back in the bird’s mouth. There is a hole at the base of the tongue that leads to the bird’s lungs. You must be way past that or you will damage your bird.
First Treatment
You can start by putting an eyedropper full of vegetable oil into the crop and then massaging the crop. This will soften the impaction. Put the dropper all the way back in the bird's mouth and slowly push out the oil. Any vegetable oil is good: olive oil, corn oil, or canola oil.
Mix
•1/2-cup baking soda
•1 pint of warm water
Fill the syringe and insert it as far as you can into the mouth of the chicken. Have someone hold the bird upright in front of you. Slowly and very gently fill the crop, do not over fill and get liquid into that hole at the base of the tongue. Gently press up under the chicken’s breast and slide your hand up to the crop. This makes the bird open its mouth and the impacted mess will come out the bird's mouth. Push the contents up and out of the crop and out of the mouth. You can face the bird toward the ground to help empty the crop. Repeat this gentle stroking pressure until nothing comes up.
If there the crop is not empty, flush it again until it is empty.
Once the crop is empty, give another dropper of oil.
Coop the bird away from other birds so it can rest. Provide about a cup of water with 1 teaspoon terramycin dissolved in it. Give no feed.
Second Day
If the bird is droopy on the next day, put molasses in the bird’s water for about four hours (1/4 cup per gallon of water). Remove the molasses water after four hours and give the bird fresh terramycin water. The molasses water will flush soured food from the bird’s digestive system.
Follow Up Treatment
If the crop impacts again, repeat the flush.
Continue the terramycin for 7 days to avoid secondary infection.
After 24 hours, give only soft food for a week or so. This lets the inflamed and irritated crop recover and prevents another impaction.
The soft diet can include crumbles and chopped hard-boiled or microwaved eggs. You can feed bread if it is soaked in milk or buttermilk. Buttermilk is especially good because active culture buttermilk has good bacteria in it that help the bird’s digestion.
Be sure to also give the bird some beneficial bacteria. They keep digestion going correctly and fight disease by crowding out disease bacteria. You can just mix 1-2 teaspoons per bird of ACTIVE culture yogurt with a small amount of food and give this as the only food until they eat it. You can also buy lactobacillus at health food stores, pharmacies
Give no grains, no large pellets, and no grass or greens because these can cause another impaction. Feed only things that almost fall apart when wet.
feed this for the week
•1 slice wheat bread
•1/2-cup buttermilk
•3 tablespoons active culture yogurt with no artificial sweetener
•Babyfood (or unsweetened) apple sauce
Adding oil to the food will help avoid another impaction. Cod liver or wheat germ oil are good because they provide vitamins A, D, and E. Only add about 2% of the feed’s weight.
Preventative and Followup Treatment
"If you have a bird that continually comes up with an impacted crop, once you've emptied the crop and start making your soft feed for it, add some baby food type applesauce. (Unsweetened regular applesauce should be as good.) The applesauce helps get the crop emptied a little quicker and is also acidic which helps with the bacteria problem."
"This works for sour crop, too. we always add some baby food applesauce to prevent sour crop. Works great! I've never had a case of sour crop. I specify baby food applesauce because it doesn't have any added sugar which just aggravates the problems."
If you feel the crop and it's hard and rough, it has been impacted. This is due to feed being trapped in the crop and the chicken cann't swallow down the gizzard. Hay, and certain types of grass seem to be a common type of plant that seems to get trapped.
Who knows what factors cause impacted to occur. Probably birds with different hormones and acids in the system. 3 brothers who share the same meal and lifestyle, and why does only 1 get an impacted crop?
Sometimes, the crop is mushy and liquidy. You can sometimes squeeze it all out. Some have opted to giving the birds a teaspoon of oil so that the food inside the crop gets mushy and moist, and then it's forced back out the mouth.
People often suspect something is wrong with a chick or chicken if their crop is full. In the case of chicks or juvenile birds this is usually normal as they will eat quite a bit during this fast growth period. It often happens with full grown chickens as well and is usually normal as long as they all have the same sized bulge. You shouldn't worry unless one chicken has a much larger crop than the rest, or the chicken is acting "funny" indicating distress.
If the crop is "hard" to the touch, the crop could be impacted. This happens when feed is "stuck" in the crop and the chicken can't "swallow" or pass the feed on down to the proventriculous and gizzard.
How it happens:
The crop may occasionally become impacted when feed is withheld prior to worming, causing chickens to eat too much afterwards. Crops may also get packed when birds are free ranged where little is available to eat but tough, fibrous vegetation. Even if the bird continues to eat nutrition cannot get through. The swollen crop may cut off the windpipe, suffocating the bird. Crop impaction is not likely to occur in properly fed birds.
Symptoms:
In mature birds: distended, sour-smelling crop filled with feed and roughage. The crop feels hard when pressed between fingers. Emaciation.
Prevention:
Provide proper rations and plenty of clean, fresh water. If feed is withheld prior to worming, offer a moistened ration 1 hour after worming.
Treatment:
Gail Damerow's "Chicken Health Handbook" lists the treatment as follows:
Disinfect skin, slit through skin with very sharp blade, pull skin aside and slit through crop, clean out crop, isolate bird and keep wound clean until it heals.
Here are some more things that people did that seemed to solve their problems...
Be warned, that each bird varies from eachother, and these things are NOT reccomended. It needs a veterarnian if you wish to seek professional help.
1. Mix a tea spoon of Epsom salts in a half cup of warm water. Use a syringe and give him a few syringes full. Massage his crop gently. Take his feed away. He should have a few good dumps. If he's still stopped up the next day do it again. He should be clear after that.Feed him a slice of bread soaked in milk if he's empty. Buy it in any pharmacy or drug store. Too much table salt is TOXIC to chickens do not give table salt. You need to act fast as he can die from crop bound. Take his feed away and use the method above.
2. you can cut a half inch cut in craw and clean out try to wash out with saline water and stitch up feed buttermilk or canned milk for a week with bread pieces in it and give a shot of antibiotic and the first few feedings of grain put milk or butter milk on it should be fine in a couple weeks to feed grains again
3. all you need to do is get warm water fill his craw up and masage it in the craw and turn him upside down and shake it head and the feed will come out take you time and let him or her get over it once the craw is empty feed mike and bread for 2 days and back to his regular feet you call this craw bound
4. A good dose of mineral oil works good if caught soon. There are many reasons a fowl gets crop bound but grass isint one of them. Most times they will get it when coming down with the greens. Like anything it must be treated early to get stisfactory results. If it is hard you will need to get some water in there to lossen it abit first then try mineral oil.
5. if the impaction moves into the digestive system, you will lose the bird anyway because it w/not pass .. i've had this happen after my birds got into some fresh horse hay, lost quite a few birds and when we opened the birds, they were all impacted inside w/grass and hay. Bad food w/also cause this as it ferments inside the crop and hardens up. I hope the article below helps you understand how to do this for your bird.
Impacted Crop
By Alan Stanford, Ph.D.
Impacted crops are not caused by your birds needing more grit. Grit is indeed necessary for birds that eat other than commercial feed; they need grit when they eat scratch grains, greens, and when they free range. Birds use grit in their gizzards to grind food; but the gizzard is far "downstream" from the crop. The crop is a kind of foyer into which all the food packs before moving into the digestive system.
Things that cause impacted crops are anything a bird eats that is too big to move into the digestive system. Some of these too big things are whole grain (especially for small birds), grapes, and greens. When free ranging birds eat greens they rip off small pieces and these pieces pass freely out of the crop. One way I caused impacted crops in our flock was letting the flock out on once long, freshly mown grass. They have no problem with long unmown grass because they can rip off little pieces. Long strands of fresh cut grass pile up in the gizzard and can't get out.
You need to flush and empty an impacted crop. You can use an eyedropper, a syringe without a needle, or a child’s ear syringe. Be sure to put the dropper or syringe all the way back in the bird’s mouth. There is a hole at the base of the tongue that leads to the bird’s lungs. You must be way past that or you will damage your bird.
First Treatment
You can start by putting an eyedropper full of vegetable oil into the crop and then massaging the crop. This will soften the impaction. Put the dropper all the way back in the bird's mouth and slowly push out the oil. Any vegetable oil is good: olive oil, corn oil, or canola oil.
Mix
•1/2-cup baking soda
•1 pint of warm water
Fill the syringe and insert it as far as you can into the mouth of the chicken. Have someone hold the bird upright in front of you. Slowly and very gently fill the crop, do not over fill and get liquid into that hole at the base of the tongue. Gently press up under the chicken’s breast and slide your hand up to the crop. This makes the bird open its mouth and the impacted mess will come out the bird's mouth. Push the contents up and out of the crop and out of the mouth. You can face the bird toward the ground to help empty the crop. Repeat this gentle stroking pressure until nothing comes up.
If there the crop is not empty, flush it again until it is empty.
Once the crop is empty, give another dropper of oil.
Coop the bird away from other birds so it can rest. Provide about a cup of water with 1 teaspoon terramycin dissolved in it. Give no feed.
Second Day
If the bird is droopy on the next day, put molasses in the bird’s water for about four hours (1/4 cup per gallon of water). Remove the molasses water after four hours and give the bird fresh terramycin water. The molasses water will flush soured food from the bird’s digestive system.
Follow Up Treatment
If the crop impacts again, repeat the flush.
Continue the terramycin for 7 days to avoid secondary infection.
After 24 hours, give only soft food for a week or so. This lets the inflamed and irritated crop recover and prevents another impaction.
The soft diet can include crumbles and chopped hard-boiled or microwaved eggs. You can feed bread if it is soaked in milk or buttermilk. Buttermilk is especially good because active culture buttermilk has good bacteria in it that help the bird’s digestion.
Be sure to also give the bird some beneficial bacteria. They keep digestion going correctly and fight disease by crowding out disease bacteria. You can just mix 1-2 teaspoons per bird of ACTIVE culture yogurt with a small amount of food and give this as the only food until they eat it. You can also buy lactobacillus at health food stores, pharmacies
Give no grains, no large pellets, and no grass or greens because these can cause another impaction. Feed only things that almost fall apart when wet.
feed this for the week
•1 slice wheat bread
•1/2-cup buttermilk
•3 tablespoons active culture yogurt with no artificial sweetener
•Babyfood (or unsweetened) apple sauce
Adding oil to the food will help avoid another impaction. Cod liver or wheat germ oil are good because they provide vitamins A, D, and E. Only add about 2% of the feed’s weight.
Preventative and Followup Treatment
"If you have a bird that continually comes up with an impacted crop, once you've emptied the crop and start making your soft feed for it, add some baby food type applesauce. (Unsweetened regular applesauce should be as good.) The applesauce helps get the crop emptied a little quicker and is also acidic which helps with the bacteria problem."
"This works for sour crop, too. we always add some baby food applesauce to prevent sour crop. Works great! I've never had a case of sour crop. I specify baby food applesauce because it doesn't have any added sugar which just aggravates the problems."
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