Other Names
- Crop binding
- Crop bound
- Swelled crop
Organism or Mechanism
impacted or plugged crop
Preventative Measures
• Give plenty of fresh water.
• Avoid long, stemmy grass.
• Since the gizzard if poorly developed in very young chicks, introduce grass slowly and allow the gizzard muscles to develop over a week or more.
• Remove old or fibrous grasses after mowing or allow it to rot before poultry ar
introduced.
Management Treatments
Physical Treatments
• Give olive oil.
• Pour oil or melted lard down the throat and massage the crop.
• Cut open crop, remove the contents, sprinkle crop walls with 1-tsp. Black pepper, and sew it up.
• Follow with diet of finely chopped hedge garlic, garlic, and rue.
• Anoint the cut with Calendula cerate or Arnica mixed with water.
• Treat with 3g of Epsom salts per 100 birds per day plus 10-15 ml of molasses per bird fed as a wet mash for 4 days.
• Administer approx. ½ a tumbler of warm water to birds with a syringe then upend the bird and gently massage the crop.
Nutritional Treatments
• Follow any surgical removal with diet of finely chopped hedge garlic, garlic, and rue.
Herbal Treatments
• Make of brew of ½ tsp. Powdered gentian root in a small cupful of water; add 1 T milk, 2-tsp. Olive oil and give twice.
Additional Information From Forums:
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Mon, Sep 29, 08 at 11:26
| Please,,if someone knows how to help,I'd greatly appreciate ..one of my hens has been a bit lethargic,eats and drinks,but sits on the coop floor at night(unusual).I examined her today and her crop is full but kinda soft,yet firm. like it's full of liquid?? I gave her some olive oil with warm water and a touch of apple cider vinegar to possibly help and messaged her. I don't know what else to do. Advise would be extremely helpful...no names mentioned .. (VELVET!!!) |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by velvet_sparrow z10 So. Calif. (My Page) on Mon, Sep 29, 08 at 20:23
| If her crop is full of water...does she seem excessively thirsty? Watch her and note how much water she drinks. Any unusual poops? Excessive thirst + green poops could mean kidney or liver failure. Feel her keel (breastbone)--has she lost any weight?You need to isolate her and determine if her crop is emptying. Put her in a small cage or somewhere indoors where she cannot possible get to anything to eat or drink. JUST FOR THE NIGHT, take away her food and water. When you do so, note the size of her crop. In the morning, check her again--her crop should be empty. If it ISN'T, then she isn't digesting properly. GIVE HER BACK HER FOOD & WATER REGARDLESS. If her crop is empty, well and good, she may just have a digestive upset (has she eaten or drunk anything unusual lately? Does she have access to long grass which can get would up in her crop?), and would benefit from a tablespoonful of plain yogurt with active cultures once or twice a day for about a week, and soft foods that are easy to digest. If her crop has NOT emptied overnight, than she has a bigger problem. It could be an impacted crop or a sour crop. Sour crop first: Is she barfing up any water? Pry open her beak and take a sniff--yeah, I know--is there a nasty smell? Nasty smell = sour crop, which is undigested food beginning to ferment or rot. An impaction could cause food to build up and go sour, or it could be caused by her digestion being off. Keep up with the ACV, olive oil and crop massage, but add in plain yogurt with active cultures, it'll help restore the 'good' bacteria to her gut. My friend Alan has great info on impacted crops and how to treat. This link will lead you to his 'Articles' page, use the list on the left to scroll down to 'Impacted Crop'. Make sure and read BOTH methods--old & new--for all of the information: http://browneggblueegg.com/Article.html He also has an article on 'Sour Crop' that is worth reading. He states that he no longer attempts to empty impacted crops as this has resulted in the death of several birds--so if you decide to do anything which involves helping your bird to regurgitate fluids/solids, do it carefully and with much forethought. The following is from another chicken forum I'm on, this is NOT my experience, I haven't had to do this yet! But here it is, just FYI: ***************************************** Here is more info on sour crop and how to treat: Impacted Crop By Alan Stanford, Ph.D. Brown Egg Blue Egg I Relied Upon Glenda L Heywood National Poultry News and the The Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow Copied with Alan's permission From: http://www.browneggblueegg.com/ImpactedCrop.html 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, Wal-Mart, and Lake's Unlimited 800-634-2473. Give no grains, no large pellets, no not soaked bread, and no grass or greens because these can cause another impaction. Feed only things that almost fall apart when wet. Glenda Heywood likes to 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 (as Barb recommends below). 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. 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. Barb Silcott's 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. In fact, when we're hand-feeding parrots, we always add some baby food applesauce to the formula to prevent sour crop. Works great! With all the parrots I've hand-fed over the years, 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." ******************************************************** Re: Sour Crop Subject: Re: Sour Crop I am new to this list, but I thought I would express my opinion. I had a 1 year old hen with a sour crop 2.5 weeks ago. We had thrown alot of old yeast rolls out in the lots and then let them free range that evening, the grass had just been mowed. Several days later I noticed she wasn't eating and had lost alot of weight. I did some quick research and this what I did. First we held her and then tipped her forward, massaged her crop and forced up a smelly white/yellow liquid. I had to do it 3-4 times to get it all up. Make sure you let her up after each time to let her get air, otherwise she will try to breath while puking and can suck the liquid into her lungs. If this happens she will not survive. After her crop is as empty as possible, use a laxative solution to get things moving. I used 1 teaspoon of Epsom Salt in 1 fl oz water(I have heard of people using vegetable oil: olive oil, corn oil, or canola oil). I put it down her throat with a long eye dropper, make sure you go past her breath hole. I did this twice using 1/3 of the solution each time. Immediately after she wanted to eat. I put her on very fine laying crumbles, later I added fine screened cracked corn. I also added a mild antibiotic to her water to keep her from getting a secondary infection. The next day there were 3 large piles of poop, full of rotten grass. She was isolated, very mad, for a week and grained over a pound of her weight back. She is back with the other hens now and is getting fat again. ********************************************************* OK, me again. Hope this helps! Velvet ~:> |
Coping with "Sour Crop"
By Judy H. McElveen
Breeding and Management Advisor
Breeding and Management Advisor
"Sour crop" is a familiar used by many people to describe the phenomenon of delayed crop emptying. Thinking of it as "sour crop", though, can lead you astray as this is not a primary condition. That is to say, there is no "sour crop" bacteria or "sour crop" yeast. The delayed crop emptying comes about because of other reasons, some of which may be: brooder temperatures cooler than the chick needs; formula fed too cool, ingestion of bedding materials, a primary bacterial or yeast (fungal) condition, etc.
The time to become alarmed is when the chick’s crop is full when it should be empty or almost empty, such as when another feeding is due. Also, when the crop is not absolutely empty of formula first thing in the morning (after the chick was fed no later than 12:00 midnight). When the crop appears not to have emptied any appreciable amount of formula, the chick should go into a warmer brooder immediately (up to 98 degrees F., or slightly less than the temperature where the chick starts to pant). At this point, stop using a bedding product (if you do so) and put the chick on paper towels so that you can check to see if any feces are eliminated. If so, this is a hopeful sign, indicating that the crop has not stopped completely. The second step is to call your avian veterinarian if one is available. The vet can do a gram stain to find out if yeast, bacteria, or some other cause causes the crop problem. They should also be able to empty and flush the crop and give medications to treat the primary cause of the problem, in addition to medications to stimulate the crop to empty itself. If no veterinarian is available to you, the next step is to empty and flush the crop yourself. Leaving the old crop contents in the chick’s crop, no matter the cause of the crop slowdown, will allow bacteria and yeast normally present in the environment to multiply in the crop. Even if the cause of the crop slowdown was as simple as formula fed at too cool a temperature, this buildup of bacteria and/or yeast will create another, much more serious, condition.
Some books recommend turning the chick upside down and "milking" the crop; that is, pressing on it until the contents are expelled. I did this a few times before I learned to empty the crop using a soft rubber catheter and my results weren’t good. Yes, the crop can be emptied this way. No, the chick doesn’t always live through the process. Often, they will aspirate the crop contents and die immediately or within a few hours to a day thereafter.
I always keep soft rubber catheters in several sizes on hand. I use them for feeding sick and/or weaning birds that do not want to eat and, also, for emptying crop contents when necessary. For cockatiels, you might need a #10, a #12, #14, or #16. The problem with the smaller sizes (#10, #12) is that the holes in the end often become clogged with crop contents, especially if a parent has fed too much millet (for instance) and too little water, or if you are trying to remove pine shavings or other bedding materials that don’t dissolve in the crop. The large end of the catheter you intend to use is slipped over the tip of a 60-cc catheter-tip syringe. The unattached end of the catheter is then passed into the chick’s crop and the plunger of the syringe is drawn up. Often, the crop contents will clog the catheter before you can draw up all the crop contents. In that case, empty the tube into a paper cup (so you can examine contents when all are extracted) and keep going back into the crop and removing more until the crop is empty, or nearly so. At this point, examine the crop contents. If you find pine shaving or lots of undigested millet, you will know what the problem is. If you find white clumps of stuff in with the formula, you probably have a yeast problem (candida). If the crop contents are slimy and/or smelly, the chick might have a bacterial problem developing.
Sometimes, with a very young chick, you simply can’t remove crop contents with any catheter that is small enough to go down the esophagus and into the small chick’s crop. In those cases, you have no choice but to "milk" the crop to empty it. The chick might die, but it will usually be fast. If the unmoving crop contents are left as is, the chick will die a slow death of dehydration and starvation. After emptying the crop, believe it or not (and you can go ahead and groan), you are going to put something back into the crop, then remove it. If you have some Nolvasan, mix some into water until the water is pale blue, heat to 104 degrees F., then insert from 5 to 15 cc’s of the Nolvasan water into the crop, leaving approximately two minutes. Emptying this time should be easier, as most of the big stuff that might clog the catheter has already been removed. If you continue to get some white stuff or some slimy stuff out of the crop, repeat this procedure until all that comes out is the Nolvasan water. At this point, put the chick back into the brooder to warm up. If you have some Nystatin, give the chick .5 cc before putting it into the brooder. Nystatin is the treatment drug of choice for yeast infections (Candida). If your veterinarian hasn’t entrusted you with a supply, ask for some to have on hand. Nystatin cannot do harm, since it is not absorbed by the body. It does its work of killing yeast cells through contact as it passes through the mouth, crop and the rest of the gastrointestinal tract and is then excreted. (Note: the crop must be empty for this medication to work.) After about five minutes, give a small amount of warm, boiled or distilled water (5 to 10 cc’s), or the same amount of warmed Pedialyte (or generic equivalent). If this passes through within two or three hours and the crop is again empty, you can feed a small amount of very thin formula next time, gradually increasing amounts and decreasing liquid until you are giving the normal 2 parts water to 1 part dry formula mixture. This process should take about a day. Remember that your chick will die of dehydration (loss of fluid and essential nutrients from the cells of the body) long before it dies of starvation, so the liquid is the most important thing to keep moving through the chick. Water is better than no liquid, but go get some Pedialyte, as it contains necessary electrolytes and minerals needed by the system. (It is a product formulated for the purpose of preventing dehydration in children who are vomiting or have diarrhea.)
If the liquid does not empty quickly, you will need to get the chick to a vet in order to save it, as the chick will dehydrate very quickly. The veterinarian can give IV (intravenous) fluids (usually Lactated Ringer’s Solution) when the chick is too far-gone for oral preparations to help or if the crop is not moving at all. Also, a veterinarian can give injections to stimulate the crop into moving its contents along. To go back to (almost) the beginning of this article, if you have only a small amount of food left in a chick’s crop overnight, you might try giving a little Pedialyte, 5 to 10 cc’s and then massaging the crop. If this is going to help, the chick should produce droppings within an hour. If it does so, even if the crop is not totally empty, there is still hope of heading off a serious problem. At this point, continue giving liquid until the crop appears to be emptying in the normal, followed by thin formula, etc. Never, ever, feed more food on top of undigested food.
If you ever pull chicks from the parents and find that their droppings stink, chances are they have a bacterial infection passed to them by the parents, often E. Coli or Clostridium. Giardia can also cause bad smelling droppings. Almost always, the bad smelling droppings indicate a need for treatment with an antibiotic. The ideal at this point is to have a Culture and Sensitivity Test done. (This is a test involving a sample taken from various sites, in this case crop contents and/or droppings, and placed on a growth medium. Bacteria present will grow into a colony or patch on the growth medium, and various methods are used to identify the specific bacteria and any yeast present. The "plate" is then sectioned and a different antibiotic is applied to different areas. The antibiotic that most inhibits the growth of, and/or kills the harmful bacteria is the one that will be most effective against the bacteria when given to your chick.) Without this test, you don’t know which bacteria are causing the problem, for sure, or which antibiotic will be helpful. Many veterinarians, mine included, will entrust clients they’ve known for a long time and who they trust, with a broad-spectrum antibiotic (such as Baytril)to use in emergency situations.
The problem with this, in addition to not knowing if the antibiotic will be effective, is that treatment with antibiotic will sometimes encourage the growth of yeast. For this reason, vets often give Nystatin at the same time they give an antibiotic to unweaned chicks. As agreed with my veterinarian, I will often treat candida infections myself without ever involving her. She knows that I will bring any chicks that don’t improve immediately in to see her. I will also usually treat the "stinky poop" problem with Baytril and Nystatin, unless I am dealing with an unusually valuable chick. I must say, my nose has become an important diagnostic tool and I have been successful with this regimen most of the time. The danger here, which I sometimes accept, is that treatment with any antibiotic will make it difficult to get an accurate culture and sensitivity test done if the antibiotic I’ve used doesn’t work. Do not think that you will go to see a veterinarian for the first time and they will trust you with prescription medications to be used at your own discretion. It took my veterinarian and me many years to build up this level of trust and comfort with one another. Nor was I comfortable, at first, doing the medicating without having the doctor order it, so we had lots of phone conversations where symptoms were described in detail and drug treatment agreed upon. Only after years and years of seeing the same two or three problems quite often, over and over again, did I become confident of my own ability to make some decisions. It’s fair to say that the vet had confidence in me before I did! Many times, even today, I will discover a chick in the nest that has such a serious problem, with the crop totally stopped, that it needs professional medical treatment immediately in order to have any chance at all to live. By the way, if you have pairs that consistently produce chicks with bad smelling droppings or who infect their chicks with Candida before the chicks leave the nestbox, the parents themselves need to be treated before being allowed to produce more babies, as following clutches will almost always have the same problem(s).
To those who think large parrots are harder to raise than cockatiels: I say, not so! I find that cockatiels have, by far, the most bacterial and yeast infections during handfeeding. Some breeders tell me they don’t have this problem at all and I believe them, but my focus has been on developing the "perfect" pied, and specifically whitefaced cinnamon pieds. Could the combination of recessive traits be causing my cockatiels to have weaker immune systems? Many people do believe that the recessive mutations are genetically weaker.
I will warn you that the surgery should not be your first course of action. Also, you massage the crop rather than trying to squeeze it out. The olive oil works to soften and lubricate the mass and massage will help break it up. Also, provide grit so that as it starts to break up, the chicken can take in grit to further break up the mass. Adding apple cider vinegar (ACV) to the chickens' drinking water will help by reducing any mucous that may be contributing to the problem. Repeat the olive oil and massage several times throughout the day.
One treatment for sour crop is to make the chicken regurgitate, but this can be dangerous because the chicken can aspirate (breathe in) the vomit.
Here is more comprehensive information from the first link in my signature:
Impacted and Sour Crop
Chickens need grit to digest food in the crop. When food gets blocked in the crop and cannot be digested, the result is an impacted crop. It presents as a hard lump in the chest. Check for this in the morning as it can be confused for a full crop, which is normal. The crop will naturally empty overnight if it is simply a full crop, but an impacted crop will not. Sometimes and impaction will rot in the crop and become squishy and foul smelling. This is a sour crop. Both impacted crop and sour crop keep the bird from digesting food properly.
Impacted Crop
Olive oil and massage - olive oil can help loosen an impaction. Simply put a two or three drops of olive oil at the back of the chicken's throat so that she swallows it and gently massage the crop. This may need to be repeated. Make grit available to the chicken, as well.
Sour Crop
Powdered copper sulfate - has anti-fungal properties. Dosage is 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of water, changed daily for several days. This will also inhibit the growth of certain types of bacteria, an added benefit. Can be used with apple cider vinegar.
Apple cider vinegar (ACV) - aids in the removal of mucus build up in the digestive tract that may contribute to sour crop. Can be used with the powdered copper sulfate.
** Recipe for sour crop (found offsite) **
Coper Sulfate measurements.. be exact
Use 1 gm (0.035 oz) of Copper Sulfate (bluestone) to 2 litres (3.52 pints) of water be very careful about the measurements of the Copper Sulfate too much will kill your bird
Add 2 teaspoons of Apple Cider Vinegar
Mix in some Cranberry Juice to make it more palatable for the birds to drink and disguise the taste of the copper sulfate and vinegar
Give this medicated water as the sole source of drinking water for 4 to 7 days, in some cases you may need to extend this time until you feel that the condition is over
Do not use metal containers only plastic ones
Put the mixture out fresh each day
Suction - in severe cases of sour crop, connect a soft catheder tube to a needless syringe. The catheter must be inserted down the throat and into the crop. This is uncomfortable for the chicken and you may give her a drop or two of Bach's Rescue Remedy to help calm her for this process. Once the catheter is in the crop, carefully pull the plunger of the syringe to suck liquid from the crop.
How to Cure Crop Bound Chooks!
One treatment for sour crop is to make the chicken regurgitate, but this can be dangerous because the chicken can aspirate (breathe in) the vomit.
Here is more comprehensive information from the first link in my signature:
Impacted and Sour Crop
Chickens need grit to digest food in the crop. When food gets blocked in the crop and cannot be digested, the result is an impacted crop. It presents as a hard lump in the chest. Check for this in the morning as it can be confused for a full crop, which is normal. The crop will naturally empty overnight if it is simply a full crop, but an impacted crop will not. Sometimes and impaction will rot in the crop and become squishy and foul smelling. This is a sour crop. Both impacted crop and sour crop keep the bird from digesting food properly.
Impacted Crop
Olive oil and massage - olive oil can help loosen an impaction. Simply put a two or three drops of olive oil at the back of the chicken's throat so that she swallows it and gently massage the crop. This may need to be repeated. Make grit available to the chicken, as well.
Sour Crop
Powdered copper sulfate - has anti-fungal properties. Dosage is 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of water, changed daily for several days. This will also inhibit the growth of certain types of bacteria, an added benefit. Can be used with apple cider vinegar.
Apple cider vinegar (ACV) - aids in the removal of mucus build up in the digestive tract that may contribute to sour crop. Can be used with the powdered copper sulfate.
** Recipe for sour crop (found offsite) **
Coper Sulfate measurements.. be exact
Use 1 gm (0.035 oz) of Copper Sulfate (bluestone) to 2 litres (3.52 pints) of water be very careful about the measurements of the Copper Sulfate too much will kill your bird
Add 2 teaspoons of Apple Cider Vinegar
Mix in some Cranberry Juice to make it more palatable for the birds to drink and disguise the taste of the copper sulfate and vinegar
Give this medicated water as the sole source of drinking water for 4 to 7 days, in some cases you may need to extend this time until you feel that the condition is over
Do not use metal containers only plastic ones
Put the mixture out fresh each day
Suction - in severe cases of sour crop, connect a soft catheder tube to a needless syringe. The catheter must be inserted down the throat and into the crop. This is uncomfortable for the chicken and you may give her a drop or two of Bach's Rescue Remedy to help calm her for this process. Once the catheter is in the crop, carefully pull the plunger of the syringe to suck liquid from the crop.
Herbal Treatments
Homeopathic Treatments
• Give Nux vomica 12 pellets dissolved in drinking water.
• If no improvement or there is vomiting give Pulsatilla.
• Also may give China or Carbo veg. Or Arsenicum.
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