chicken with chronic crop disease

Re: chicken with chronic crop disease

shanley barber — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 10:08:02 GMT

Hi, I've just been presented with a chicken with a very soft, flaccid and hugely distended crop. This one has been operated on twice approximately a month ago so remove a huge ball of grass, and I wonder if the crop is just so distended post obstruction that it will never have normal motility? The owner has tried Nystatin twice (7 d course), and reports that the crop becomes much much smaller when on this. She has no money and wants me to save her blessed chicken for free. Are there any management techniques or meds? Would you suggest we get a crop sample and send it off for c and s? Thanks.

Re: chicken with chronic crop disease

HMC — Sat, 25 May 2013 13:19:45 GMT

Thanks Marie

Re: chicken with chronic crop disease

Marie Kubiak — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:16:00 GMT

Hi,

first thing is to determine whether is has a true crop obstruction (ie. FB, usually balled up grass) or crop stasis. Crop stasis is fairly non-specific - can be GI infection, lower GI obstructive disease, neurological compromise (e.g. Mareks/heavy metal intoxication), or just a sickly chicken that is weak or eating less.

I would start off palpating the crop to ascertain what is in there - pure liquid or easily separated food suggests slow crop emptying, obstructions feel firm and the pieces can't be easily separated on manipulation. If obstructive then surgery is simple and tends to work well unless the crop is significantly distended and pendulous already. If crop stasis then you can start off simple and cheap (cytology of fluid or a crop swab) and medical treatment based on this, and discuss rads, Mareks serology, full bloods etc as ideal if no other indication of cause. It can work out expensive but a staged work-up can be done if the chicken is stable and the VLA prices for infectious disease screening are pretty reasonable.

Marie

Re: chicken with chronic crop disease

HMC — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:28:52 GMT

P.S. I know the answer is going to involve various tests to see what is the underlying cause, but basically I can only do things that cost very little. I generally love sending off bloods, whatever the species, but that's not going to be an option for these chickens.