How To Operate On Your Chicken’s Impacted Crop

One of the worst feelings as a chicken owner is when you have a sick bird and you are at a loss on how to help them. An impacted crop in a chicken can be a death sentence if you don’t have the right knowledge or tools to fix the issue. Here on Green Willow Homestead, we’ve had two hens who have suffered from an impacted crop. Thanks to the encouraging words from an avian vet, some YouTube research, and my own grit - we were able to save one of the two through operating on them ourselves. In this post, I want to teach you about what an impacted crop is, the options you have to fix it, and how to successfully perform surgery on your hen in order to save her life.

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Disclaimer: You must consult with a veterinarian before using the information provided in this post. I am not a veterinarian and the information contained in this post should not be seen as professional veterinary advice. If you use or rely on the information in this blog post, you do so at your own risk.

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What is an impacted crop?

An impacted crop is when your chicken’s crop, or stomach, becomes filled with a mass they cannot digest. The crop can be filled with hay or straw, baling twine, rocks, wood chips, basically anything the hen eats that cannot pass through her digestive system.

What are the signs or symptoms of an impacted crop in a chicken?

Impacted crop is a spring issue for chicken owners. I wish I knew why, but all my research and own experience has proven this correct. So keep your eyes peeled on your girls at this time.

The best way to tell if your chicken’s crop is impacted is by feeling her crop first thing in the morning. If the crop has not emptied overnight and is still a hard semi-malleable mass, she has an impacted crop.

The size of impaction can vary. With the two hens we had with impacted crops, one was the size of a baseball and extremely malleable, while the other was the size of a large softball and was a hard as a rock.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when the mass is the size of a softball it’s best to cull the bird. We learned this with our second hen, Princess Snowball. The reason being the crop has expanded so much so that the hen will inevitably deal with pendulous crop issues for the rest of her life. Pendulous crop is when the crop hangs too low on the anatomy of the bird, keeping it from emptying properly. The bird eats and eats, thinking it’s stomach isn’t full and can wind back up with impacted crop or sour crop (where the food ferments in her crop). Princess Snowball had two months post-surgery where we would put a crop bra on her at night to hold up her oversized crop, but to no avail. I learned my lesson on this one. Fixing impacted crop is only for the baseball and golf ball sized impactions.

The size of the mass can vary widely, but remember to check first thing in the morning to be sure it hasn’t passed.

Once the crop is plugged up, the pH of the chamber changes, causing strange yeasty smells to emanate from your hen’s mouth. Pick up your hen and massage her crop, if a beer-like smell burps up, then she also has sour crop. Keep in mind, sour crop can happen without their crop being impacted. When a crop is impacted though, the hen will most likely develop sour crop because the mass is preventing proper digestion.

Another sign of an impacted crop is your hen’s behavior. We noticed our first hen was dong a strange dance with her chest and neck, as if she was trying to swallow and couldn’t. Hens will also stretch their necks and “yawn” their beaks. They are trying to encourage their crop to pass the mass, but because of the indigestible material, the crop is unable to.

How do you fix or cure an impacted crop?

There are a few options available to you to fix your chicken’s impacted crop, but from my experience thus far there is only one way to truly cure the problem. Surgery. Before you resort to surgery though, feel free to try these first few options. I Remember, the more you wait to cure the impacted crop, the more days go by where your hen doesn’t receive proper nutrition because her crop isn’t emptying correctly.

Papaya

Papaya contains an enzyme that helps break up a fibrous mass. Angora rabbits are given papaya to help pass serious fur balls. We fed our first chicken, Beyoncé (I know we’ve got some stellar names over here), fresh papaya to see if it would help. The malleable mass went from a silly putty-like texture to absolute goo. It was extremely promising after days of trying various strange concoctions and nothing working. Unfortunately, the papaya was then digested by her crop and we were still left with the impaction

​Magnesium Citrate and Mineral Oil or Olive Oil

The thinking goes if you can first relax then lube up the digestive system, anything can pass. This is similar to what humans do for a gallbladder stone cleanse (which does actually work!). This solution is only possible if the impaction is no bigger than a golf ball. You will need a feeding tube that sticks onto a large syringe. Fill the syringe with 5ml of magnesium citrate, then gently feed the tube into your chicken’s stomach. The process is extremely dangerous though, as you can accidentally feed the tube into your chicken’s lungs if you aren’t careful and drown your bird.

This video is one of the best for a visual on how to properly tube feed.

​This link is another good option to get you off on the right foot. 

Tube feeding is absolutely a two person job. Don’t attempt it by yourself! Once you have the tube properly fed into your hen’s stomach, slowly depress the syringe and let the magnesium citrate enter her crop. Slowly and gently remove the feeding tube and massage your hen’s crop. After 30 minutes fill the syringe with 5ml mineral oil or olive oil and repeat the process. Massage the crop, encouraging the mass to pass. 

Doing Surgery

In my experience, surgery is truly the only successful solution to an impacted crop. With Beyoncé, we brought her to an avian vet to get a professional opinion. The vet was honest with me and said the surgery was simple enough to do at home. She directed me to a few videos and wished me luck. To have the vet operate, the cost of the surgery would have been well over $300. Definitely cost-prohibitive for us. So I put on my big girl pants and decided that if my hen was going to die if I didn’t try anything, it was far better to have her die while I was trying to save her life. 

The surgery itself is much simpler than you would think. The crop is situated just below the skin on the left side breast of a chicken. It is extremely accessible, thus the surgery is not particularly invasive. I’m going to go over the supplies you will need to operate and then the steps of the crop operation.

Operating Supplies Needed

• Three large clean bath towels (ones you want to part with)
• Electric razor
• Warmed VetRx
• Iodine
• Rubbing alcohol
• Topical Analgesic with NO LIDOCAINE
• 3x3" sized squares of sterile gauze
• Vet Kit (must have a scalpel with extra blades, forceps, and medical tweezers)
• Saline Solution 
• A bowl to collect the crop contents
• Sutures (this link has dissolvable sutures!)

Post-Op Supplies Needed

• A separate area to quarantine your recovering chicken with NO straw bedding or shavings. We like cardboard for the first two weeks because the hen can’t eat it
• Fish Mox (it's pet-grade amoxicillin)
• Neosporin
• Bandaids
• Vet Tape
• Chick Starter Feed
• Extra eggs

The Steps To Operate On Your Chicken’s Impacted Crop

Before you operate, know that you cannot do this alone. You NEED a second person to hold down the bird and keep her eyes covered while you operate. It’s also good to have moral support as your venture into surgery!

Also, it’s best to have her recovery cage all set up. Have warm water with a drop of VetRx in it waiting for her when she returns. Make sure to have picked a spot with NO straw or shavings for her to eat. We like to put down cardboard as a floor and then replace it as she starts to poop. If you have an old dog cage or large cat crate with a wire or plastic floor, this works perfectly. Set down a clean towel for your chicken to rest on.

Have your operating area all prepped for the surgery. Make sure the location gets plenty of sunlight or artificial light so you can see what you are doing. Lay out one of your large bath towels on a large table. Disinfect your scalpel, forceps, and medical tweezer using rubbing alcohol. Have your iodine, topical analgesic, saline solution, and warmed VetRx at the ready. Make sure your sutures are within reach. By prepping all of this you won’t have to prolong the surgery, and your bird’s pain, in any way.

1. Shaving the area. Turn your chicken upside down by holding onto her feet. Pin her wings to her sides. Using an electric razor with no attachments, gently shave the crop area down to the skin. I create a space the size of the palm of my hand over the bulging crop. Then trim back any feathers that “fluff” over the bare skin when your chicken is right side up. This prevents any bacteria from the feathers getting into the incision post-op.
2. Prepping for operating. Bring your chicken to your operating location. A nice big kitchen table works. Make sure you have plenty of sunlight or artificial light so you can see what you are doing. Have a towel lying down on the table to set your bird on. Have your helper lay your chicken on her left side and angle her body upwards just a bit. Have your helper lay the second towel over the chicken’s body and hold her there. You can fold the towel over underneath her to prop up her body just a bit too.
3. Calm your chicken down. Put two drops of warmed VetRx on your chicken’s nostrils. Pull the towel lying on her over her head to darken her surroundings. This creates a night-time environment for your bird which can put her into “zombie mode”.  By darkening her surrounds you increase your chances of the chicken not struggling during the surgery.
4. Prep the area for incision. Next, put a nickel size amount of your topical analgesic on the area to be operated on and wait for four minutes. Next, apply a few drops of iodine and spread it over the area using a piece of gauze. Wait for four minutes.
5. Opening up the skin. First, using the disinfected scalpel VERY GENTLY cut open the skin by 1.5 inches. The skin is paper-thin and requires little to no pressure to create an incision. You don’t want to cut open the crop just yet, which will be directly underneath the skin. Don’t make the incision any larger than 1.5” inches or you will have more to suture up at the end of the surgery. There will be blood. Using your forceps, grab a piece of gauze and dab gently at the area. Give it a quick spray with saline solution and dab some more. Once the bleeding stops or slows, continue.
6. Opening up the crop. Disinfect the scalpel and wipe it clean. Using the scalpel very gently create a ¾” to 1” incision. Depending on how full the crop is, you may get a gush of fluid as you open up the crop. Have your clean gauze ready and mop up the mess as it comes.
7. Extracting the contents of the crop. Once the fluids have stopped. Give the opening a spray of saline solution and wipe with clean gauze. Then, using the disinfected forceps, very gently begin extracting the contents of the crop. Go very slowly and extract just a bit at a time so you don’t tear the opening of the crop any larger. This process is THE LONGEST STEP of the surgery. For our first chicken it took us 20 minutes. For the second chicken it took us 40 minutes. It depends on how much your bird tried to eat and what she tried to eat. You will find straw, wood chips, baling twine, etc. Again, don’t grab too much at a time with the forceps so you don’t stress the incision. Pile everything into a spare bowl and be sure to take a picture when you are done!
8. Cleaning the crop. Once the crop is empty, take your saline solution and thoroughly rinse the interior of the crop. The squeeze bottles used for contact lenses work great for this. Rinse both incisions too of debris.
9. Suturing up the crop. Disinfect your suture and needle in rubbing alcohol. To teach myself how to to proper sutures I watched this YouTube video. Absolutely use the tweezers and forceps in the way they show because it is impossible to use your fingers to do this tiny sewing job. SEW UP THE CROP SEPARATELY. I cannot stress this enough. You want to suture the crop up first, before you suture the skin. Once you’ve sutured the crop, give it another rinse with saline solution.
10. Suturing up the skin. Disinfect your sutures, needle, and forceps and tweezers. Repeat the suturing process with the skin. Once sutured, rinse the sutures with saline solution, pat dry with gauze, and then dab with another round of iodine. You can never be too safe with disinfecting! The suturing process is when Beyoncé started struggling. Princess Snowball didn’t make a peep her entire surgery.
11. Bandage the wound. You can take your bird out of her towel cave now. She should be doing just fine! Place a simple piece of gauze on the incision and wrap your bird with vet tape gently.
12. Quarantine your bird. Place your recovering hen in her crate or pen with her water. She may be zonked for a few hours, so check on her periodically and give her some love. No food yet, just water.

That’s all there is to surgery! I promise you that once you do it you will realize how straightforward it really is. As long as you have a second set of hands and the right tools, the process is simple. The mental block is honestly the hardest part, but if you love your birds like I do then I know you are capable of this!

Post-Op Recovery Protocol

Caring for your bird after surgery has some nuance. You will want to provide your hen with nutrition, but not anything fibrous or hard like her typical feed.

With Beyoncé, we gave her water with a few drops of VetRX and 1/2 capsule of FishMox (amoxicillin) for the first 36 hours. With Princess Snowball we did water and VetRX for 24 hours. I would err on the side of caution and do water for 36 hours.

Once that 36 hour hump is done, you can feed her extremely soft and wet foods. Start with 1 tsp of chick starter mixed into 1 tbsp of warm water so it becomes a mash. The crop empties continually throughout the day with a healthy bird, but after an impaction things can get interesting. Gently feel the crop after this first feeding and see how its performing. After 6 hours I find it’s safe to give the hen another round of chick feed in warm water. Chick feed and water is just fine for the first 3 days.

From there, you can add scrambled eggs. Hens LOVE scrambled eggs - remember no shells! Switch between 1 scrambled egg and the 1tsp of chick starter feed in warm water every 6 hours. Again, be sure to monitor the crop and its performance.

After two weeks, I find the hen is ready for her normal feed again. Once she lays an egg - she is ready to rejoin the flock.

Now let’s talk wound management. Change the bandage every day for the first four days. Make sure the incision is clean and doesn’t smell. Dab the wound with Neosporin during the first four days as you change the bandage. Once the hen is feeling better, the vet tape won’t fly. You can leave the wrap off and opt for a medium sized sticky bandaid or let the wound air dry from that point on.

Be sure to change her cardboard bedding daily so she doesn’t get manure on her wound.

Full Recovery Monitoring

Once the hen is back with the flock, check her crop in the mornings to be sure she isn’t dealing with pendulous crop issues. If she does develop pendulous crop issues, put a crop bra on her at night. You can purchase them here or make out out of a large athletic sock (plans at this link, scroll down).

Of course, I hope you never have to deal with this issue, or have to put a bird down. However, I want fellow chicken owners to know that impacted crop can be dealt with and fixed given the right circumstances. Have you ever had a chicken with an impacted crop? Did you have to resort to surgery? Comment below and fill me in!

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