Cockatiel's crop won't empty!

[Katiebarnowl]

Hello,

We have a 3 week old cockatiel chick called Garf who’s crop isn’t emptying. We believe he might have a case of sour crop or slow crop. He was last fed 12 hours ago and his crop is still full. I stopped feeding him the formula as soon as I noticed the problem and have been giving him drops of warm water every three- five hours. In this time he was done three very water poos and vomited twice. He still looks somewhat energetic at the moment but could go downhill very quickly. Unfortunately because it is Easter Monday there are no vet services available in our area (Central Coast) and we cannot find an emergency aviary vet. I have tried everything possible but unfortunately nothing will get the food out of his crop. He is warm at the moment and we are regularly gently massaging his crop.

Does anyone have any suggestions? We will take him straight to our regular vet tomorrow if he survives through the night.​

 

[plumsmum2005]

Re: Crop stasis/flushing the crop urgent!

https://www.beautyofbirds.com/slowcrop.html


This seems good info.

 

[EllenD]

Re: Crop stasis/flushing the crop urgent!

What temperature is the hand-feeding formula when you are feeding it to them? How about the ambient/air temperature you are keeping them in (are they inside either a proper or homemade Brooder?)?

If the hand-feeding formula is not being kept between 104 degrees F and 110 degrees F by keeping a digital cooking/candy thermometer in it at ALL TIMES while you're feeding the chicks, and being heated back-up when/if it drops below 104 degrees F, then they will immediately develop a Yeast/Fungal infection in their crops...The same goes for the ambient temperature you are keeping them in all day long, every day, except for when you take them out to feed them...You MUST keep chicks who still have bare skin and not all their Down-Feathers grown-in yet at an ambient/air temperature that is a constant 95 degrees F...And then when all the Down-Feathers grow in and there is no longer bare skin but their outer, mature feathers are not all grown in and Down is still showing, they MUST be kept at a constant ambient/air temperature of 85 degrees F.

****One degree under 104 degrees F for their hand-feeding formula will result in an automatic yeast/fungal infection in their Crops and eventually all throughout their GI Tracts...If the hand-feeding formula is one degree over 110 degrees F it will burn their Crops, which causes a horrible bacterial AND fungal/yeast infection that must be cut-out by an Avian Vet...If the ambient/air temperature they are kept in 24/7 is one degree below 95 degrees F before all their Down grows in or one degree below 85 degrees F once all their Down grows in but before all their outer feathers grow in the same thing will happen, a horrible fungal/yeast infection throughout their GI TRacts...So you must first remedy both of these immediately, or they are all going to become very sick and die...

 

[EllenD]

Re: Crop stasis/flushing the crop urgent!

If you don't have a candy/cooking thermometer with a metal-probe on it that you can keep in the formula the entire time you are feeding the chicks, you must go and buy one right now..They sell them the cheapest at Walmart in the kitchen-gadgets aisle for around $12-$15...And if the hand-feeding formula does drop below 104 degrees F while you are feeding the chicks (with only 3 it might not, but it usually does by the time you get through with feeding the first 2 chicks or so), THEN PLEASE DO NOT JUST POP THE ALREADY MIXED BUT TOO-COOL FORMULA IN THE MICROWAVE TO REHEAT IT!!! Instead you must heat-up more hot water or unflavored Pedialyte, whatever you're using to mix it, and then add it to the hand-feeding formula, mix it extremely well, and possibly add more formula-mix if it gets too watery, until it gets back between 104-110 degrees F...I usually would get the temperature up in the 115-120 degrees F range and then keep mixing it well until it got down to around 112 degrees F, then got the first chick out of the Brooder and fill the oral-syringe when it gets to 111 degrees F, because it cools down very quickly once it gets in the syringe...Then feed the first chick, put it back in the Brooder, then get the second one and do the same thing, until the formula gets down to 104 degrees F, then go and heat-up more water, add it to the formula, mix it very well, and put the thermometer back in it and add a bit more formula powder if it's really watery...The reason you can't just put the already-mixed formula into the microwave to re-heat it is because no matter how well you mix it afterwards there will still be extremely hot spots throughout it that will burn their Crops...

You also need to buy a digital kitchen-scale if you don't already have one, because you need to be weighing each chick every single day at the same time of day each time, and then writing down the date, time, and weight for each chick each day...The best time to weigh them is first thing in the morning BEFORE you feed them...They should each be continually gaining weight each day or two, all the way up until they are almost fully-weaned and when they first start to Fledge (fly), because they typically lose a bit of weight during the Fledging process...Not a lot of weight, but a few grams each day, until they are finally fully-Fledged, then the weights will stabilize and start going back up again...

 

[EllenD]

Re: Crop stasis/flushing the crop urgent!

As far as a Brooder goes, you can make a homemade one if you don't have the money to purchase a proper Brooder, but you absolutely MUST keep them in a Brooder until they are ready to go into their Weaning-Cage, which is not until ALL of their outer-feathers are grown-in fully, because prior to all of their outer-feathers fully growing-in they cannot regulate their body-temperatures themselves, they become chilled, and then they can no-longer properly digest the formula when it is put into their Crops, so it just sits their in their Crops, very cold, and Yeast/Fungi starts growing almost immediately, and then you end-up with Slow-Crop and then finally Crop-Stasis. All of the chicks are going to end-up with yeast/fungal infections throughout their entire GI Tracts from their Crops down through to their Intestines if you don't make sure that BOTH the formula-temperature AND the ambient/air temperature are exactly within the correct ranges...

***To make a homemade-Brooder, you need either a 10-gallon glass aquarium (no lid or screen needed for the top), or a similar-size cardboard-box...You need to go to Walmart and buy a regular electric heating-pad THAT HAS ADJUSTABLE-TEMP SETTINGS (usually they have "Low, Medium, High" settings, that's what you need)...These are sold at any Walmart in the human medical/health aisles where the Ace Bandages, Splints, and the Diabetic supplies are. YOU CANNOT USE ANY TYPE OF "UNDERTANIK HEATING-MAT" THAT IS MADE FOR REPTILES/AMPHIBIANS OR RODENTS, THEY DON'T GET NEARLY WARM ENOUGH! All drug-stores also sell electric heating-pads, but Walmart is going to be the cheapest place to buy one, probably like $20 at most for one with adjustable heat-settings, if you don't already have one laying around in your house...You'll also need some kind of ambient/air Thermometer that you will be placing inside of the Brooder so that you can get the air temperature within the correct range and then monitor/keep it there...You can buy one of those Accurite Digital Thermometers that you can set inside the Brooder for like $10 at Walmart or at any Lowes/Home Depot, OR you can buy one of those Digital Thermometers with a Probe-on-a-Wire that they sell at all Pet Stores for $9.99 in the Reptile Section and the Fish Sections. They all cost $9.99 and any pet store with Reptile supplies sells them...Then you would just tape the little Probe at the end of the wire inside the Back-Half of the Brooder, down towards the bottom where the chicks will be, and then lay the Thermometer outside the Brooder somewhere, or set it on top (the wires those Thermometers come with are pretty long)...You'll also need to buy a package of Carefresh Shredded-Paper Animal-Bedding, and make sure that there is ALWAYS AT Least a GOOD HALF-INCH OF THE SHREDDED-PAPER BEDDING IN THE ENTIRE BOTTOM OF THE BROODER! If you don't they will all develop Splayed-Legs!!!(if you aren't doing this already you need to start RIGHT NOW!!!!) DO NOT USE ANY TYPE OF ANIMAL-BEDDING IN THE BOTTOM OF THE BROODER THAT IS WOOD-CHIPS, CRUSHED WALNUT-SHELLS, CORN-COB, OR ANYTHING ELSE, AS BABY BIRDS HAVE SUCH THIN, DELICATE SKIN AND ARE SO VERY SENSITIVE TO ANY AND ALL FUMES/SMELLS THAT THEY WILL END-UP WITH CUTS AND SPLINTERS ALL OVER THEM, THEY CAN DEVELOP UPPER-RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS FROM INHALING THE FUMES OR THE ACTUAL BEDDING INTO THEIR SINUSES, AND MOST-DANGEROUS IS WHEN THEY EAT EVEN A SINGLE PIECE OF WOOD-CHIPS, WALNUT-SHELLS, CORN COB, ETC. IT WILL CAUSE A BOWEL-OBSTRUCTION AND KILL THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE SO SMALL AND NONE OF THOSE OTHER BEDDINGS ARE DIGESTIBLE BY BIRDS!!! This is a big deal, you MUST have at least a half an inch or more of the shredded-paper bedding in the bottom of the Brooder from the moment you put them in the Brooder at either 2 or 3 weeks-old until they are old enough to move into the Weaning-Cage, because they need the bedding to keep their legs together at all times or they will become permanently Splay-Legged...The Carefresh Paper-Bedding is also sold at any Walmart for half the cost of any pet shop, I think a good-sized rectangular-block of the brown-colored Carefresh costs $5-$6 at Walmart...All of the Carefresh Paper-Bedding is soft and won't cause any injury to the babies, there are no fumes, dust, powder, or debris in it for them to inhale, and if they eat pieces of it it will be digested and not cause an impaction or obstruction...Plus, if you keep at least a good half-inch of the Carefresh Shredded-Paper Bedding in the bottom of the Brooder, you can easily just remove any soiled bits of it from the top and then just throw another hand-full of clean Carefresh back on top. Do that at least once in the morning and once at night before bedtime so that the babies don't develop bacterial and/or fungal infections on their skin (usually their feet and toenails) or in their mouths, Crops, etc. from eating their poop....

Then you put the aquarium/box wherever you're going to keep it (not by any windows where the sun can beat-in through the glass and heat them up, or where any drafts are)...Then you're going to put the electric heating-pad underneath THE BACK-HALF OF THE AQUARIUM/BOX ONLY! This is so that you'll have the Back-Half as the "Warm Half" and the Front-Half as the "Cooler Half", so the chicks have the choice if they want to cool-off...Then you are going to put a good half-an-inch or more of the Carefresh Paper-Bedding in the bottom of the ENTIRE Brooder. Then you need to place the digital Thermometer in the back-half of the Brooder that is sitting on top of the electric heating-pad...You want to read the temperature where the chicks are going to be, so you want to either sit the Thermometer right on top of the shredded-paper bedding in the back-half of the Brooder, or you want to tape the probe to the inside wall of the Brooder somewhere in the back-half of the Brooder, and right above the layer of bedding, where the chicks will be standing...Then all you need to do is to turn the Thermometer on, turn the Heating-pad on whatever the first temperature-setting is to start out with, and then you must cover the entire Back-Half ONLY with a towel, small blanket, etc. (a bath towel works great)...Make sure you ONLY cover the back-half of the Brooder with the towel and that you leave the front-half uncovered. This way the heat will be locked-in to the back-half of the Brooder only, or the "Warm-Half", and the front-half or the "Cool-Half" will stay cool...

At only 3 weeks-old your chicks probably don't have all of their Down-Feathers in yet and probably still have some bare-skin showing, so that means that the temperature in the back-half of the Brooder must be right around 95 degrees F, and stay there until ALL of their Down-Feathers have grown-in and they no-longer have any bare-skin showing. Once they get to that point, where ALL of their Down-Feathers are grown-in fully and there is no longer any bare-skin showing, then you need to drop the temperature in the back-half of the Brooder down to right around 85 degrees F, and that's where it will stay untill ALL of their outer-Feathers are fully grown-in and they are ready to move into their Weaning-Cage.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Re: Crop stasis/flushing the crop urgent!

https://www.beautyofbirds.com/slowcrop.html


This seems good info.

That article about "Marcy" had me balling like a baby!!


Jim