Baby's crop somewhat hard

One of the little babies I'm working with seems to be having trouble getting his crop emptied real well. I've been massaging the little hard lumps in the crop, and that definitely helps, but is there anything I can give him that will help with that? I keep giving more watery food, but....?

Any suggestions,
Stacey

[dano7]

Some formulas thicken up after a few minutes - are ok when you mix them and then lump up in the crop.

And you might try a different recipe - there are so many floating around here right now, and maybe a change up will create better processing.

The most common cause of sour crop is not allowing the crop to empty once in each 24 hour period, but this would normally be expected overnight.

Other factors could be food too hot, or too cold, stretching the crop through overfeeding, or impaction of a foreign body such as bedding material (I'm sure no grit has been given).

If you get to the point when the food in the crop begins to sour, it is important to empty the sour food from the crop so that it does not contribute to further gut stasis (the stopping of the normal motility of food in the digestive tract). You empty the crop by filling it with warm water and massaging as you have done, this breaks up the lump and you evacuate the crop contents with a gavage tube, taking care not to damage the crop lining by puncture or excessive suction against the delicate tissue. The rinsing procedure should be repeated several times until the fluid drawn from the crop is clear.
A vet would likely apply subcutaneous or interosseus (into the bone) fluids and antibiotics at this point.

The next one or two feedings should consist of a normal volume of a balanced electrolyte solution such as Pedialyte or baby food diluted 50/50 with warm water.

Hope this is not needed, however, slow gut transit time leading to gut stasis needs to be reversed PDQ.

Dano, Very good info, exactly what I was looking for. I have been giving him warm water between feedings and massaging his crop and I can usually get the lumpy places out pretty good doing this, they just re-appear by the next feeding. Well, I've only been doing this extra water thing today between lunch and dinner. This little guy eats like there's no tomorrow, so I'm sure overfeeding is the cause. I was probably feeding too often up til several days ago. The sibling knows when to quit and dosen't have this problem

Is there anything besides just the water that has the effect of disolving the stuff better?

Thanks,
Stacey

Also, re-reading your post, I think he did ingest a few pieces of sawdust/small shavings a few days ago. He roots into the corner of his box and just pushes into anything that might be a "hole" type of thing, to feed. He always seems hungry. He could have easily gotten some in his mouth. He's on a fleece remnant now that he can snuggle up in and this seems to make him sleep better. He used to hardly sleep at all between feedings, whereas the sibling just saws logs in the next compartment. I separated them because they just sparred all day, each one trying to get the other one to feed him. Now they sleep between meals.

Stacey

I spent a LOT of time massaging crop lumps out yesterday and giving more water/baby food mix. By the end of the day I was feeling MUCH better about the situation. I talked with my rehab vet on the phone and he was helpful. He also told me to try as a regular formula for them, pulvarizing chicken starter and warm water. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that before; there's probably not a commercial bird food product out there with more science behind it than that produced for the commercial chicken farmer! And pigeons are considered poultry by the fish and game people, for whatever that's worth.

Anyway, the mix separates from the water readily, but doesn't at all seem inclined to clump and I'm sure the nutritional value is quite high. Madison's crop wasn't hard but nice and empty this morning and he ate a good baby food/water breakfast and then a small amount of the chicken starter mix, which his "sister?" Dolly had a good bit of for breakfast. She's quite a bit smaller than "he" is, although they weren't that different in size at first.

Thanks so much for your help!
Stacey