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[Guest]

Oh Gross! It was always a rush to get from the garden table to the chicken run before the maggots crawled out of the bowl.

 

The fishing man (who also kept chickens) told me that the maggots don't eat anything. It is their natural instinct to bore downwards. In this way the clear the exit hole from the crop and presumably take some food through with them.

 

I kept my Kelly alive for 6 months through daily maggots. She had a tumour in her crop blocking the exit.

 

I got my first lot from Worms Direct and I'm glad I did because of the tub that they come in. I was confident it was totally secure and it had tiny air holes in the lid too. The fishing shop gave them to me in a plastic see-through bag. From then on, I took my little pot to the shop for refills.

 

One vet I spoke to was worried that i would get the wrong sort of maggot. We didn't want flesh-eating ones!!! But white fishing maggots are exactly the right type.

 

I hope they solve the problem. You really do get used to the grossness of it all.

[alih]

no am quite intrigued by them really and my 2 littlest children were fascinated tonight. Am still worried about Iggs though - her crop is massive and pendulous, though soft and watery. She is laying, eating adn drinking ok and seems perky so and trying to tell myself it's just a big crop, but she still moves her head in a weird way as if to try adn dislodge something, and all this talk of tumours has alarmed me!

[Guest]

I'm sorry alih, I didn't mean to alarm you. If the crop is soft and watery, it is not impacted. Pendulous crops have a problem in that the digested food can sit in a pendulous bit and not be able to 'get up and over', if you see what i mean, to get to the exit. I know what you mean about the neck movements. They are distressing to see aren't they?

 

Is the breath smelly at all? That would show that the contents have gone sour and she may need treatment. The problem is that there is no tone/muscle in a crop, so once it is stretched only an operation can fix it.

 

I don't know how long Iggs has been like this, but if it has been several days and the maggots aren't helping (give them 5 days to deal with it though), I would consider a trip to the vet. I persuaded our vet to drain the crop with a syringe. This allowed her to have a proper feel of the crop and it was then that she felt the lump.

 

Are you certain she is eating? I thought Kelly was, but when I brought her home after the crop draining she ate and ate and ate - and I realised she hadn't been eating after all, just pecking at the grass when she was free-ranging.

 

Good luck with her. Please let us know how she is and if anything is happening.

[alih]

ah thanks Ginette - in fact I took her to the vet last Thursday as i was really worried and he reckoned there was nothing wrong with her. Have read the really yhelpful threads about sour crop and impacted crop, hence the maggots! she has been eating them since saturday so only 3 days today so will give her a few more days. But feel like and idiot taking her back to the vet if nothing has changed. I am at work so can't check if she is actually eating but as she is certainly laying eggs and pooing I figure she must be. Her breath doens't smell at all as far as I can tell. will just have to give it time i guess. But thanks for your reassurance

[Guest]

pooing is good alih! They don't poo if the food isn't going through the crop.