Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted a message before and I appreciated the help. I have a new problem with the baby. He is now 13 days old. His crop does not seem to be emptying. It looks very large and I see little red veins running up it that didn't notice before. It has been four hours since his last feeding but I have not seen a change in the crop for the last couple of hours. Is there anything I can do?

How are you feeding this baby? A lot is going to depend on whether you are used to feeding by syringe, spoon feeding or gavage feeding (sp?). It sounds like your food was either too thick or too cold and couldn't be "processed" as needed. There isn't necessarily an easy answer for this because it depends on the cause of the problem. If the food was too thick or too cold sometimes giving them a very small amount of warm water can help warm and thin it and allow it to be processed but if you don't know how much, what temperature, or how to administer it you can asphyxiate the baby or cause it to inhale and cause aspergillosis (a form of mold based pneumonia) to form and cause the baby to die a slow and painful death. The best bet again would be to contact one of the vets I suggested. If you take your baby bird to one to be checked out "most" will allow you to call about problems such as this and give you a much better one on one answer or be able to have you bring the baby in for more help.

We are feeding with a syringe. I have tried the vet you suggested but it is by appt only and he is booked. I have given him some warm water last night to try to help but there has been no change. The vet office has recommended a vet in olathe and I will try to call them now. Hopefully someone will see him today soon or I am afraid he won't make it through the weekend.

Yes the vet is a must. Did you try both vets I suggested and also tell them the problem so they know it is an emergency?? Try the other vet they directed you to, hopefully one will see you. They may have to suction out the crop if it is too hardened and it can be very dangerous for someone to do on their own as it usually will rupture the crop if you don't know how. It can even be dangerous for a vet but at least they can see the bird see how serious it is and decide the best course of action.

Yes. I did take hime to the vet. I couldn't get him into either of the ones you told me about. One will no longer take any new bird patients, he is getting away from seeing birds. I believe it is the one you said you have used. He did recommend another vet and they got him in on friday. They suctioned out his crop, did not find an infection. He thought it was the brand of food. He said it looked very grainy and told me to switch foods. He gave the baby molasses to get things moving. Said not to feed him until it went down. I thought the baby would die He still had food in crop on saturday morning and he was very weak. I went ahead and gave him tiny bit of food and it went through. He is has been getting very watery food so far per vet. His crop is very stretched and droopy. Vet says it will tighten back up. Any ideas on how long? The vet did not seem like he was used to baby birds. He didn't give very clear answers to my questions.

It may be that the vet isn't used to baby birds or that he isn't used to dealing with bird handfeeders that aren't already experienced. Sometimes vets seem to expect to deal with certain levels of experience or expertise and don't know how to explain to people who aren't as experienced. I have noticed that with some doctors as well.

As far as the droopy and stretched crop. A lot will depend on how stretched it was and for how long. I have heard of many people having to use a crop "bra" for their babies until it tightened back up. The droopiness can actually cause it to be harder to digest the food again causing slow crop emptying or crop stasis. It is usually caused by feeding too much or too thick of foods or even too cold of food making the food unable to digest as normal. You could call your vet or even google a crop "bra" on how to make one and see if that helps if you don't notice it tightening up on its own in the next few days. In fact if you end up needing to use one there is a diagram on this site http://www.avianweb.com/slowcrop.html

Hope that helps

I had the same problem with one of our babies. If you don't get the crop empty it will die. My husband was over feeding ours. First make sure the food is the right temp. about 105 degrees. Do not over feed. You can find the right amount that your baby should be eating if you go to this site. It will give you the information you need. http://www.cockatiel.org/articles/handfeeding.html
Now very important to get the crop empty. I lost one baby because of this so when it happened to me again I learned how to make a crop bra. This held the crop up so the muscles could empty the crop. This is where I found how to make such bra.http://www.avianweb.com/slowcrop.html
Our Little Darling is still alive and doing well. I did have her wear it till her crop grew to fit her body. If when you take it off and the crop still won't empty put another on.
Good Luck
You can comtact me anytime.
Debbie