Freya - Crop Comeback

Freya was surrendered to us by a breeder in May 2024. She was just coming up to her point of lay but her crop had become overfull and was not clearing. We don't know how long she had been left like this, but after about a week of trying to clear it, we realised we could not and so we took her to the vet for it to be surgically cleared. This was done under local anaesthetic.

We needed to do this quite quickly as she wasn't getting nutrition through and we were worried about permanent damage to her crop through stretching. After the surgery, we found that Freya's crop was still not clearing properly. She was so hungry that she was eating anything (puppy pads, grit, anything she could get her hands on!) and so, she lived in the house for months whilst we tried to build up her strength. We wanted to get her strong enough to have a hormonal implant, with the idea that if she wasn't laying, her digestive system would have more space and she would have respite and not need to eat as much.

Eventually we were able to implant her, stabilise her and regulate her gut movements with metoclopramide and the wearing of a crop bra. When she was strong enough, she moved out with the main flock, continuing to get her medication 2-3 times daily and wear her bra. We switched the whole flock from pellet to mash to accommodate Freya's fragile crop.

Still, she would have "blips" and end up back in the house for crop clearing every so often. And her bra caused ingrowing feathers on the back of her neck which filled with puss and needed cleaning every so often. But she is feisty and full of life and was so young. So in summer 2025, we decided to get her crop reduction surgery. She made a full recovery and now lives normally with the flock, without needing any medication or a bra.

Our learnings:

• Crop surgery under local aneasthetic isn't as scary or as costly as we thought it might be. Acting sooner rather than later reduces the stretching of the crop.

• Don't leave a ravaging chicken unattended with puppy pads...!