My budgie (4 years) stopped eating some days ago. We went to se the avian-vet, and he was diagnosed with "hanging crop"...

He eats and his crop doesn´t empty , it gets bigger and bigger (stretches, it had gone 4-5 times bigger than normal, and a healthy bird should emty their crops in 10 minutes, it took my Gunde at least 1 hour to empty the crop) and in the end the bird can´t eat. The vet emptied his crop, and he could eat again, the nerves in the crop wasn´t damaged.

The vet said it could be a virus, fungus, metalpoisoning.... It could also be macaw wasting disease=PDD...

 

He is now eating and he is happy as always... his poop is also good. (His been medicated with prepulsid, it makes his stomach work, its a medicine for nervdamaged "people" with digestingproblems)

 

Has anybody had similar problems, or heard of birds with problems to empty theis crops?

 

Sorry about my poor english, I hope you understand anyway.

Our old bird hasn't been diagnosed with 'hanging crop', but her crop is VERY enlarged and sits lower in her chest. It is clearly visible. Last year was her first time to the vet and we thought that big lump might be a tumor, but while she was being examined, the vet said it was just her crop. However, we haven't noticed any issues with her not eating or it not emptying correctly, so it could be totally unrelated to what happened to your guy. I hope it stays cleared up and doesn't become a problem again!

 

And by the way, your english is really good - better than some native english speakers even! *L*

Has your bird had an "enlarged crop" for a long time??

 

My bird also has other healthissues but they are not related to the enlarged crop.

 

I want to know if this is simething "fatal" or if the bird can live with it...

I would think that limiting the food supply could help your bird with his crop problems (e.g. not having seed in the cage all the time - taking it out for an hour or so before putting it back). You said that it took him a long time to empty his crop, so taking the food away until his crop is empty could help. Kind of like when you hand raise baby budgies, you have to let their crop empty between feeds. I would ask your vet about this idea before trying it, but i don't see why it wouldn't work.

Thank you for the tip, Bea.

We did discuss that with the vet, and he now gets his food divided into 3 times a day. As long as he gets the amount he should have during for one day it is okay to give it to him in smaller portions. He has been eating harrisons birdfoods for the latest 3 years, I think that helps a lot. (´he has chronical megabacteria since earlier, but the cropproblem is not related to the megabac.)