Advice for emaciated hen, sour crop

[Lillith37]

Yesterday evening a magpie was swooping like crazy in the backyard (it’s nesting season) and all the chickens were going nuts. I poked my head over the fence to make sure my neighbour’s chickens were okay to find his older hen Brown Chicken was hunched over and fluffed up. Apparently she’s been like this for five or six days. I requested to take her. She is emaciated, with the worst sour crop I’ve ever encountered. I regurgitated her as much as I could. It was foul black liquid. She is also blackening at the corners of her mouth and at the front edge of her comb.

She has scaly leg mite but no sign of other mites and I saw one louse but she is by no means infested. I don’t think my neighbour has ever wormed her. Not sure what he feeds. She hasn’t laid in a year. No swelling around her abdomen or vent.

So last night I regurgitated her, gave her worming tablets, some antifungal cream and a dose of cisapride which is a gastric mobility drug (left over from my other hen Constance who has had some trouble recently). I also coated her legs in castor oil.

This morning she had done some liquid poops overnight — not very much, just a bit of white urate and liquid. Her crop was still balloon-like so I tried regurgitating her again. I got more liquid and a lot of black sediment out of her. Then I gave her 20ml of epsom salt in warm water via tube, and another dose of cisapride. She is inside in the crate and has acess to plain water with vitamins and shell grit.

I’ve been called up for jury service today so I will be out all day and potentially every day for the length of the trial if I get selected. I left my partner with instruction to give Brown Chicken a few ml of sugar water over the course of the day because I know the epsom salts are dehydrating.

I didn’t get any pictures because this was all a bit unexpected and a bit of a scramble last night and this morning. She is in such a condition I am considering euthanasia but want to give her a chance first. My neighbour would have just left her to suffer and die.

Any advice please @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive @azygous you’ve helped me so much in the past xxx

 

[Eggcessive]

I have treated a few of my own hens with impacted and later sour crop, and none survived. There was usually another cause of the crop problems, including reproductive disorders, cancer, or unknown issues. Many use antifungal creams such as miconazole or Monistat or ally twice a day, to treat sour crop. Your hen may be too far gone. Here is a good article by azygous that you may be familiar with:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She hasn’t laid in a year.

I'd try treating her for a couple of days and see what happens, but if she's to the point where you are considering putting her down, then this may be the right action to take.

Her not laying eggs for a year would likely still point to some type of reproductive problem, coupled with perhaps poor diet, parasites and/or poor keeping conditions can exacerbate problems.

 

[azygous]

It seems to me you're doing everything that's possible for this hen. Worming her was a very good decision as that could have started her crop issues.

The Epsom salts is also an excellent choice. It will neutralize the yeast as well as stimulate the intestines to move out any blockages. Are you doing just the Epsom salt drinking water or the three-day flush? The three day flush would do a more thorough job of cleaning out her intestines as well as flushing the yeast out of her system. The protocol is one teaspoon of the magnesium sulfate in half a cup of warm water tubed into the crop twice a day for three consecutive days. If you don't know how to tube feed a chicken, we'll teach you.

 

[Lillith37]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I’ll talk to my neighbour this evening and see how long he wants to give it.

So this morning @azygous I dissolved a teaspoon of epsom into a glass of water (not very exact measurements) but I only gave her 20mls of that mixture because I didn’t want to overload her and wasn’t sure she could she could handle a whole 250mls. She only weighs 1.4kg
I was also concerned about dehydration considering I’m out all day.

She has access to plain water with vitamins now and shell grit. But she’s not eating or drinking by herself. My partner is giving her 1ml of sugar water periodically with the syringe. He said her crop doesn’t feel too full or distended, so maybe I should try tubing a greater amount of epsom flush tonight? Do I give her an equal amount of unsalted fluids to hydrate?

She has done two watery poops today so far.

 

[Lillith37]

So I was gently massaging Brown Chicken’s crop this evening when I realised her feathers in that area were a bit damp. I had a closer look with a torch light and realised that she had a big greenish fluid filled blister on the skin over her crop. It looked terrible and there were bugs crawling around it. I took her back round to my neighbour and said unless he wanted to pursue veterinary care, it was time for her to go… he said he would take care of her.
So that’s that
I wish I had have done a more thorough inspection of her and realised this 24 hours ago and spared her the unnecessary suffering.

 

[azygous]

You did discover the true cause of the chicken's distress. Time in this case is not a factor of her survival. Rethinking it serves no purpose other than teaching us all to be more thorough in our initial exam of a sick or injured chicken. We all learn from the threads that are posted here.

 

[Sally PB]

Thank you for caring enough to try to help her. And for posting here to possibly help someone in the future.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

So I was gently massaging Brown Chicken’s crop this evening when I realised her feathers in that area were a bit damp. I had a closer look with a torch light and realised that she had a big greenish fluid filled blister on the skin over her crop. It looked terrible and there were bugs crawling around it. I took her back round to my neighbour and said unless he wanted to pursue veterinary care, it was time for her to go… he said he would take care of her.
So that’s that
I wish I had have done a more thorough inspection of her and realised this 24 hours ago and spared her the unnecessary suffering.