Is it sour crop?

[starleta]

Hi everyone - I've been researching but really confused. Chicken was shaking her head and looked as if she was gagging and did that repeatedly for 30 mins. Seemed ok after that, if a bit slow and quiet. Next day she kept standing in place and closing her eyes, so I knew something was wrong. Noticed she was not eating at all, and she would not take treats when offered.

Her crop to me feels soft and empty, NOT overly bulbous or squishy. She also does not have any sour smell. However, this morning when we took her from the sick bay and palpitated her crop, we heard a very loud gurgling just like from a human stomach, over and over. And then when I leaned over and pointed her downwards, thick and very sticky strands of clear spittle/bile came forth. There was no odor and nothing else came out. It does feel like there are maybe little rocks in the crop still, but I cannot feel anything else. I'm really inexperienced with feeling their crop area and just don't know if we're on the right track.

How can we tell the difference between impacted and sour crop?

Things we've tried so far:
- Syringe of colloidal silver 10ppm with two drops trace minerals
- Sryinge of diluted ACV mixed with manuka (this was before I realized the sugar in the honey was a no-no)
- Syringe of epsom solution (one teaspoon epsom salt in 8 oz. water)
- Teaspoon of yogurt mixture (equal parts coconut oil, yogurt, diluted ACV)
- Still haven't tried but considering: red wine, oil of oregano, olive oil

I think because of the gurgling it must be sour crop, but I just don't know! She hasn't eaten in about 20 hours now, and is still not interested. Very hard to get the drops down her throat this morning; poor baby just wants to be left alone.

 

[coach723]

How old is she? Do you know when she last laid? How is her weight, is the keel bone well muscled or is the bone very prominent? What do her droppings look like?

 

[starleta]

She's only 9 months old. Last laid about 3 days ago (day before the gagging). Got a finger up the bum yesterday and we ensured she's not egg bound. Keel bone is not prominent; she's probably our fattest chicken (not in a bad way, just a large and full gal), and she hasn't dropped any weight yet as I think we caught this early. Droppings are very watery and white (hard to tell if it's just the urea or if some yeast is coming out too). She poops shortly after we give her a syringe.

 

[coach723]

Do they have access to poultry grit all the time?
An impacted crop will feel full, and the mass won't pass. It's usually something foreign they shouldn't have eaten or it's often a lot of fiberous plant material, like long grass, that they can't pass. Since her crop isn't full, it doesn't sound like that. A sour crop happens when the contents don't pass out of the crop and start to spoil or ferment in the crop. And those usually blow up into a large squishy crop.
Sometimes an egg can be delayed or having trouble farther up than your finger, so I would still give her a calcium citrate +D (citracal or generic equivalent) tablet or capsule once a day, see if it gets anything moving. An abnormally shaped, extra large, or soft shelled egg can be very hard for them to pass and can make them feel awful. And new layers can sometimes have glitches. The calcium will help with contractions to help them try to pass it. Since she is not really passing any solids in droppings, it sounds like something is blocked or slowed somewhere. If you can get her to eat something, her feed mixed with water to make a mash, cooked or scrambled egg, a little canned tuna, it would be good to see if she's able to pass it out of the crop, or if it stays.

 

[starleta]

I think we may need to offer larger grit - we have oyster shells, eggshells, and sand out for them. I will absolutely try the calcium!

She's refused anything we've tried to feed her, but hubby said she still had solid droppings a little over 24 hours ago when she still had food in her from her last meal. We will keep try to get something solid in her today.

 

[coach723]

They do need poultry grit available all the time, it's crushed granite in the correct size for poultry. They can't grind food up in their gizzards without it, they can get impacted gizzards. Sand won't do it, and oyster shell and egg shells are for calcium, not for digestion. Some environments have enough small stones they can find, but it's a good idea to have it out all the time so it's there if they need it, just put it in a separate feeder, a bag may last you a long time. Try the calcium, and offer a small amount of grit, maybe a Tbsp. Don't give her a big dish of it. If she's needing it, and hasn't had any, she may gorge on it, so start slow. If she takes it, monitor the crop to make sure it passes out of the crop.

 

[starleta]

Thank you! Update: I hand fed her a bit of boiled egg yolk and chips of coconut oil. She will only take them from me with much coaxing; she does not try to eat on her own. I placed grit in with her but she hasn't touched it yet.

This time when I massaged her crop, it felt more swollen than it has other times we've checked, and I can hear the squishy bubbling sound when I palpitate it. When I do this, she closes her eyes and looks terribly uncomfortable. I will check in for droppings in about an hour.

 

[starleta]

Hello, I wanted to follow up with an update so that maybe I can help someone else.

Her crop continued to feel squishy and she was spitting up thick, sticky clear bile so that she'd have it all over neck and chest when we'd check on her, so we're sure now that it's sour crop. That said, she turned a corner overnight and is back to being a bright and feisty gal! She's eating lots of boiled yolk today and would like to go outside cause she's BORED!

Here is the routine that has worked for Bitsy:
- 3ml syringe water solution, 3x/day: solution is 1 teaspoon epsom salts dissolved in 8oz. water with one large minced garlic clove mixed in. Keep solution refrigerated.
- 1/2 teaspoon yogurt mixture, 3x/day: mixture is 1/4 cup yogurt mixed with 1/2 drop clove oil and/or 1/2 drop oregano oil (they're so strong, I didn't feel comfortable using even a full drop, so I just touched a drop and smeared that on the bowl and then worked into the yogurt with a spoon. Even that tiny amount and you can still smell the clove.
- 1/2 tsp coconut oil chips, 3x/day: just kept mashing the solidified oil against the end of her beak until she licks it with her tongue. Takes about 20 mins to get her to eat it all.
- Free feed, days 1-3: yogurt mixed with cinnamon, boiled egg yolk, grit, eggshells (day 3 is the first day she's eaten on her own)
- Free feed, days 4: we plan to add a small amount of oatmeal to the yogurt tomorrow
- Free feed, days 5-7: if she's doing well, we plan to add small amount of ground feed (1 tbsp perhaps)
- Massage crop, 5x/day or more: before each treatment or feeding, Bitsy gets a 2-3 minute crop massage. Each time we hear gurgling and stomach noises, but we can tell she's improving today because she's not clenching her eyes shut like it hurts anymore.

We have NOT induced vomiting and would not recommend this, as we read of many fatalities. Even when she was spitting up, we avoiding vomiting her, and I'm very glad we did - just not worth the risk. Will post another update in a couple days!