My son sprinkled feed all over the ground in the run! Mold??

[TinyChickenLady]

Random thought....
Would animals have food allergies like humans do?
I'm allergic to mold. Also allergic to the flu shot. Among MANY other things.

Curiousity just bit me. Gotta ask....

 

[PoultryPedia]

Mold can sometimes cause serious problems, especially if your birds are dealing with some weakness or don't have enough "good bacteria" inside to help fight off the mold, or if they have heavy exposure to mold. If birds' health is strong or the exposure is mild, the birds may be just fine--Their systems are designed to regularly overcome small amounts of fungi.

Mold in corn can be especially risky. I had 3 chickens gradually starve to death over a period of months from eating off a few cobs of corn that I'd trimmed some black mold off of & then fed the rest. The coop floor was also pressboard & part of it and the bedding close to where their feeders were got damp & had some mold at the same time.

I've added a "Fungal Infections" page to my website linked in my sig below, as a result of the trauma of these losses. Fungal conditions are very, very often not detected as what they are. It was extremely hard for me to find treatment information anywhere, so I've posted things I've found about it to help others with their birds. Oxine AH is a new treatment listed on the page that I so wish I'd found way back when I was losing my hens. I keep it on hand now & use it when there seems to be a risk.

 

[speckledhen]

Agreed, SpeckledHills. One problem is that though some say chickens are livestock, you simply cannot lump all livestock together. Avian species process food completely differently than pigs and cows. They are not the same, no matter what label you put on them. A fungal infection in the crop causes sour crop. A fungal infection in the lungs can kill as well. Fungus is not good for chickens, no matter how it infects them.

 

[PoultryPedia]

Quote:
True, true. Mine had a fungal infection in their digestive systems which ate up some of the nutrition coming through, plus caused perforations in their guts. It caused slow weakening & starvation.

 

[loanwizard]

Quote:
I wouldn't feed moldy stuff to my goats.... They wouldn't eat it. Birds.... or Avian species clean up the earth. I have seen them by the side of the road eating roadkill that has been there over a week.

I only gave my experience.

Believe it or not, my chickens get layer feed, my goats get goat feed, my hogs get hog feed. I don't want to be blamed for treating all my livestock the same

Interestingly enough, through my internet searches, sour crop is NOT caused by moldy feed. Can moldy feed lead to it? Possibly, but sour crop is food that has not moved through the crop due to lack of grit and has started fermenting in the crop.

Now, if the moldy food doesn't move through, it has a head start, I get that, but to say that moldy food is the cause of sour crop is incorrect.

http://www.greenmuze.com/blogs/green-muzings/2208-chicken-impacted-crop-or-sour-crop.html

http://poultrykeeper.com/chickens/health/sour-crop.html

http://littlehenrescue.co.uk/after.aspx

http://barnyardsandbackyards.org/2010/09/10/sour-crop-prevention-better-than-cure/

http://petalia.com/templates/storyt...tory_no=1548&specie=&url.section=answers#ct-3

http://www.petforums.co.uk/poultry-health-nutrition/65371-what-symptoms-sour-crop.html

Sour Crop: the hard facts
A diagram of a chicken showing the crop

The Chook Doctor explains:

[Sour Crop] is a common problem with hens, especially if they are allowed to graze on grass when they are first released. These birds are not used to eating such natural foods, so they tend not to know how to do it properly. Long strands of grass in the crops of such birds often are unable to pass through the digestive system, [so they] bind in the crop and ferment

http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.cgi?board=emergencies&action=display&num=1161893898

Speckled Hen's post came up in my research as well. I doubt it was the moldy food itself, but the consistency and the amount they ate, and perhaps the shape of what they ate, blocked the crop causing the problem. Can't say for sure, for I wasn't there.

 

[speckledhen]

I was talking about sour crop, not impacted crop. The crops were not blocked at all by anything-I know this because they were opened up and examined. They simply quit functioning. Impacted crop is not at all the same; we've seen that once or twice.

We've been around the block a few times with crop issues, three of my four Blue Orp hens died from them. That breed variety tends toward pendulous crop and that is exacerbated by the depleted bodies caused by their molts. All crop issues occurred during hard molt--some could process small amounts of moldy feed, but any hens who were not 100% top capacity were the ones whose crops quit. The feed was in there in a mushed up ball, not hay/grass/fibrous material, just a ball of mushed up layer pellets (we use the mini-pellets), softened by water they drank, that refused to move back through the proventriculus. You are assuming they were impacted by fibrous material or blocked up and they were not, not one of them. No blockage-we made sure of that.

Sour crop is basically a fungal infection, which is why acidified copper sulfate in water is one way to treat it.

Your first link is making impacted crop and sour crop the same condition and they are two separate things. Impacted crop may require surgery, which we've also done. Sometimes, even when the crop is evacuated and all seems fine, it still refuses to be "jump-started".

All those suggestions to make the hens upchuck, though, can backfire badly. They can aspirate and choke in your arms. Trust me, I know- that one started throwing up on her own as I was taking her toward the house to start treatment and we encouraged her to continue and she died right there. Best to stop feeding for 24 hours, put ACV or copper sulfate in the water and allow only that. Then, add plain no sugar yogurt the next day, all the while massaging the crop (not to make the bird regurgitate, though) several times a day. We've fixed some and lost some to it so we are very, very familiar with the causes and cures.

Back to the original intent of the thread, I wouldn't sweat it, but yes, moldy feed can be detrimental to chickens so just check for places where it may be sitting out and has started to ferment, like under leaves or rocks, etc.


As long as you're posting links, how about one from the university rather than a blog?

from this article on feeding chickens: http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/is1214.pdf

Keep water and feed troughs clean of
droppings, litter, soil, and other contaminants.
Keep feed troughs clean and dry. Empty feed
troughs at least two or three times weekly (daily if
necessary) and refill with dry, fresh feed. Do not
wash feed troughs unless they are contaminated
with harmful residues or unless the feed gets wet.
Do not let the feed become moldy. Moldy feed can
kill chickens.​

 

[loanwizard]

Quote:

Very Interesting..... THIS is what I consider good information. I also know that internet searches are just that, searches. Anyone can blog or have an opinion. As far as not posting links to a University, the reason I didn't is because it didn't come up in the 1st 2 pages of Google search for causes of sour crop. Not like everyone read every link.

 

[Minniechickmama]

To the OP,
I think you have to consider a problem being your floor is damp. With chickens you want everything in their living space to be a dry as possible! A little feed on the floor is not such a big deal if the floor is dry, but if it is wet or damp, then you are asking for problems for several reasons. I would consider putting a floor in the coop that can stay dry if it is possible.
As for just have a little feed spilled... tell me a chicken who doesn't mess their feed around and I will show you a chicken who ate it off the floor before you could find it.

As for mold, I have to agree 100% with speckledhen. You shouldn't feed moldy feed to any livestock. You are asking for problems. I have seen it and heard of many problems with that practice. If you get moldy feed from the feed store, take it back. If you leave yours where it can get wet and moldy, fix it. I put my feed in Rubbermaid garbage cans with a good fit/locking lid. It stays dry and clean and nothing else can get in it. I can fit almost 200# of lay mash in one can. I recommend this practice to anyone with livestock where you don't have it delivered by the ton in a bin.

 

[bugkiller]

I know my birds would eat it long before it went moldy. I would not be overly concerned

 

[ChickenSmurf]

I DO have mold on the ground in my run. The run gets no sun, and it is super humid here in Georgia. Plus, we've had a lot of rain lately. What should I do? I need solutions for present mold and preventative ideas as well. I avoid going in there now because my masks haven't come in yet and I have asthma.