1) What type of bird , age and weight. Easter Egger Hen, a year old in June, don't know how much she weighs, she is smaller than my other heavy breeds. I am sure she lost some weight in the last week.
2) What is the behavior, exactly. Went off egglaying, sitting on roost in the middle of the day, isolating self, squishy crop
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? Went off egglaying the hottest day of the year, didn't think much of it because of that, started roosting midday five or six days ago, the second time I noticed it I felt that her crop was squishy not solid.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No, she does have feather damage from the roos (now gone) and someone has picked her beard and muff. The feathers appear to slowly be regrowing. I have looked closely during the day, and at night with a flashlight for mites, lice, eggs, haven't found anything.
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. Its been very hot. Two weeks before she stopped laying and 3 weeks before she exhibited other symptoms my husband came home with hay instead of straw for bedding. At the same time I moved them from one coop to another/
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. I have had her isolated for three days now. She has free choice water, which she drinks eagerly. The first day she had a few TBSP yogurt, 2nd day water, fine crumbles, and a dice sized piece of bread with a little olive oil, and today she has water and free choice crumbles.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. Poop is runny/slimey white and green. Have a look for yourself.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? After I read about similar symptoms I thought it was most likely sour crop, because her crop was larger, a bit warm to the touch and squishy, even in the morning. About 5 days ago, I followed the advice to aid her in expelling some of what was collected in her crop. While she was seated on my lap, I massaged up a bit of liquid and them some solids, which appeared to be a mixture of grass or hay and dissolved layer pellets, but primarily green/grey in color. No terrible odor. She choked and sneezed for a bit when the solids came up and tried coming out her nose so I stopped. I was afraid she would aspirate it or choke to death. She shook her head a bit and and sneezed and made funny noises for a bit afterwards, so I didn't try it again. The next morning she ran away from me. I took her energetic retreat as a good sign, but again later she was sitting on the perch. She also spent 2 or 3 days spending a lot of time sitting in the next box, making me wonder if she were egg bound???. I'm just a novice, but didn't notice anything unusual about her vent area. Since then I have been isolating her during the day and putting her back on the perch at night. I massage her crop morning and evening in the hopes of helping things break up and move along.
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I intend to do whatever I can do for her to help her recover or keep her comfortable myself. She doesn't seem to be getting any worse, though I'm not seeing a large improvement. Her tail has been up more the last few days. My family has a large dairy and mom will be visiting on Friday, so if there is a treatment that they can bring me from their vet I am willing to do that, but I don't want to treat medically without a better idea of what it is, and I don't have money to spend on a vet bill.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. Her crop is not as distended or warm as it was previously, but it is also not empty in the morning. At the beginning it felt like there was a snack-size zipplock bag full of gel in her crop, this morning it felt more like the size of a large squishy egg. Here is a picture of her this morning. You can see her crop hanging above the water bucket.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use The housing is a permanent house in the shade of two trees, the run is 1600 sq feet of pasture that is rotated when it gets eaten down. There are currently green apples falling from a tree in the run, but I don't think they are eating them. Currently the bedding is hay, as described earlier. In the hen house there is free choice grit, calcium, layer pellets, and water. In the run, they have access to fresh pasture and get garden and kitchen gleanings and waste. (zucchini and cucumbers of late)
Easter has always been a somewhat flighty and feisty hen. There were a few days there where I thought she went downhill, but now she seems to be holding her own. She is acting feisty trying to get out of the dog pen and though she doesn't look well she does fan her tail for me when I approach. If anyone has any instinct as to what is wrong with her or any suggestions for treatment I would appreciate it. I still want to get out and get some organic ACV to treat the water.
Thanks for any input you may have!
2) What is the behavior, exactly. Went off egglaying, sitting on roost in the middle of the day, isolating self, squishy crop
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? Went off egglaying the hottest day of the year, didn't think much of it because of that, started roosting midday five or six days ago, the second time I noticed it I felt that her crop was squishy not solid.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No, she does have feather damage from the roos (now gone) and someone has picked her beard and muff. The feathers appear to slowly be regrowing. I have looked closely during the day, and at night with a flashlight for mites, lice, eggs, haven't found anything.
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. Its been very hot. Two weeks before she stopped laying and 3 weeks before she exhibited other symptoms my husband came home with hay instead of straw for bedding. At the same time I moved them from one coop to another/
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. I have had her isolated for three days now. She has free choice water, which she drinks eagerly. The first day she had a few TBSP yogurt, 2nd day water, fine crumbles, and a dice sized piece of bread with a little olive oil, and today she has water and free choice crumbles.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. Poop is runny/slimey white and green. Have a look for yourself.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? After I read about similar symptoms I thought it was most likely sour crop, because her crop was larger, a bit warm to the touch and squishy, even in the morning. About 5 days ago, I followed the advice to aid her in expelling some of what was collected in her crop. While she was seated on my lap, I massaged up a bit of liquid and them some solids, which appeared to be a mixture of grass or hay and dissolved layer pellets, but primarily green/grey in color. No terrible odor. She choked and sneezed for a bit when the solids came up and tried coming out her nose so I stopped. I was afraid she would aspirate it or choke to death. She shook her head a bit and and sneezed and made funny noises for a bit afterwards, so I didn't try it again. The next morning she ran away from me. I took her energetic retreat as a good sign, but again later she was sitting on the perch. She also spent 2 or 3 days spending a lot of time sitting in the next box, making me wonder if she were egg bound???. I'm just a novice, but didn't notice anything unusual about her vent area. Since then I have been isolating her during the day and putting her back on the perch at night. I massage her crop morning and evening in the hopes of helping things break up and move along.
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I intend to do whatever I can do for her to help her recover or keep her comfortable myself. She doesn't seem to be getting any worse, though I'm not seeing a large improvement. Her tail has been up more the last few days. My family has a large dairy and mom will be visiting on Friday, so if there is a treatment that they can bring me from their vet I am willing to do that, but I don't want to treat medically without a better idea of what it is, and I don't have money to spend on a vet bill.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. Her crop is not as distended or warm as it was previously, but it is also not empty in the morning. At the beginning it felt like there was a snack-size zipplock bag full of gel in her crop, this morning it felt more like the size of a large squishy egg. Here is a picture of her this morning. You can see her crop hanging above the water bucket.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use The housing is a permanent house in the shade of two trees, the run is 1600 sq feet of pasture that is rotated when it gets eaten down. There are currently green apples falling from a tree in the run, but I don't think they are eating them. Currently the bedding is hay, as described earlier. In the hen house there is free choice grit, calcium, layer pellets, and water. In the run, they have access to fresh pasture and get garden and kitchen gleanings and waste. (zucchini and cucumbers of late)
Easter has always been a somewhat flighty and feisty hen. There were a few days there where I thought she went downhill, but now she seems to be holding her own. She is acting feisty trying to get out of the dog pen and though she doesn't look well she does fan her tail for me when I approach. If anyone has any instinct as to what is wrong with her or any suggestions for treatment I would appreciate it. I still want to get out and get some organic ACV to treat the water.
Thanks for any input you may have!
