sour crop?

[mirandamiranda]

I have a young (4 months or so) chicken who I think has sour crop. Her crop is (very) enlarged and feels soft like a balloon. I have separated her from her flockmates and have been putting apple cider vinegar in her water and feeding her live yoghurt and a bit of scrambled egg.

I have also tried getting her to vomit up the contents of the crop - while this has had limited success she resists being upside down and I just can't get very much out. Does anyone have any tips on this?

The strange thing is that she seems otherwise pretty healthy. She is active and desperate to eat, although her large crop does impede her movement rather. She has been like this for several weeks now (unfortunately I only realised what the problem was a week or so ago) and I feel like I am just starving her slowly to death by restricting her food. She is also pretty miserable on her own. I have been thinking I might just let her out and see what happens.

I'd love some advice if anyone can help, most of what I have found relates to chickens who are clearly not happy and need to be taken care of. Also they either get better or die fairly quickly - mine just seems to be carrying on as normal except for a balloon on her front!

Thanks.

 

[Suze357]

I also am wondering about this sour crop problem.
I've noticed that my Speckled Sussex hen has an enlarged chest area. It feels soft and fluidy, but she does sort of look like she has a bit of a balloon in front of her compared to my other hens, am I just being a worrier? Because I thought she looked odd I got online and read about impacted / sour crop, I cut way back on available feed and started feeding bread soaked in olive oil with yogurt on top to hopefully clear any digestive issues. Any comments would be helpful Suzie

 

[JakRat]

Oh sour crop, my mortal enemy!

I have been dealing with sour crop since FEBRUARY. Luckily my little lady is still alive and doing much better. I would first try to natural route, as it is better for them, but if it does not go away you may need to bring in the bigger guns to try it. You can tell that it is a sour crop by the smell alone. She should have a foul smell coming out of her mouth and when you squeeze on her crop you should be able to hear gas and feel it moving out (it will sound like burping). Here is what I did after I checked all her symptoms back in February:

I first tried the acv and with holding food and what not and that just didnt work.

I looked up more on sour crop and found out that it is actually a fungal infection.

So I saw a post on here about treating with MONISTAT.

That worked for a while, but it eventually came back.

I then tried all the different kinds of monistat and lotramin, then called the vet to get the nystatin.

To make a long story short I have been giving her just the regular lotramin for the past month and her crop has gone mostly back to normal. I figured out that I have to keep giving it to her even though her crop has gone down and seems to be better. Since you cant see in there it is hard to tell whether or not it is completely gone.


Here is what I have been doing:

When her crop first filled back up I went ahead and vomited her ( I am a pro at this now and can do it almost one handed). Here is a video I made on how to properly hold her for beginners

(deff do this into a trash bag, dogs will roll in it)

so after you vomit them give them a bit then start with the meds. I went to walmart and got 3 of the big equate version of the lotramin. Its right next to the regular stuff. I think it is like $5.47. I then give her about 4 squirts in her mouth. This of course is still challenging but you just gotta keep at it. I then shake her crop around a bit to make sure it gets in there. This has worked really well for us and I came to the conclusion that if I dont do anything then she will die. She has started to grow again and her crop is much smaller. I have downgraded her dose to just two squirts now.

They do tend to over eat with a sour crop after a while as their crop is so big and they have the instinct to fill it. This can cause them to get an out stretched crop which will eventually starve them to death.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions!

 

[JakRat]

Oh Susie, Olive Oil is bad for sour crop, but good for an impacted crop (its sooooo dang confusing I know!). She sounds like she has sour crop though.

 

[mirandamiranda]

Thanks Jakrat, that is really a big help. I am going to get some lotramin today and hopefully that will help her. And thanks for the video too. It's reassuring to know that your sour crop was hanging around, although of course not so much fun for you. But at least it means my chicken is in with a chance! I had almost given up on her and my daughter who is ostensibly her owner was pretty upset.

Thanks again for your advice.

Miranda

 

[JakRat]

Thanks Jakrat, that is really a big help. I am going to get some lotramin today and hopefully that will help her. And thanks for the video too. It's reassuring to know that your sour crop was hanging around, although of course not so much fun for you. But at least it means my chicken is in with a chance! I had almost given up on her and my daughter who is ostensibly her owner was pretty upset.

Thanks again for your advice.

Miranda

No prob! I forgot to mention that when you give her the med to hold her in your lap in a towel. If u have trouble let me know and I can post a video for u to see how I do it.

 

[mirandamiranda]

Thanks again! Do you have your chicken with the others now or have you separated her? And is she on a special diet?

 

[Suze357]

Great information, thank you! Could some of you post some pictures of what the hen looks like with a sour crop? I'm totally new at this and haven't handled my chickens much since they were chicks. Now I'm working on picking them up and getting a feel for what their crop should feel like. The one I'm concerned about is the only Speckled Sussex I have so I have nothing to compare her to really. Thanks, Suzie

 

[JakRat]

Miranda : she hates being away from her sister so she has been out eating what they eat. I found that since her case was so severe that it didnt matter what food I gave her. If you can isolate her and give her that diet then totally go for it.

Suze : her crop should be no bigger then a walnut or maybe a small plumb. It should not sou.d like there is water in there either. You should grab her and feel around. If it is squishy but u feel a reeeeally hard mass in there then it is probably impacted crop. If it just sounds like a water balloon and feels like that then it is sour crop.

 

[JakRat]

Oh also if u look at my video u can see how wobbly her crop is.