Whats the weirdest thing your chickens have eaten or tried to eat??

[Chick named Lola]

I had a hen that loved cigarettes, she would fly up on the deck and eat them out of the ashtray. She will walk next to me and jump up and snatch one, lit right out of my hand. :/

 

[GoneCrazy]

I had a hen that loved cigarettes, she would fly up on the deck and eat them out of the ashtray. She will walk next to me and jump up and snatch one, lit right out of my hand. :/

My barred rock does this all the time, then I look like an idiot chasin this chicken around our yard praying she doesn't start a fire

 

[cas]

Well, I didn't know that ANY birds would eat metal screws and nails - and now I hear a bunch of you saying you saw your chickens EAT the screw, nail, staple or even a piece of glass right in front of you!

We just lost TWO Muscovy ducks to HEAVY METAL POISONING . The xray on the second one was a shocking horror show! She ate about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of screws (2.5"!!!), nails, pins, roofing tacks, twisty ties and more! Some of these contained ZINC and that was what was poisoning her. We had no idea why these 2 were drastically losing so much weight and so lethargic. We babied these two with every kind of food possible, vitamin/electrolyte water, fresh worms and bugs. Then, the one just died, so we took the other to the vet. Ended up putting her to sleep after seeing the mess in her stomach. The operation to remove the metal was going to be $1400!!! And there was a HUGE chance that she wouldn't even make it. So, we spent the last 4 days going over EVERYTHING on our property with a strong magnet and actually bought a metal detector as well.

But, now I have to worry about the chickens too? We've had chickens for many years and never had any problems (except predation) and tonight I went out and one of them has what looks like a very swollen crop. Tomorrow we will deal with that mess. It seems lately it is always some major disaster lurking around the corner with these animals! My heart is not dealing well with it all!!!

QUESTION: Is this something I need to fix (sour or impacted crop), or will the chicken get better on her own? I don't want to see her waste away and suffer like the ducks, so if there is something I can do to help - let me know. If she is going to die anyway, I would rather just do it now and save a lot of grief, suffering and heartache for all involved. Some say to give oil on bread, vit/elct water, yogurt, probiotics. Others say no, it would do anything... HELP!!
Thanks!

 

[GoneCrazy]

Well, I didn't know that ANY birds would eat metal screws and nails - and now I hear a bunch of you saying you saw your chickens EAT the screw, nail, staple or even a piece of glass right in front of you! 

We just lost TWO Muscovy ducks to HEAVY METAL POISONING .  The xray on the second one was a shocking horror show!  She ate about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of screws (2.5"!!!), nails, pins, roofing tacks, twisty ties and more!  Some of these contained ZINC and that was what was poisoning her.  We had no idea why these 2 were drastically losing so much weight and so lethargic.  We babied these two with every kind of food possible, vitamin/electrolyte water, fresh worms and bugs.  Then, the one just died, so we took the other to the vet.  Ended up putting her to sleep after seeing the mess in her stomach.  The operation to remove the metal was going to be $1400!!!  And there was a HUGE chance that she wouldn't even make it.  So, we spent the last 4 days going over EVERYTHING on our property with a strong magnet and actually bought a metal detector as well. 

But, now I have to worry about the chickens too?  We've had chickens for many years and never had any problems (except predation) and tonight I went out and one of them has what looks like a very swollen crop.  Tomorrow we will deal with that mess.  It seems lately it is always some major disaster lurking around the corner with these animals!  My heart is not dealing well with it all!!!

QUESTION:  Is this something I need to fix (sour or impacted crop), or will the chicken get better on her own?  I don't want to see her waste away and suffer like the ducks, so if there is something I can do to help - let me know.  If she is going to die anyway, I would rather just do it now and save a lot of grief, suffering and heartache for all involved.  Some say to give oil on bread, vit/elct water, yogurt, probiotics.  Others say no, it would do anything...  HELP!!
Thanks!

I had a chicken get sour crop or impacted crop.....never identified which just went to work. Big Momma wasted away weight wise pretty fast. We brought her in, put her on yogurt, eggs and her crumbles soaked in water(made sure is was pretty liquidity) and gave her crop a massage everyday about 3 times a day. When we started to notice her crop was emptying we allowed her to have more "substance". It took us a while to get her back up but every chick is different.

I say bring her in and put her on lots of liquid(water for 12 hrs) and see if her crop is emptying.

 

[FowlmouthChick]

My husband and I had just returned from a day of fishing and set our bait bucket of live shrimp down in the back yard. The ladies went NUTS for the live shrimp! And, it was just plain comical watching them run around the yard with flailing shrimp in their beaks.

 

[DuckRaiser]

My birds ate a frog while it was alive.

 

[DuckRaiser]

I had a chicken get sour crop or impacted crop.....never identified which just went to work. Big Momma wasted away weight wise pretty fast. We brought her in, put her on yogurt, eggs and her crumbles soaked in water(made sure is was pretty liquidity) and gave her crop a massage everyday about 3 times a day. When we started to notice her crop was emptying we allowed her to have more "substance". It took us a while to get her back up but every chick is different.

I say bring her in and put her on lots of liquid(water for 12 hrs) and see if her crop is emptying.

Aw, I know how that feels, my chicken died of sour crop, her crop was giant and slush-like. I helped her throw up most of it but she died. I think it was because of the pellets I gave them, never given them those again...

 

[DuckRaiser]

Well, I didn't know that ANY birds would eat metal screws and nails - and now I hear a bunch of you saying you saw your chickens EAT the screw, nail, staple or even a piece of glass right in front of you!

We just lost TWO Muscovy ducks to HEAVY METAL POISONING . The xray on the second one was a shocking horror show! She ate about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of screws (2.5"!!!), nails, pins, roofing tacks, twisty ties and more! Some of these contained ZINC and that was what was poisoning her. We had no idea why these 2 were drastically losing so much weight and so lethargic. We babied these two with every kind of food possible, vitamin/electrolyte water, fresh worms and bugs. Then, the one just died, so we took the other to the vet. Ended up putting her to sleep after seeing the mess in her stomach. The operation to remove the metal was going to be $1400!!! And there was a HUGE chance that she wouldn't even make it. So, we spent the last 4 days going over EVERYTHING on our property with a strong magnet and actually bought a metal detector as well.

But, now I have to worry about the chickens too? We've had chickens for many years and never had any problems (except predation) and tonight I went out and one of them has what looks like a very swollen crop. Tomorrow we will deal with that mess. It seems lately it is always some major disaster lurking around the corner with these animals! My heart is not dealing well with it all!!!

QUESTION: Is this something I need to fix (sour or impacted crop), or will the chicken get better on her own? I don't want to see her waste away and suffer like the ducks, so if there is something I can do to help - let me know. If she is going to die anyway, I would rather just do it now and save a lot of grief, suffering and heartache for all involved. Some say to give oil on bread, vit/elct water, yogurt, probiotics. Others say no, it would do anything... HELP!!
Thanks!

Sour crop gets worse and worse, tip her over and she may throw up (a good thing) She needs to lose that fluid quickly or else she won't make it. I didn't notice my hen had sour crop until maybe two days after she got it, I tipped her over, she threw up. And I gave her yogurt and olive oil, but she was too far gone. I suggest you do something now.

 

[cas]

Yes, we did do something the next day. She went to the big free-range meadow in the sky. Didn't want to see her suffer. We had just tried to nurse a couple of ducks (ended up being heavy metal poisoning) and they suffered so badly until one died and the other we euthanized. Will keep an eye of the rest of the chickens though, to see if any more get a problem - but so far so good.

Question: When my son culled her - he looked at the crop and there was a bunch of the scratch grains that had started to sprout. Do you think her digestive tract was just "back up" and things weren't moving so the grain had a chance to sprout? Oddly enough, we just started trying fodder (sprouted wheat) but it had been at least 2 weeks since they had any as we are tweeking our fodder system (it leaked). Could the long wheat sprouts have caused the blockage? It was very strange.

 

[DuckRaiser]

Yes, we did do something the next day. She went to the big free-range meadow in the sky. Didn't want to see her suffer. We had just tried to nurse a couple of ducks (ended up being heavy metal poisoning) and they suffered so badly until one died and the other we euthanized. Will keep an eye of the rest of the chickens though, to see if any more get a problem - but so far so good.

Question: When my son culled her - he looked at the crop and there was a bunch of the scratch grains that had started to sprout. Do you think her digestive tract was just "back up" and things weren't moving so the grain had a chance to sprout? Oddly enough, we just started trying fodder (sprouted wheat) but it had been at least 2 weeks since they had any as we are tweeking our fodder system (it leaked). Could the long wheat sprouts have caused the blockage? It was very strange.

I have heard of pellets or a pretty thick food can cause sour crop but if you give them scratch from atwoods, or tractor supply, or any place with scratch, like, dried corn, small chances of sour crop. But, I am no vet, I am just telling you what I do to make my hens healthy. They look healthy;