Sour Crop Treatment

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duluthmom

duluthmom

In the Brooder
9 Years
Aug 20, 2010
23
0
22
I think one of my girls (6 mos.) has sour crop. This is the second day since I noticed her standing - not moving - not eating. I expressed some white liquid gunk from her crop yesterday. She has been isolated, pooping loose green stool, drinking some water and nibbled some yogurt. I sent down a couple of teaspoons of olive oil this morning and massaged her doughy crop. Tried to gently express more crop contents this morning, but nothing came up - as it so easily did yesterday. Does any kind of poop eliminated an impacted crop? Should I try to administer yogurt with the syringe to get more in her? Should I try to be more persistent with expressing her crop? How much time should I give her between whatever treatments I am giving? I'm going to get the feed store apple cider vinegar today. I have heard about baking soda water or saline flushes of the crop. What do you think? Thanks!
 
I'm so sorry you're dealing with this problem. You can read about my experience here https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=398133

I love Duluth, some of my favorite hiking is on the north shore.
smile.png
 
Is more hard or like a water balloon? Sour crop will be like a water balloon; whereas, an impacted crop is hard. "Doughy" kinda sounds normal, but that is a vague enough term that it can encompass the whole range of possible problems. Is her crop still full in the morning when she awakes?

If sour crop:
Massaging the crop in a downward motion. Hold all food from her and give her water with some apple cider vinegar (ACV) added to it (preferably ACV with mother, but regular will do). Make sure it is in plastic or glass as ACV corrodes metal and this can be toxic. A few times a day (as available anyway), give her an irrigation syringe full of 1/2 ACV - 1/2 water. This will take some patience as you can only give a little bit at a time to ensure she doesn't choke on it. I had a hen with sour crop that I would massage her crop while giving her the syringe. It would gurgle something nasty and she would have gnarly burps, but she started pushing up against my hand to keep massaging her crop and would open her beak for more of the ACV mixture, so it must've felt better. Sour crop is a yeast infection in the crop (hence hold food so it doesn't ferment more in there). The ACV kills the yeast. After a couple days you should see a difference and after 4 or so days, she should be near normal. Sour crop kills, so act quickly.

If an impacted crop:
Hold food. Give olive oil soaked bread (the bread is just to get the olive oil into the bird). Oil seems to be the best remedy as it slicks up the passage way to allow for food to pass through. It gets tougher it is long grass/hay stuck.
 
Thanks for your input! The whole crop drama has played itself out...with a happy ending. I think my girl ate too much fiber which got balled up and didn't clear overnight. The sour part came on first and was treated quickly with yogurt and ACV - what a blessing that even when a chicken feels bad she can't resist yogurt! Her crop went from balloon to golf ball in the course of 24 hours. The impaction that remained took a little more work to resolve. Olive oil and massage, more yogurt/water from a syringe. After 5 days, the obstruction was still sitting there and I decided to operate! My doctor neighbor agreed, reluctantly, to assist me. We set up the "surgical suite" on the kitchen table. My friend wanted to make sure of what she was aiming for, so she gave the crop a thorough exam during which she must have changed the shape of the obstruction and it just slid on down the line. I kept her in and quiet for 24 hours and then sent her back into the "general population" where she is now tough to pick out from the others. YAY!!! I have to say that I would have been looking at a dead chicken if not for this forum. Thanks to all who contribute so willingly, with such practical advice and a dose of good humor!:
wee.gif
 

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