sour crop.

does anyone have good natural treatment for sour crop?

Withdraw feed for 24-48 hours. Add organic, unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar with "the mother", about a tablespoon or two to a gallon (plastic waterer only) to the drinking water. Then add plain yogurt to the regimen for a day, then add plain scrambled or boiled egg. And copper sulfate was recommended for me to add to the water, but I never found any. Feed store should have it, though. Don't use with the ACV, though.


Massage the crop some, but don't push upward. Don't want her to aspirate.

There are numerous threads on sour crop. Search works great here.

I haven't posted for quite a while but, after reading questions about sour crop, I wanted to participate. I feel like I'm tested and tried on this issue so I wanted to share my experiences. Each person has a different situation so what I did may not work for someone else but at least it will give info to research and consider. My Black Australorp hen developed sour crop in January. At that time, she was 7 months old. She has had a total of 5 episodes of this since January! In February, I did the crop surgery and she responded beautifully, remaining in good shape for 6 weeks, then it came back again. I knew I wasn't going to do the surgery on her again so I made another call to Peter Brown of First State Veterinary Supply. He had offered good advice previously so I wanted to see what else to do. At the time, I was giving her Epsom salts via feeding tube along with Nystatin and, at separate times, giving her baby food 3X each day via the feeding tube. Peter indicated that the Epsom would probably dilute the Nystatin too much so I should give Nystatin only. I did the Nystatin alone via feeding tube for 3 additional days but at different times from the food and she recovered! Following this, I gave 30 cc probiotic via feeding tube as well as putting it in the water for an additional five days and she has done wonderfully well ever since. It will be a month next week since she recovered. I don't know if it will come back but I check all my chickens routinely for this problem...I only have 4 so it's not difficult. They seem to understand that every day they will get "examined two times!" Catching sour crop early is crucial and keeping the bird fed so it doesn't lose strength also seems to be important.

This post may not make much sense but if anyone is having troubles with sour crop, I would be happy to try to be more specific. I kept a calendar log of everything that I did so I'd be glad to refer to that. Once again, catching it early seems to be the key and make certain the bird has food and fluid. People who love their birds are willing to go to all lengths to help them. I continue to be thankful that she has recovered. I now hope that it doesn't come back!