Sour Crop?

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Carin

Carin

Songster
8 Years
Oct 16, 2011
162
33
124
South Africa
I have a Brahma pullet that is about 9 months old.She weighs about 4kg's - I think that is about 10 pounds. Eating and drinking well. Green sloshy poo and a Distended swollen crop. My boy came in this morning saying he saw her "vomiting". No problem with any of the other chickens only she. She do not act sick but I gave her some epson salt. No use going to the vet as the only two we have around here admitted that they do not know much about chickens. Any suggestions?
 
Generally a chicken gets a sour crop from something it ate. So the best method to deal with this is the separate the bird out in a large cage for about 3 days to a week. Only feed damp chicken feed. No hard foods that the gizzard has to break down as this only slows the crop down even more.

Next...vomit the bird if it needs it. That stuff is poison and will kill the bird eventually. Lean the chicken forward only, beak down, supporting the bird like a football in one arm. With the other hand squeeze and work the crop to get the gunk to come up. ONLY hold them this way for about 7 or 8 seconds so the bird can breathe. Do it again if you think you can get more out.

Grass and is a HUGE culprit for sour crop as is other stiff vegetation. If it continues with the same bird, you may have to keep that bird from free ranging on grass.
 
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Since your bird is young, I think sour crop is the culprit. It sounds like sour crop, but it could be something else, and for those of you with older birds, read on! One of my hens recently died and one symptom was a squishy crop and fluid coming out of her beak. However, a necropsy showed that it wasn't sour crop, but was actually due to cancer which caused her intestinal tract to close off. Fluids became backed up, and so the external symptoms were "sour crop." I have seen this a couple of times now in older birds.

One way to dose with epsom salts is to put it in a bath, as it is taken up through the skin. I have more about that here: http://hencam.com/faq/the-spa-treatment/
 
terryg said:
Since your bird is young, I think sour crop is the culprit. It sounds like sour crop, but it could be something else, and for those of you with older birds, read on! One of my hens recently died and one symptom was a squishy crop and fluid coming out of her beak. However, a necropsy showed that it wasn't sour crop, but was actually due to cancer which caused her intestinal tract to close off. Fluids became backed up, and so the external symptoms were "sour crop." I have seen this a couple of times now in older birds.

One way to dose with epsom salts is to put it in a bath, as it is taken up through the skin. I have more about that here: http://hencam.com/faq/the-spa-treatment/
Click to expand...
This is excellent information. Lymphoid Leukosis, a cancer that causes tumors in the body of older birds, is common in chickens. And the crop is going to go bad in the end. Thank you for posting this! I have a hen that has constant issues with bloated crop, sometimes getting to the point of souring. Been going on for almost a year. My birds don't free range and all they get is layer feed and a tray of veggies once a day. I am starting to consider internal cancer to be the reasons for her crop issues.
 
I'm glad that what I wrote has been helpful. Even when a hen dies of other causes - such as internal laying, I've seen signs of cancer in her. Ovarian cancer is so prevalent in hens that chickens are the preferred animals that researchers use in labs. Please read my post about deciding when to euthanize a hen. Having seen so much cancer and severe internal issues, I've been rethinking when it is a kindness to do it.
http://hencam.com/henblog/2012/06/the-kindness-of-euthanizing/
 

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