Almost Dead. Last Chance for my Hen! :( Crop problems?

[tbourdon]

At first I noticed her being a little more quiet than the other girls. She is a 2year old red sex link. Then I noticed a mild case of what looked like avian pox. That freaked me out but she was Ok, and the rest of the flock is totally healthy and happy.Then she was REALLY acting lethargic, and had watery almost only water poop. I realized a rancid smell coming from her beak and diagnosed her with sour crop. Her crop was totally large and squishy. I learned how to carefully vomit the chicken, which I know comes with risks, but so does having a blocked crop! She definitely vomited but I didn;t see any blockages come clear. I've been keeping her now indoors on only ACV and yogurt and tomatoes. She lays down flat and sleeps for hours and hours and doesn't even try to run away anymore. When she does stand she is totally wobbly and won't really open her eyes. She has HARDLY been opening her eyes at all. Oh and her comb is pale and completely slumped to one side. She is so so sick and the sour crop has been sticking around for over a month. Finally in desperation to save her life, I tried what others have tried and started her on small doses of monistat 3 . She has been getting worse and worse daily. Last night was her first dose of monistat. Poor Poor hen How can I save her? There aren't avian vets near. Thanks for any advice.

 

[beauh]

Try slippery elm weetbixes. Mix slipperly elm with weetbixes and hot water- it helped my chickens.
Try kitchen oil down the throat this unbloaks bloackages.

 

[CptCluck]

Try slippery elm weetbixes. Mix slipperly elm with weetbixes and hot water- it helped my chickens.
Try kitchen oil down the throat this unbloaks bloackages.

Can you please elaborate? What is slippery elm, what is weetbixes, and do you squirt oil down with a little pressure, or just pour it down with a spoon?

 

[beauh]

Sorry I come from Aus didn't realise.
With the oil, only get about a teaspoon and put it down your hens throat. This has helped my hens when they have lumps on their throats (my moderns mainly), but I don't know about your hen (sorry) If doing this squirt down a little and then some more and more, but I hope this dosen't worsen your hen then make it better.
With slipperly elm it is a powder and is used for people with indigestion (try health food shops and supermarkets for it)
Weetbixes are a cereal, try google images.(i would try the slipperly elm weetbixes, before oil though)
Also try isolation with only water for 48h or try get surgery, but your hen seems she needs the help and fast.
Give her grit and flush the cropher crop also maybe lic and mite spray her. She may of got them as well as the sour crop (flopped comb)
Give her water mixed with apple cidar and give her constant massages.
Hope this helps

 

[WI FarmChick]

I found this hope this helps.




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.

 

[tbourdon]

Thank You everyone for you responses. Her crop has been feeling jsut like an empty water balloon for quite sometime. This afternoon (the first chance I got to check on her, and she hadn't had food since yesterday) her crop was still full, BUT felt like a sand bag, which I heard is what they should normally feel like. I have been doing the ACV. But I think I will try the syringe mixture like stated above. I know to be careful to go all the way back because of choking. She usually drinks a ton of water... But not today. Hardly moving.

 

[TwoCrows]

Sour crop can take a LONG time to heal up. So you have to be patient with it. I had a girl with sour crop for 2 full months. I did everything possible for her, ACV in the water, kept her under heat every night, used vaginal cream, Nystatin from the vet, kept up with the tomatoes, yogurt and soft foods. It took all I had to keep this bird alive. BUT...2 months later, she finally pulled out of it.

So do NOT give up. They can last a very long time with sour crop, IF you keep them vomited. That stuff is poison. Make sure she stays very warm and only feed her soft foods. Nothing that requires a lot time to digest, so no seeds or hard foods. Wet her layer feed so it is soft. When she does the squiggle neck thing, time to lean her forward and get the gunk out of her. Keep her in ACV, 3 tablespoons per gallon. If she goes off her feed, offer her things like hard boiled eggs, yogurt, cereals. Nothing that is sweet. Sweet things make yeasts grow.

Just keep at it and don't stop. Keep us posted.

 

[tbourdon]

Sour crop can take a LONG time to heal up. So you have to be patient with it. I had a girl with sour crop for 2 full months. I did everything possible for her, ACV in the water, kept her under heat every night, used vaginal cream, Nystatin from the vet, kept up with the tomatoes, yogurt and soft foods. It took all I had to keep this bird alive. BUT...2 months later, she finally pulled out of it.

So do NOT give up. They can last a very long time with sour crop, IF you keep them vomited. That stuff is poison. Make sure she stays very warm and only feed her soft foods. Nothing that requires a lot time to digest, so no seeds or hard foods. Wet her layer feed so it is soft. When she does the squiggle neck thing, time to lean her forward and get the gunk out of her. Keep her in ACV, 3 tablespoons per gallon. If she goes off her feed, offer her things like hard boiled eggs, yogurt, cereals. Nothing that is sweet. Sweet things make yeasts grow.

Just keep at it and don't stop. Keep us posted.

Thanks so much for the reply. I feel so bad about vomiting her. It seems like it would hurt. ? I've also read some scary stuff about people accidentally killing their chickens by vomiting them. Do you think that I should give her a syringe full of water/ACV and massage it around for a while, THEN try to vomit her? To kinda loosen things up.,? And SHould I give her my heat lamp? Does heat help?

 

[tbourdon]

Update. Her crop is still feeling sand baggy, which I feel is a good sign. I fed her a syringe of acv/water then massaged her crop very gently but thoroughly. Then To clean her vent to do a lice/mite check I gave her a nice warm bath which she seemed to find really relaxing, she just melted in my arms as I gave her a nice slow chicky massage in the tub. Then got to business and cleaned her vent. BUndled her up in a towel, let her sleep on my tummy for a while, then just set up an Awesome heat lamp in her "medium dog" crate. got her all set up in the crate with towels and the lamp then found a PERFECT tiny dropper. So I gave her three droppers full (prob 10 drops worth in each. Talking TINY little drops) of acv/water and she didn't resist at all. Once i got her little beak open she left it open for me to hydrate her. I'm Hoping that THIS will be the comination of things to bring her back to life

 

[TwoCrows]

If you are keeping her indoors, than she will be ok with out a heat lamp. Use the heat lamp, a brooder lamp, if she was going to be sleeping outside.

Vomiting will not hurt them if you do it properly and it only makes them feel good afterwards. Hold her like a football in one arm and support her at the crop with the other hand. Lean her forward only, beak straight down, and massage the crop till the gunk comes up. Only hold her like this for no MORE than 10 seconds so she can breathe. If not much came out and you think more will come out, lean her forward again. Try a few times and if nothing will come up, but give it a good shot, then take a break and try later. If some gunk does come up, then wait about 6 hours later and do it again.

That gunk is toxic and will make her sick. So it is best if you can get the worst of it out. You will never get it all, but any bit will really make her feel good.

Keep us posted! Take care of your baby.