Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[appps]

@Teila. Because she is eating grass they seem to think she is okay and not worried by the crop staying full. I know she isn't right though. She won't eat anything but grass and watermelon. When she eats the watermelon (only way I can get the probiotics and vitamin mix in her) she makes all these gurgle noises, bit like a gassy tummy. Ever morning the crop feels as full as the night before. That can't be ok, surely after a week and a bit it should be back to normal? I kept her seperate today and her poops are mostly water with little bits of gravelly textured poop in the middle. Some white so at least kidneys haven't packed it in.

2 questions for anyone who knows, I have been doing lots of reading on slow crops and one thing I have seen mentioned is worms causing it.
First question, if they are causing it would the vet have seen them when they emptied the crop?
And second, if I worm her in this malnourished state could I do more harm than good? They were due for worming when I noticed this so I haven't done it yet. Do I do it now just in case?

 

[Steampunked]

@Teila . Because she is eating grass they seem to think she is okay and not worried by the crop staying full.

I'm a complete beginner by comparison, but I thought one of the big problems with grass was that in some chickens consumption could lead to impacted crop issues? Perhaps if it's chopped up into tiny ( >1 cm) amounts to keep her eating, if it's the only thing she can tolerate?

 

[satay]

@Teila. Because she is eating grass they seem to think she is okay and not worried by the crop staying full. I know she isn't right though. She won't eat anything but grass and watermelon. When she eats the watermelon (only way I can get the probiotics and vitamin mix in her) she makes all these gurgle noises, bit like a gassy tummy. Ever morning the crop feels as full as the night before. That can't be ok, surely after a week and a bit it should be back to normal? I kept her seperate today and her poops are mostly water with little bits of gravelly textured poop in the middle. Some white so at least kidneys haven't packed it in.

2 questions for anyone who knows, I have been doing lots of reading on slow crops and one thing I have seen mentioned is worms causing it.
First question, if they are causing it would the vet have seen them when they emptied the crop?
And second, if I worm her in this malnourished state could I do more harm than good? They were due for worming when I noticed this so I haven't done it yet. Do I do it now just in case?

My logical brain says that the vet should have seen anything if it was there. I have never heard of worms in a crop not to say it doesn't happen though. If she is really poorly I would hold off on the worming for now.

 

[appps]

I'm a complete beginner by comparison, but I thought one of the big problems with grass was that in some chickens consumption could lead to impacted crop issues?  Perhaps if it's chopped up into tiny ( >1 cm) amounts to keep her eating, if it's the only thing she can tolerate?

Me too :-(. I don't get it but vet insisted and said specialist also said was what she should be eating. Seems counter productive when that's what they pulled out of the crop in the first place, and being fibrous I would have thought it required more work to digest, again counter productive in a slow crop. It's been over a week with no progress so today I've kept her locked up away from grass. Will see if cutting it out helps.

I just found on an avian vet site that boiled rice is easy for sick birds to digest. Just tried it and she ate the whole lot! I can mix her other poly aid mix etc with that easier and means I can cut back on the watermelon so very happy

 

[Fancychooklady]

@Teila. Because she is eating grass they seem to think she is okay and not worried by the crop staying full. I know she isn't right though. She won't eat anything but grass and watermelon. When she eats the watermelon (only way I can get the probiotics and vitamin mix in her) she makes all these gurgle noises, bit like a gassy tummy. Ever morning the crop feels as full as the night before. That can't be ok, surely after a week and a bit it should be back to normal? I kept her seperate today and her poops are mostly water with little bits of gravelly textured poop in the middle. Some white so at least kidneys haven't packed it in.

2 questions for anyone who knows, I have been doing lots of reading on slow crops and one thing I have seen mentioned is worms causing it.
First question, if they are causing it would the vet have seen them when they emptied the crop?
And second, if I worm her in this malnourished state could I do more harm than good? They were due for worming when I noticed this so I haven't done it yet. Do I do it now just in case?

Grass is usually the culprit and to be quite honest she wouldn't be getting much nutritional value from it anyway. As for the worms , unless the vet did a feacal count he wouldn't know. Yes I would worm her. But be warned if she has a large worm burden they could clog her system and kill her. If you have a regular worming program that shouldn't be the case.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Me too :-(. I don't get it but vet insisted and said specialist also said was what she should be eating. Seems counter productive when that's what they pulled out of the crop in the first place, and being fibrous I would have thought it required more work to digest, again counter productive in a slow crop. It's been over a week with no progress so today I've kept her locked up away from grass. Will see if cutting it out helps.

I just found on an avian vet site that boiled rice is easy for sick birds to digest. Just tried it and she ate the whole lot! I can mix her other poly aid mix etc with that easier and means I can cut back on the watermelon so very happy

Try mixing a little sardines in with olive oil into the rice. I alternate mine from rice to pasta.
Make sure there's no hay around for her to ingest too.

 

[appps]

Grass is usually the culprit and to be quite honest she wouldn't be getting much nutritional value from it anyway. As for the worms , unless the vet did a feacal count he wouldn't know. Yes I would worm her. But be warned if she has a large worm burden they could clog her system and kill her. If you have a regular worming program that shouldn't be the case.

That was the other reason I didn't understand why grass, she is so skinny how would that put condition on her. It's basically just fibre and I thought she would need protein.

With the worming this will be the second time I've wormed. Feed store told me each change of season with a different wormer.
In spring I wormed with kilverm. In autumn they said use piperazine solution, which is the one I delayed when I noticed she was sick.

 

[Fancychooklady]

That was the other reason I didn't understand why grass, she is so skinny how would that put condition on her. It's basically just fibre and I thought she would need protein.

With the worming this will be the second time I've wormed. Feed store told me each change of season with a different wormer.
In spring I wormed with kilverm. In autumn they said use piperazine solution, which is the one I delayed when I noticed she was sick.

Piperazine only treats roundworm . I think the worm that you were referring to in the crop is gapeworm. The symptoms are constant gaping or gasping for breath as the worms limit their capacity to breath. Gapeworm is quite rare in chooks and you would need to treat with fenbendazole . I'm not sure about kilverm, will research it.

 

[appps]

Piperazine only treats roundworm . I think the worm that you were referring to in the crop is gapeworm. The symptoms are constant gaping or gasping for breath as the worms limit their capacity to breath. Gapeworm is quite rare in chooks and you would need to treat with fenbendazole . I'm not sure about kilverm, will research it.

What do you use? I tried googling but the things you see recommended aren't always things you can buy in Australia

She gurgles when she eats the watermelon but not gaping at all. There were some air bubbles came up into her mouth with the gurgling the other day.

 

[cwrite]

Too late to vaccinate. 6-10 weeks is the optimum time . Are there any upper respiratory symptoms, pus in eyes or nares? I thought King george had pox but it turned out to be blood spots from fighting with the other roo. I always quarantine , just to be safe. I lost 3 hens to wet pox last year and if you have a lot of mosquito about it will go through the flock like wild fire. The dry pox isn't so bad and once it has run its course the birds aren't carriers.

Nope - nothing except two raised spots which haven't spread. I thought people vaccinated annually for this. I've definitely missed the gap then, but if it is dry fowl pox I think it's a very mild case and hasn't spread at all, although if it means some type of immunity I wouldn't mind if they all got a mild case of it.