Best antibiotic to use?

[Azulegg]

My silkie hen definitely has an impacted crop and it is definitely swollen and hot like it's infected. What would be the best antibiotic to use? I hope to try to save her.

 

[speckledhen]

You dont need an antibiotic. That won't do a thing. If you're sure it's impacted, then you must remove food after separating her, then just give water with ACV in it. You must syringe oil (olive or veg oil) into her mouth, then gently massage and work the stuff in the crop around. Dont push upward on it, just massage it. In a day or two, doing this daily, it should go down. If not, then surgery is in order.

 

[silkiechicken]

Antibiotics would likely do more harm than good. You'd likely kill all the good beneficial bacteria needed to break things down in the gut, so just make the problem worse, in addition to selecting for bacteria with resistance so the drug won't work when you really need it.

I would do what speckledhen suggests.

 

[Azulegg]

Ok. Thanks. I did massage her crop this morning. How many times per day? Right now she is sitting on eggs and not eating much. I did put acv in her water, and put olive oil on bread for her to eat. If eating bread is too much then I will just put olive oil in her beak.

 

[speckledhen]

On soft white bread, the oil is fine, but it would be good if you could syringe some into her beak, too. She may have eaten some straw/hay/long strands of grass and it got backed up. A couple times a day of massage, after she swallows the oil would be good. I would feed her soft food, not her regular feed--scrambled eggs, yogurt, etc.

 

[Azulegg]

All we can do is keep our fingers crossed.

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[speckledhen]

Good luck with her! Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Azulegg]

Thanks speckledhen. I will do the best I can with her.

We will need lots of jingles as she is sitting on eggs currently.

 

[silkiechicken]

Also, if she is setting, she could have very well stuffed herself full of food as she probably only gets up once a day or so to eat and drink. So packing things in tight and then being bare to heat up eggs might make her feel hotter than she really is. Might try keeping food and water really close by too if possible, so for her day stroll out, she might be less inclined to eat too much at once.