can a chicken have sour crop and canker at the same time?

Warrior1

In the Brooder
Sep 5, 2018
16
3
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I noticed one of our hens not eating and lethargic after going through a broody spell. I kept an eye on her and noticed that she would come running when I gave the other girls a treat, but she would just look at the food and would pick at the food but not pick it up. A chicken farmer in my area told me she was still broody and her actions was like she was tending to chicks and she would figure out she had no chicks and start eating. I did notice that her crop was full one morning, so I separated her and tried syringe feeding her with yogurt and garlic water because she wasn't eating and I could tell she lost weight; we didn't try to have her regurgitate. She really wasn't getting much food, but what she was getting after a few days seemed to be gone in the morning. She also had lice, which we treated her and all the girls with Diatomaceous Earth (didn't work) but ended up using Seven, which did the job. I ended up getting a tube and large syringe, and started feeding her with that, some days we would see some bits of poop that seemed normal, but most days it was white and fluid. After a few days of her crop being empty in the morning I started giving her some egg, yogurt and garlic water that I pureed enough to get through the tube syringe. Now this had been over 3 weeks in time. One day when tube feeding her, I noticed creamy mass in her throat and upper part of her mouth; with creamy saliva too. Someone told me that she canker that was also probably in her crop and it was not sour crop, and to treat her with some fish Zole; that was two days ago. Since I started with the FZ, she has been downing the water, and today; I am sad to say looks near death. She has really never got over being lethargic and mostly just laid around with her eyes closed. I would note, that following the advice to leave her alone and she would eventually start to eat really depleted her, although at one point I would separate her from the other girls and give her live meal worms, which she did eat at first, but even with those she had issues picked them up and seemed to have issue getting them down. I guess I should add, that sometimes her crop was squishy and other times he seemed like a harder mass at the bottom of her crop. We've had chickens for two years on a third of acre and they free range all day. We are so sad that we probably mis diagnosed her several times and my post is really to ask a some questions. Can a chicken have sour crop and canker at the same time? Does a broody hen act like what I described? Should I have taken her water so she didn't drink so much? The girls (have 8) get regular Apple Cider Vinegar in the water; probiotic packs in the water; yogurt, and DE sprinkled in their food. Anyway, I tried to put down everything I remember and sorry for the long post, so any questions, or suggested maintenance would be appreciated.
 
Can you get some photos of the inside of her beak? Her and her poop?

Does she have a rotten/bad smell or yeasty smell?

Have you ever wormed her?

Is vet care possible?

Canker can cause crop issues as well.
Sour Crop can be accompanied by Thrush/yeast infection the throat and beak.

Canker is caused by a protozoa. Thrush is a yeast infection. 2 different treatments - this is why I'm asking you a lot of questions. :)

I would not take away her water.
 
Can you get some photos of the inside of her beak? Her and her poop?

Does she have a rotten/bad smell or yeasty smell?

Have you ever wormed her?

Is vet care possible?

Canker can cause crop issues as well.
Sour Crop can be accompanied by Thrush/yeast infection the throat and beak.

Canker is caused by a protozoa. Thrush is a yeast infection. 2 different treatments - this is why I'm asking you a lot of questions. :)

I would not take away her water.
I cleaned her sick pen up when I put her outside in the shade today, so no photos of her poop, but it was mainly water with a white creamy middle. She has really gone down hill and I think she will be gone by morning, so I don't want to bother her for pictures. She did have a bad smell and I have not wormed her other than putting DM in their food. there are a lot of vets around here but really no chicken ones. One said they could give her a wide spectrum Antibiotic shot but I didn't want to give her shots as a guessing treatment. I appreciate all the questions..
 
so, i checked on her before we went to bed and she didn't look like she was breathing and on her side. I figured since she was probably going to die, I would open her mouth and check it out to give her every effort I could to live. I found her throat and trachea blocked with something creamy, so I took Q-tips and got most of it out and I think I cleared her trachea too. I mean, I got a lot out, some huge chunks of material that was somewhat spongy, not hard like I remember canker being like from my pigeons. She was completely worn out when I was done but she was breathing, as I could see her body rise and fall when she took a breath. I figured she was actually trying to drink water and nothing was probably going down, that's why she was so wet on her chest. So after I scraped as much as I could and let her rest for awhile, I gave her about 10cc of garlic infused water. She still doesn't have energy to sit upright so I made a box up with towels, which propers her up and she actually seems to be breathing OK. I hope she's just exhausted and drained from having difficulty breathing and makes it through the night.
 
Can you get some photos of the inside of her beak? Her and her poop?

Does she have a rotten/bad smell or yeasty smell?

Have you ever wormed her?

Is vet care possible?

Canker can cause crop issues as well.
Sour Crop can be accompanied by Thrush/yeast infection the throat and beak.

Canker is caused by a protozoa. Thrush is a yeast infection. 2 different treatments - this is why I'm asking you a lot of questions. :)

I would not take away her water.
I will take some pictures of what I got out of her throat tomorrow and post it, so hopefully someone can tell me what it is and how to treat it if any of my other girls get it
 
so, i checked on her before we went to bed and she didn't look like she was breathing and on her side. I figured since she was probably going to die, I would open her mouth and check it out to give her every effort I could to live. I found her throat and trachea blocked with something creamy, so I took Q-tips and got most of it out and I think I cleared her trachea too. I mean, I got a lot out, some huge chunks of material that was somewhat spongy, not hard like I remember canker being like from my pigeons. She was completely worn out when I was done but she was breathing, as I could see her body rise and fall when she took a breath. I figured she was actually trying to drink water and nothing was probably going down, that's why she was so wet on her chest. So after I scraped as much as I could and let her rest for awhile, I gave her about 10cc of garlic infused water. She still doesn't have energy to sit upright so I made a box up with towels, which propers her up and she actually seems to be breathing OK. I hope she's just exhausted and drained from having difficulty breathing and makes it through the night.
Poor thing!
I'm glad you were able to get some of the material out of her.
I would take a guess, it's yeast if it's not like the material you remember from Canker in your pigeons (Canker in chickens would be like what you have experience with).

I agree, it sounds like that was blocking the water, so hopefully she can get hydrated now.
For treating yeast/thrush - then using an anti-fungal would be good. You can order Nystatin or even use Vaginal yeast cream orally (1/2" of cream twice a day for 7 days). https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/
Looks like Medistatin is out of stock, but you may find that you can watch these sites and get on the email list. If you have a pigeon supply store you use/d they may have it(?)
https://allbirdproducts.com/products/medistatin
https://www.jedds.com/shop/medistatin/

I'm hoping she has improved some overnight :fl
 
Well she passed this morning, but she waited for me to check on her and say goodbye; took her last breath as I was stroking her head. Attached is just a sample of what I got out of her last night, it turned brown over night but it started a creamy white color and was spongy and flaky.
 

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Well she passed this morning, but she waited for me to check on her and say goodbye; took her last breath as I was stroking her head. Attached is just a sample of what I got out of her last night, it turned brown over night but it started a creamy white color and was spongy and flaky.
I'm so sorry for your loss :hugs

Thank you for the photo. Creamy white color - I would hazard a guess that it was yeast/fungal infection, but really hard to know.

If you did want to find out - sending the body to your state lab would give you answers. But totally understandable if that's not something you wish to do.
 
I'm so sorry for your loss :hugs

Thank you for the photo. Creamy white color - I would hazard a guess that it was yeast/fungal infection, but really hard to know.

If you did want to find out - sending the body to your state lab would give you answers. But totally understandable if that's not something you wish to do.
I am in California how would you do something like that?
 

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