Can anyone recommend a feed for a hen with crop / digestive issues?

[TwoCrows]

wow that's extremely helpful to know..I realize those on the wild adapt and mine free range so never starve but it calms down my rush to fill the feed at 7 each morning. and to know they can recover. I'm carefully watching my fav hen moving slowly for 6 days now. tried all remedies that I've read it's just wait and see now I guess

I hope she is ok!

 

[TropicalChickies]

wow that's extremely helpful to know..I realize those on the wild adapt and mine free range so never starve but it calms down my rush to fill the feed at 7 each morning. and to know they can recover. I'm carefully watching my fav hen moving slowly for 6 days now. tried all remedies that I've read it's just wait and see now I guess

It's so hard to watch them go through this.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Hi folks,

I made a video here about two questions I have about treating Butchie's crop.

1. I'm having trouble adjusting the fit of the bra I think. She was wearing it yesterday and seemed fine with it but after her lunch (a small portion of damp and mashed feed) when she went to drink water, it came dribbling out of her beak. So I took the bra off and whenever I saw her sitting and relaxing I would prop her crop up on a small plastic bottle to put some pressure on it. She seems to like it. But I'd like to get the bra on her properly.

2. I found a slimy but hard little lump in the bottom of her crop. I can feel it. I can't break it up, it's firm but viscous. Is this the actual yeast? Is this "doughy crop" I'm feeling? Or something else? I examined crops on four of my other girls this morning and no one else has it.

@TwoCrows I think the only treatment I have NOT tried is Flucozonale. I can get it easily at a pharmacy, I had to treat one of dogs with it for a skin fungus. If she stays the same after a full round of ACS, should I give it a try?

 

[TwoCrows]

Hi folks,

I made a video here about two questions I have about treating Butchie's crop.

1. I'm having trouble adjusting the fit of the bra I think. She was wearing it yesterday and seemed fine with it but after her lunch (a small portion of damp and mashed feed) when she went to drink water, it came dribbling out of her beak. So I took the bra off and whenever I saw her sitting and relaxing I would prop her crop up on a small plastic bottle to put some pressure on it. She seems to like it. But I'd like to get the bra on her properly.

2. I found a slimy but hard little lump in the bottom of her crop. I can feel it. I can't break it up, it's firm but viscous. Is this the actual yeast? Is this "doughy crop" I'm feeling? Or something else? I examined crops on four of my other girls this morning and no one else has it.

@TwoCrows I think the only treatment I have NOT tried is Flucozonale. I can get it easily at a pharmacy, I had to treat one of dogs with it for a skin fungus. If she stays the same after a full round of ACS, should I give it a try?

View attachment 3444453View attachment 3444454

Looks like you have the bra on in a good spot now, if you can make the square larger, it would fit better. It should cover the entire crop from top to bottom. The hard lump is a yeast ball, it is definitely "doughy" now. I have tried Fluconazole a few times but have had little luck with it. It comes with negative side effects and takes a couple of weeks to even work. Yeast become immune to Fluconazole quite easily. Acidified Copper is still the best treatment as nothing lives in some if these heavy metals, although ACS can't be used long term without breaks after 10 days to allow the build up of Copper in the birds system to dissipate. This type of yeast is extremely difficult to completely exterminate. Yeast is becoming more and more resistant to everything.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Looks like you have the bra on in a good spot now, if you can make the square larger, it would fit better. It should cover the entire crop from top to bottom. The hard lump is a yeast ball, it is definitely "doughy" now. I have tried Fluconazole a few times but have had little luck with it. It comes with negative side effects and takes a couple of weeks to even work. Yeast become immune to Fluconazole quite easily. Acidified Copper is still the best treatment as nothing lives in some if these heavy metals, although ACS can't be used long term without breaks after 10 days to allow the build up of Copper in the birds system to dissipate. This type of yeast is extremely difficult to completely exterminate. Yeast is becoming more and more resistant to everything.

Ok, thank you for that. I don't want to use something that is hard on her liver and wouldn't work anyway. I'll stick to the ACS for ten days (she's on day 7), give her a break with probiotics, and then cycle it through again. Much appreciated.

 

[TwoCrows]

Ok, thank you for that. I don't want to use something that is hard on her liver and wouldn't work anyway. I'll stick to the ACS for ten days (she's on day 7), give her a break with probiotics, and then cycle it through again. Much appreciated.

I wish I had the perfect answer for her, these yeasts are horrible things, I have a lot of trouble with crops too.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I wish I had the perfect answer for her, these yeasts are horrible things, I have a lot of trouble with crops too.

I can relate, you can see in the video where we live is the perfect climate for yeasts -- warm, wet, humid, etc. Ah well. At least they never get cold and they have a beautiful green jungle to forage in... It's a balance I guess

 

[TwoCrows]

I can relate, you can see in the video where we live is the perfect climate for yeasts -- warm, wet, humid, etc. Ah well. At least they never get cold and they have a beautiful green jungle to forage in... It's a balance I guess

Us too, in New Mexico. During the summer monsoons the mildew grows like a creeping sludge under the trees. The soil here is the perfect ph for yeasts and fungi. And some birds are highly susceptible to crop ailments.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Ahhh... Poor Butchie. She doesn't seem to be able to get much food down. Yesterday by the afternoon her crop was full of fluid and food, even with the bra. When I tried to massage her, it was coming up instead of going down, so I made her vomit as completely as I could. I don't like doing it to her, and I'm literally like "1 and 2 and break!" But I got her emptied of everything -- I could even see the egg she had for breakfast six hours earlier. She felt tons better after that, but I know this not a sustainable thing...

One good thing-- I flushed her with Epsom salts after she recovered from her vomit and she's pooping some really stinky cecal stuff that smells worse than broody poo. So at least some stuff that's been in there awhile is getting out.

The thing she ate that set this off was the "guts" and peelings of a big raw pumpkin squash the chicks got into in the compost. The worst thing, probably. Sugary, starchy, fibery...oy.

This yeast is coming from somewhere further down in her system, I'm convinced. Her whole problem started on the back end -- vent gleet and runny poo but no sour crop like this until now.

The right side of her abdomen between her legs feels hard, like there's a blockage. I know that's where the liver and gizzard are, but they don't feel right. She doesn't have a gooshy belly, but it's definitely bigger than it should be. All of my other chickens feel healthy, firm but soft in that area with no bulges.

So it's probably tumors or organ failure, I guess. So I know all this guessing is unproductive, but....sigh. Where I live, if I gave a vet here a chicken, he'd think I was using it to pay for him fixing my horse or cow. Chickens are a dime a dozen here and my neighbors think I'm a crazy gringa for keeping them longer than a year.

She hasn't laid an egg in seven months when the vent gleet started. I don't think she's laying internally -- her vent is always a round little "o" shape. The last eggs she laid looked sort of flat and were very white with weak shells. That was when I started trying to help her with Nystatin, which did zilch.

Anyway, I'm just venting I suppose. I'm going to flush her with warm blackstrap molasses today I think. Just maybe she got impacted further down in the gizzard by the squash fibers and if it comes out I can clear her system and continue to try to kill off the yeast.

If not, I'm planning her end of life. When I first got chickens almost four years ago, they were sick with bronchitis or pneumonia. I saved three out of five, but I helplessly watched two of them die of cyanosis and never again will I let an animal suffer like that. I'm going to give Butchie some more time and care, but if she starts really suffering, I'll do what I think is right.

Thank you for listening...

 

[TropicalChickies]

She is perky this morning, btw. But she's completely empty except for water with ACS I gave her. She's very hungry and asking for food, but I'm going to try to flush out her system this morning before giving her food again.