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

[TropicalChickies]

Butchie had another good day yesterday. No carbs. Just a hard boiled egg at breakfast and a scrambled egg for lunch. I'm also giving her little bits of coconut oil 2-3x per day (like 1/2 a tsp each). I hope she's getting enough to eat. Today I'm going to try a little sardines and see how she does with that. Her crop is working better, emptying on its own now. And then she asks for food and pecks at the ground. She was literally begging like a dog, so I let her forage for half and hour yesterday in an area where there are some soft green ground cover plants (like a creeping Jenny). She nibbled on those and it didn't bother her.

One thing I observed to be cautious about: Yesterday was her last day of ACS (Day 10) but I took the ACS water away in the morning and gave her clear water instead. She was having some small tremors in her head and trouble balancing. She didn't fall over, but I could clearly see her balance was off and her head bobbing. Immediately I thought that either looked like dehydration or heavy metal toxicity (or both). She was alert and fine to swallow, so I syringed her about 20ml of pure water with a sprinkle of poultry electrolytes. That fixed her up right away.

So my instinct is to continue to starve out the yeast and keep introducing probiotics back into her system. This morning, an hour or so after her breakfast, I mixed up some of the yeast buster formula in Two Crows article and gave that to her -- she loved it! I felt her lower belly after I gave it to her and could feel (and hear) gasses breaking up and moving. When I put her down, she expelled a wad of gooey creamy white stuff along with some poo. Better out than in, I say.

Anyway, it's great to see her coming back. If her intestines have damage or lesions, it will take time to repair (if they can), but her quality of life in just the past 48 hours has improved tremendously.

Thanks for your comment about my Celiacs. It's really not a big deal. The worst thing is when you don't know why you're sick all the time. But once I knew to stay away from gluten, I got better and stayed that way. One really good thing about living in South America is that bread and wheat foods aren't everywhere here like in the US. We rely on plantains, cassava, rice, quinoa and sweet potatoes for carbs -- all naturally gluten free. Flours made with these things are also cheap and available, so I can bake breads with them. It's fine.

Here's Butchie, completely acclimated to life with the dogs.

 

[TwoCrows]

Butchie had another good day yesterday. No carbs. Just a hard boiled egg at breakfast and a scrambled egg for lunch. I'm also giving her little bits of coconut oil 2-3x per day (like 1/2 a tsp each). I hope she's getting enough to eat. Today I'm going to try a little sardines and see how she does with that. Her crop is working better, emptying on its own now. And then she asks for food and pecks at the ground. She was literally begging like a dog, so I let her forage for half and hour yesterday in an area where there are some soft green ground cover plants (like a creeping Jenny). She nibbled on those and it didn't bother her.

One thing I observed to be cautious about: Yesterday was her last day of ACS (Day 10) but I took the ACS water away in the morning and gave her clear water instead. She was having some small tremors in her head and trouble balancing. She didn't fall over, but I could clearly see her balance was off and her head bobbing. Immediately I thought that either looked like dehydration or heavy metal toxicity (or both). She was alert and fine to swallow, so I syringed her about 20ml of pure water with a sprinkle of poultry electrolytes. That fixed her up right away.

So my instinct is to continue to starve out the yeast and keep introducing probiotics back into her system. This morning, an hour or so after her breakfast, I mixed up some of the yeast buster formula in Two Crows article and gave that to her -- she loved it! I felt her lower belly after I gave it to her and could feel (and hear) gasses breaking up and moving. When I put her down, she expelled a wad of gooey creamy white stuff along with some poo. Better out than in, I say.

Anyway, it's great to see her coming back. If her intestines have damage or lesions, it will take time to repair (if they can), but her quality of life in just the past 48 hours has improved tremendously.

Thanks for your comment about my Celiacs. It's really not a big deal. The worst thing is when you don't know why you're sick all the time. But once I knew to stay away from gluten, I got better and stayed that way. One really good thing about living in South America is that bread and wheat foods aren't everywhere here like in the US. We rely on plantains, cassava, rice, quinoa and sweet potatoes for carbs -- all naturally gluten free. Flours made with these things are also cheap and available, so I can bake breads with them. It's fine.

Here's Butchie, completely acclimated to life with the dogs.View attachment 3447777

Oh I am so glad Butchie is doing much better now! You are definitely on the right track with her. When she was wobbly and unstable, she probably was low on electrolytes and being off carbs, her blood sugar may have been low too. Occasionally you may need to offer her some complex carbs to keep her blood sugar level. You mentioned a list of wonderful carbs you eat in South America, sweet potatoes in small amounts are great for a chickens intestines, quinoa too. And yes there are way too many simple sugars in the American diet. I have always had trouble with gluten and wheat even as a young girl. I am allergic to SO many foods too so my diet is strict and healthy, only because it has to be! Keeps me thin. I feel pretty darn good for an old lady in my 60s.

You are doing a fabulous job with Butchie, give her some lovin' for me!!

 

[TropicalChickies]

I really hope I can help her heal. I have to be realistic and always keep in mind she might have an incurable issue. But she's doing great and I'm going to go with that.

I'll make her some mashed sweet potato today for sure and try a tiny bit to see how she does with it. I read that they need about 260 calories per day, and two eggs is only about 150, so I do want to make sure she gets enough to stay warm and keep her blood sugar levels consistent. Thank you!

And yeah, the standard American diet is SAD indeed!

 

[TropicalChickies]

And to stay on that yeast (I can still feel the lump in her crop), I'm going to let her flush the copper out for a few days and then put her back on it for another 5-7 days.

 

[TwoCrows]

I really hope I can help her heal. I have to be realistic and always keep in mind she might have an incurable issue. But she's doing great and I'm going to go with that.

I'll make her some mashed sweet potato today for sure and try a tiny bit to see how she does with it. I read that they need about 260 calories per day, and two eggs is only about 150, so I do want to make sure she gets enough to stay warm and keep her blood sugar levels consistent. Thank you!

And yeah, the standard American diet is SAD indeed!

I'd start with a tablespoon of cooked sweet potato once a day and see how her crop reacts. I think this would be enough to keep her blood sugar level without feeding the yeast too much? See how she does. I'd feed it in the morning too so it doesn't sit in her crop overnight.

Yes the American diet is loaded with processed foods, fast food and sweet carbo things. Fortunately my parents were against all that and I never developed the taste for it all, or got addicted to it like many do!

And to stay on that yeast (I can still feel the lump in her crop), I'm going to let her flush the copper out for a few days and then put her back on it for another 5-7 days.

Wait about 5 or 6 days for her to flush out the Copper, after building up it takes about this long to dip down to safer levels.

Love your daily updates, keep us posted!!!

 

[TropicalChickies]

Here's Butchie saying, "Look at my nice crop!"

I took this yesterday at about 4pm, 3.5 hours after her experimental lunch of 2 TBLSP sardines and 1 TBLSP cooked sweet potato sprinkled with probiotics and a little squeeze of fresh lemon. We basically ate the same lunch, I just had a bigger helping . I remember back when I had a lot of intestinal gasses from gluten intolerance, eating food with lemon juice really helped me break it down. I don't want to over-acidify her system, but thought I would give it a try on her if that's ok.

I don't feed any of the chickens after 1pm. They get breakfast at 6 and lunch at 12:30 and they forage all day. They all go to bed by themselves promptly at 6pm. It's never cold here so they don't have to stay warm at night and I think it's healthier for them to eat earlier in the day.

Anyway, you can see that Butchie handled her lunch well. Her crop was empty again this morning (4th day in a row!) and her color is better and she was out and about early this morning very perky. The sweet potato helped firm up her poop a bit too I think. The whole back part of her belly and vent area has shrunk to near normal size and is a healthy pink color. She still has gasses inside -- when I press on her lower belly, little puffs of air come out of her beak, but she is WAY less bloated. She's even walking with her legs closer together. And she doesn't smell like high school wrestling team's locker anymore! You can tell she hated being stinky and she feels so much better about herself now.

I hope she doesn't get into trouble today, I had to make a trip into town and left my husband with strict instructions on her lunch and not to let her get into any fruit or flowers or tough vegetation.

We're very attached to Butchie because she was the first hatchling on our farm. She was a happy accident -- the broody hen who hatched her had hidden some eggs under the old coop and was sitting on them there. That was a rough time. I was a new chicken keeper, the chickens we had bought from a neighbor were mostly sick already, and the rooster was a sadistic rapist. All the hens backs were featherless and they were all running away from him, totally stressed out. I don't blame Cherie (the broody) for hiding her little clutch. Butchie was the only hatchling who made it so she's a tough little cookie. She started laying at six months and laid an egg almost every day until she got sick with this yeast at 2 yrs old about seven months ago. But if survives this and never lays again, that's fine. She's an adorable pet.

I'm so grateful to this group and all I've learned here so I know how to recognize signs of illness and take care of them better now. We rehomed the rooster (pretty sure he ended up in a soup, but he was a horrid brute). We have an amazing hen named Cleo who also survived those rough days -- she's almost 4 -- and we've learned all about taking bumblefoot kernels out from her poor foot. We also acquired a few vaccinated and healthy pullets -- now hens--from a better neighbor last year. And Cherie, the other survivor, loves to go broody and hatched two chicks, a pullet and a rooster, five months ago. So now we have a small mixed flock of 3 older hens, 3 younger ones, a pullet, and a young rooster, who is already showing himself to be a perfect gentleman. He does his mating dance and if the hen doesn't show interest, he goes on to the next one! I'm glad I stuck it out, they bring so much love and joy to life.

I'm thinking about writing my first BYC article, "Confessions of a New Chicken Keeper: How to prepare for the worst and learn from it!" What do you folks think?

 

[TropicalChickies]

I'd start with a tablespoon of cooked sweet potato once a day and see how her crop reacts. I think this would be enough to keep her blood sugar level without feeding the yeast too much? See how she does. I'd feed it in the morning too so it doesn't sit in her crop overnight.

Yes the American diet is loaded with processed foods, fast food and sweet carbo things. Fortunately my parents were against all that and I never developed the taste for it all, or got addicted to it like many do!

Wait about 5 or 6 days for her to flush out the Copper, after building up it takes about this long to dip down to safer levels.

Love your daily updates, keep us posted!!!

Yep, I'll give her a good break on the ACS and use the yeast-buster formula instead. Is 2x a day ok for that? And how much syringed at once? Yesterday I gave her 3 ml in the morning and 3ml in the evening. I cut the lemon juice with a little water. Our farm grown lemons are super tart. Let me know if that's too much.

 

[KimMMXVIII]

I am sorry your girl is suffering with this for so long.

First, make sure she doesn't eat any fruits or berries as these can aggravate yeast. No other treats like bread, pasta, rice, anything with too many carbs. All of these can kick episodes off. Don't let her eat too much foliage either, it slows digestion down.

I had a hen with chronic sour crop and I found that a feed change did help her out a lot. (She was on Layena and I switched to a Manna Pro feed). But she definitely had some other underlying issue as she died at the age of 3 1/2. I am still not sure what did her in either.

If you chose to find another feed, mix in the new feed very slowly over a couple of weeks time as new feeds can cause upset to crops. And find a feed free of peas/field peas. They slow digestion down to a crawl which is what you are trying to avoid.

You might do another round of the Copper Sulfate for 10 days, followed by probiotics. And I would keep her on probiotics for some time after.

Get her a crop bra, they do wonders in keeping the food moving quicker out of the crop.

I wish I had some miracle cure for thus, I struggled with my girl for years and it was quite heart breaking.

My baby girl seem to have some issue with keeping her butt clean too, what kind/brand of probiotics do you recommend? I will be sure to take a pic of her butt tomorrow, her behavior is normal but even though I washed her butt two weeks ago it is dirty now again...

 

[TropicalChickies]

My baby girl seem to have some issue with keeping her butt clean too, what kind/brand of probiotics do you recommend? I will be sure to take a pic of her butt tomorrow, her behavior is normal but even though I washed her butt two weeks ago it is dirty now again...

I live in Ecuador, South America so we don't have US brands here. I would just make sure the probiotic has acidophilus and bifidus, I think they are the most important beneficial bacterias

 

[KimMMXVIII]

I live in Ecuador, South America so we don't have US brands here. I would just make sure the probiotic has acidophilus and bifidus, I think they are the most important beneficial bacterias

I live in Sweden! Do you mean then that human or cat/dog probiotics would work? Due to the time zone I can't take photo of her right now.