Can depression cause Sour Crop?

[Desert_Fox]

Hi guys.
I have several chicken breeds, what i do usualy, is to keep 2 roosters of each breed, if they hatched together and get along fine, i keep them together with the hens, if they dont get along, i keep one with the hens, and the "backup rooster" in a separate cage inside the same coop. Every week, I swap the roosters, the backup stays with the hens and do free ranging during the day, the "main" rooster goes to the cage for a week, and vice versa.

In my Sussex Light coop, i have 6 hens aged between 7-10 months, and 2 roosters, the main rooster 10 months old, the backup 7. The backup rooster stayed in his cage until yesterday, had never seen a hen since he hatched.
Ive done several incubations with the eggs the hens laid, and always had a good hatching ratio around 80-90%, in the last incubation the hatch ration was only 20%.
So i decided to give a change to the backup rooster, and give some rest to the main rooster. I swaped them yesterday. The main rooster was not happy not being able to free range, a bit agitated, but was doing fine.
This morning he was looking a bit depressed, but I thought there was no reason to worry. A few hours ago when i locked them for the night, i checked the main rooster, and when i picked him up he "vomited" some liquid, i checked him and he had his crop full, i massaged the crop a bit, and he vomited some grains, i holded his head down to avoid the risk of aspiration.
I found this wierd because, I always add apple cider vinegar to the water specifically to help them avoding sour crop.

Ive placed him again with the hens, and the backup rooster back into his cage, but he kept looking depressed and for a brief period he was shaking his tail feathers, like he was cold or something, and chewing the stuff that was left on his mouth. I'am afraid that when I picked him up and massaged his crop, I made him aspirate some of the stuff from his crop, I checked him for the next 3 hours, and he was breathing ok, no open beak, or anything, but keept looking depressed and did not move around.

My plan is to keep him without food or water for the next 24h, to see if he manages to clear his crop.

My question is, did this happen just by coincidence, and he was going to get a sour crop anyway, even with the apple cider vinager, or did this happen because I took away his hens?

Thanks in advance, for you opinions.

 

[The-White-Elephant]

Hi guys.
I have several chicken breeds, what i do usualy, is to keep 2 roosters of each breed, if they hatched together and get along fine, i keep them together with the hens, if they dont get along, i keep one with the hens, and the "backup rooster" in a separate cage inside the same coop. Every week, I swap the roosters, the backup stays with the hens and do free ranging during the day, the "main" rooster goes to the cage for a week, and vice versa.

In my Sussex Light coop, i have 6 hens aged between 7-10 months, and 2 roosters, the main rooster 10 months old, the backup 7. The backup rooster stayed in his cage until yesterday, had never seen a hen since he hatched.
Ive done several incubations with the eggs the hens laid, and always had a good hatching ratio around 80-90%, in the last incubation the hatch ration was only 20%.
So i decided to give a change to the backup rooster, and give some rest to the main rooster. I swaped them yesterday. The main rooster was not happy not being able to free range, a bit agitated, but was doing fine.
This morning he was looking a bit depressed, but I thought there was no reason to worry. A few hours ago when i looked them for the night, i checked the main rooster, and when i picked him up he "vomited" some liquid, i checked him and he had his crop full, i massaged the crop a bit, and he vomited some grains, i holded his head down to avoid the risk of aspiration.
I found this wierd because, I always had apple cider vinegar to the water specifically to help them avoding sour crop.

Ive placed him again with the hens, and the backup rooster back into his cage, but he kept looking depressed and for a brief period he was shaking his tail feathers, like he was cold or something, and chewing the stuff that was left on his mouth. I'am afraid that when I picked him up and massaged his crop, I made him aspirate some of the stuff from his crop, I checked him for the next 3 hours, and I was breathing ok, no open beak, or anything, but keept looking depressed and did not move around.

My plan is to keep him without food or water for the next 24h, to see if he manages to clear his crop.

My question is, did this happen just by coincidence, and he was going to get a sour crop anyway, even with the apple cider vinager, or did this happen because I took away his hens?

Thanks in advance, for you opinions.

@Wyorp Rock

 

[Mrs J]

My plan is to keep him without food or water for the next 24h, to see if he manages to clear his crop.

I wouldn’t advise taking his water away, they should always have water, can’t help any more than that, but hopefully @Wyorp Rock will advise you soon, good luck, I hope your little boy recovers

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would re-check the crop first thing in the morning before he's had anything to eat/drink. If it's not empty in the morning, then begin treating him going by the article linked below.
I would not withhold water during waking hours.

Hard to know what's going on with him. It may be he just had a full crop and when pressed, the contents came up. Chickens have no gag reflex.

Photos of him and his poop may be helpful. IF the crop is not emptying, then that's a symptom - some common causes are worms, coccidiosis, infection and blockage in roosters. Getting a fecal float can tell you if worms are part of the problem.
Could he have injured himself when stressed about being caged?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[Desert_Fox]

I would re-check the crop first thing in the morning before he's had anything to eat/drink. If it's not empty in the morning, then begin treating him going by the article linked below.
I would not withhold water during waking hours.

Hard to know what's going on with him. It may be he just had a full crop and when pressed, the contents came up. Chickens have no gag reflex.

Photos of him and his poop may be helpful. IF the crop is not emptying, then that's a symptom - some common causes are worms, coccidiosis, infection and blockage in roosters. Getting a fecal float can tell you if worms are part of the problem.
Could he have injured himself when stressed about being caged?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

Hi. Thanks a lot for the help.

The crop looks like yesterday, very hard, and if you massage it, some grains with a bit of yellow liquid come to his beak.

His cage is about 1,25m wide, 80cm long, and 1,5m high, the only way he can injure himselft is if he jumps at the walls.

I looked and did not find any recent poop, and hes staying in the same place for 3 days.
So i assume his digestive system is obstructed somewhere.

I live in Portugal, its winter around here, with temperatures close to zero at night, and it hasnt rained in over 3 weeks so the ground outside is more or less dry, and there is almost no grass where they stay outside during daytime, the coop is dry, i cannot exclude, but i think coccidiosis is not the number one candidate.
The coop area where he and his hens stayed has around 2.5 sq meters (+/- 27sq feet) for 6 hens and 1 rooster, with clean straw added about 3 weeks ago, and all the old straw and poop was removed. So if i was a gambler i would say worms or some infection are causing the blockage.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I would follow the article and treat as sour and impacted.
You can deworm too.

 

[Desert_Fox]

Hi guys. Thanks a lot for all the advices, particularly @Wyorp Rock.

But unfortunatly i think im dealing with something more serious, than a Sour Crop, i dont think that was the disease i think it was a symptom.

That Sussex Rooster, i told you about passed away this evening.
I opened his crop, and it looked like in the pic.

 

[Desert_Fox]

Today, when i was going to lock the chickens for the night i found an Orphington Lavander Hen, which looked ok this morning, lying away from her friends, she did not walked much and had something like a limp. I took her home, and she stayed in a corner, not walking, not eating, she drinked a little bit, and was tail bobbing when breathing.
I checked her crop, it was not so hard like the rooster, but a bit hard, keept her in a confortable dark space, and in 4 hours, her comb started to turn purple, gasping for air, and she passed away, in a matter of minutes, about 15 minutes ago.

 

[WIchickMama]

Could their food be bad/moldy?

 

[Desert_Fox]

So basicly, i have two chickens that passed away in 2 days.

They stayed in diferent coops, when they went outside they were in diferent areas not able to have physical contact with each other. The only thing they share was the water and the food, and they more or less had the same symptons.

Sussex rooster (no previous illness recorded), ok one day, next day hard crop, no poop, "vomited" some yellow liquid, shaking like if he was cold, purple crop, dead, had yellow fluid in his mouth, and intact grains on his mouth and crop.

Orphington hen (had what i suspect, was coryza about 1 month ago, i saw some foamy stuff in her eye, gave her Tylan, and in a week she was fine, nothing more than foamy eye), this morning she was ok, about 6 hours later she was lying away from her friends, took her home, she had a more or less a hard crop, did not walked much but had a limp, tail bobbing when breathing, but still responsive, last time i checked her she was with her head laying down, i hold her and she suddently turned purple, she pooped first a bit of green stuff, started gasping for air, then she pooped something like water, with some white stuff, and passed away in minutes.