chick with sour crop/ what to do?

[Lucysmom002]

1) What type of bird , age and weight.
9 days old
2) What is the behavior, exactly.
normal
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
today
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
no
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
no
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
grass?
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
chick starter and water, they had a few pieces of grass
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
don't know
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
tried to massage crop and turn vertical- we are working on isolating with water at the moment
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
treat myself
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
newspaper and we started giving them shavings after 4 days

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I may have missed it, but what makes you think it is sour crop?

 

[Lucysmom002]

I have 28 9 day old chicks. My daughter said she saw the chick ''puke''. I read up on this and we now know that the chicks has that stinky sour smell by it's mouth. The crop feels soft and mushy.

 

[Lucysmom002]

I have the chick separated with water only at the moment. I do see a normal poop in there now. The chick is acting fine. Very smelly though.

 

[Lucysmom002]

Well I've been reading the sour crop threads and see that ACV is a good choice. I don't have any on hand. I guess I'll just go to sleep and hope for the best. I have the chick separated with water for the night in the same box with the other chicks. They are separated by wire. I really don't know what else to do.
I've massaged the crop. The chick pooped twice and they looked normal. Thanks for all the help.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I hope the little chick feels better soon! Don't let it go too long without food and hopefully whatever was sour in there has moved through.

You might consider giving them some chick grit or sand sprinkled on the food.

They can fill up on chick grit if you give them a bowl of it, which can cause impacted crop, when very little (like under a couple of weeks old). SO sprinkle it like salt over their food.

Technically they only need grit if getting treats, grass, whole grains, etc.

After a couple of weeks of life, you can provide a bowl of grit for them and they will be fine with it.

 

[Chido]

You could try giving the chick some apple juice with a syringe, just don't tick it inside its mouth unless you know how to feed a chick with one. My smallest chick rusty got a sour crop about a week ago (she's about 8 weeks old), and when I was hand feeding her I'd squirt the syringe slowly on the side of her beak and she'd open her mouth to drink the liquid. You could also try some baby food diluted with water and see if that helps the thick pass whatever it has in its crop.

 

[Lucysmom002]

I will try grit today. I don't know how to feed with a dropper, I don't want to drown the little thing.

She still has that stinky smell this morning.

 

[Lucysmom002]

I'm going to the store to get ACV and grit shortly. Is there anything else I can get or do? Any help is appreciated! Do I need to get any medicine from somewhere. This is stinky. It seems to have gotten smaller and softer and moved a little.

 

[Lucysmom002]

I spoke to my vet. She said do not withhold food from such a young chick. Give the vinegar and some oil and some grit. We'll see what happens.