Chicken died :-(

[suzc]

I have had problems with a laying hen for the past couple of weeks - about 10 days ago I noticed she looked thin and was not as interested in food as the others - I checked her crop and it seemed like a water balloon and so I thought about sour crop - I vomited the bird ans sure enough smelly sour stuff came up so I tried some yoghurt - she was still eating and drinking but getting thinner and I vomited her a few times over 2 days or so whilst waiting for an appointment with the vet - vet thought it was sour crop and ordered in meds - gave meds yesterday and today - chicken vomited itself this evening - I separated her and tried to feed her some boiled egg and yoghurt and some crash tomatoes - she didn't really want to eat and so I left her alone - 2 hours later she was dead :-( - I did a limited autopsy and found her crop had sour liquid in it as we'll as grit and a little corn, the gizzard was packed with dry fibrous material along with a little grit and corn - next there was a length of intestine about 3-4 inches which was pink and healthy looking, then a hard impacted area of intestine about 3-4 inches in length which was dark in colour - I opened it and it was full of fibrous stuff a bit like a hair ball, the rest of the intestine looked very under filled - is this a case of long grass chocking up the gut of my hen - I am new to this and would like to try to avoid this if at all,possible.

 

[LuvinChickens]

If you find these symptoms in other birds, try giving them mineral oil. I may be wrong about the name, but I think it's mineral oil. This will help loosen the impacted areas in the intestines. This is a very common problem in chickens.

 

[Eggcessive]

Your post was very informative about what you found during the necropsy on your chicken. I'd say you diagnosed her well and is a good lesson for the rest of us. Do you have hay or straw in your coop or nest boxes? Many people warn to keep grass cut short so they can't eat long strands of it, while others recommend keeping it long so that they can bite off short pieces. That is the reason we are on this forum to learn from each other's experience. If you look at all the threads on sour/impacted crop there are all kinds of treatments, some of which contradict each other. Unfortunately crop problems are hard to look up in textbooks or on university poultry sites, so the only way we can learn is through oldtimers' experience.

 

[suzc]

Thanks for the replies - I did try giving a bit of olive oil for 2 days about 2 mls per day when I first noticed the symptoms but it didn't seem to help - then I decided on the vet