Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Beekissed]

I'm hoping to get some good advice about treating a sour crop. I'm a backyard chickener (just 4 chickens). One of my chickens is quite lethargic compared to the others. She will walk slowly about, but only when the flock has moved (and she wants to follow). She is exhibiting symptoms of sour crop (a large, squishy crop that doesn't empty over night). There are a lot of recommended treatments on BYC, but only from seeming newbies. Is sour crop something you flock masters even treat? And if so, what do you do?

No, never had it and would never treat it. This is either a structural problem, as in genetics, or an immunity problem. You can try to treat a bird like that but it is likely to recur. If I had one, I would cull her. Can you imagine how miserable it would be to have a pendulous, uncomfortable mass hanging off your front each day? No wonder she doesn't want to move! From all accounts, a bird that has had it once may have frequent recurrences of the same...so you are on an endless cycle of treating one bird. Not for me.

If you don't want to cull, you could milk that crop out of her by holding her upside down and milking the crop towards the head and causing her to regurgitate the contents. Some folks are having luck by syringing some Lotrimin(think vaginal yeast treatment) into these birds. You could see that they are getting enough grit to process their feed through the gizzard in an efficient manner.

Other than that, I got nothing....

 

[Maven]

Can you imagine how miserable it would be to have a pendulous, uncomfortable mass hanging off your front each day?

And yet some women are crazy enough to go and get theirs enlarged!!!

 

[galanie]

And yet some women are crazy enough to go and get theirs enlarged!!!

 

[Beekissed]

Yes!!! Obviously, these women are not real bright. I wouldn't mind a bit about getting mine reduced a bit though...uncomfortable to say the least.

 

[Gargoyle]

If you don't want to cull, you could milk that crop out of her by holding her upside down and milking the crop towards the head and causing her to regurgitate the contents.

Is there any risk or possibility that could cause choking, resulting in an untended (and very uncomfortable for the bird) cull?

 

[Beekissed]

To be honest, I've never done it. Unless the bird aspirated the vomitus during the procedure and then could not clear the airway, she won't choke. She may aspirate contents and later have pneumonia, but that is probably rare. To aspirate vomit, you more or less have to be lying on your back with no way to keep it from going down the trachea...upside down is a position that would, by sheer gravity, keep that from being such a problem.

 

[caj1985]

Yes!!! Obviously, these women are not real bright. I wouldn't mind a bit about getting mine reduced a bit though...uncomfortable to say the least.

Right there with you, Bee. Kind of gets in the way and won't let you sleep on your stomach.

 

[Kansas Prairie]

Can you imagine how miserable it would be to have a pendulous, uncomfortable mass hanging off your front each day? No wonder she doesn't want to move!

BEE! Thanks for the wisdom and humor!

 

[Beekissed]

Only us old hens can know how an old hen feels, huh?

Nice, smooth, perky chicken fronts are a good thing~ pendulous, loose, heavy chicken fronts are not so good....even you guys can appreciate that!

 

[Maven]

Only us old hens can know how an old hen feels, huh?

Nice, smooth, perky chicken fronts are a good thing~ pendulous, loose, heavy chicken fronts are not so good....even you guys can appreciate that!

My oldest daughter was 'gifted' and at a very young age. In her late teens/early 20s, while she was still on my insurance, I begged her to get a reduction done; I knew the misery ahead for her. She refused, she thought they were pretty sexy.

Well, 14 years and 1 son later, not to mention numerous days of her husband finding her lying in the floor with her back out, her triple Gs went under the knife thanks to his insurance finally approving it. Almost too late - her back was a MESS but they think the reduction in weight will save it and she says she never realized just how much pain she had been in for sooooooo long until it was suddenly gone after surgery. Now she does yoga, swims, spins, and a host of other activities that she neither wanted to do, nor COULD do with those dang things. I am so happy for her.

And I tell any young woman even thinking about enlargement her story to give them something to think long and hard about. I know that sometimes cosmetic augmentation is a GOOD thing, but these young girls that go and triple their size just for the look of it are going to be mighty sorry one day!