Cockoo Maran -Sour Crop and Diarrhea very Lethargic and getting worse! Urgent help needed!!!

[ChickenTender82]

HI. I have a 10 week old Cockoo Maran that is VERY sick. It has been a saga with him, and some of his flock mates. It started when my DH brought some chicks from a craigslist ad home and didn't quarantine. HUGE lesson learned when 4 of our pullets came down with bacterial respiratory infection. After taking them to the vet and a VERY HEFTY bill, my babies were on antibiotics. All of them were on the mend. Doing great and we were about to take them out of quarantine then I noticed Tweedle Dee, my maron, all puffed up... So I brought him (i think he's a rooster) in and felt his crop. All squishy and huge. This was four days ago, on Sunday night, so I just put him in our inside dog crate with puppy pads on the bottom. In the morning his crop was still full and there was a ton of runny mucousy diarrhea. I did help him purge and lots of liquid came out but there was not a noticeably horrible smell. I gave him some yogurt, but he didn't want to eat. I was watching him and seeing what happened but he continued to get worse. So I started on Monistat 3 day on monday, giving half the suppository every 12 hours. He has not gotten better. I thought that it may be worms as well. he had been wormed when he went to the vet but I had forgotten to do the follow up one. So I gave him wormer tuesday along with egg yoke syringed into his mouth. I gave him about 6 ml and then let him rest. His poop seemed a little more firm but not much yesterday. He was drinking a very little bit this whole time but not eating anything. I added Probiotics to his water as well. So last night I tube fed him 10 ml of baby parrot food with nutra-drench. I know that with a sour crop eating may make it worse but he is so weak and has lost so much weight I really thought that he was going to die. He was just standing in one spot, then he fell over. After that he was laying on the bottom of the crate. I really thought that needed food. I figured he was pooping so there was no impaction and his digestion was still working so he needs food. His crop seems to be getting better, smaller, not as full, but this morning there was still something in it. Smaller than last night after I fed him. When I felt it, its squishy and it feels a bit gritty at the bottom. I fed him again this morning. 15 ml of the baby parrot food with nutra drench and his dose of Monistat. Since last night he has pooped twice, both diarrhea. To be honest, I am surprised he lasted the night. Happy but still really really worried. So I am stuck. The only thing I can think of that still be wrong is coccidiosis. But I am not sure. I am worried about the sour crop, which just seems to be slow, not impacted. But I am more worried at how much weight he has lost. He's now back to standing, not laying so that may be a good sign. i just don't know what more to do! any help would be helpful.
This is Tweedle Dee this morning. the food is there just incase, but he's not eating. I don't think he is drinking anymore either.

this poop was from last night.

this poop was from this morning.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Poor fella

You have had a rough time!
Can you tell us what antibiotic the vet gave you for the respiratory illness?
What wormer and the dosage that you used?

Anyway you can get a fecal float with the results coming back in today?

Crop problems can make them feel terrible, but if he were mine, I would also treat for Coccidiosis. You can find Corid at the feed store in the cattle section.
Dosage is 1 1/2 teaspoons Corid powder or 2 teaspoons of 9.6% Corid liquid per gallon of water.
Give for 5-7 days - make sure this is the ONLY water available during that time period. Mix a fresh batch at least once a day.

I would still work on that crop several times a day. Push the Corid water. Don't add any vitamins that contain B1 (Thiamine) until you finish the Corid.

Once you are done with all treatments, get some vitamins and probiotics into him to help rebuild the gut.

 

[ChickenTender82]

Give him a direct drench of undiluted Corid Liquid for 3 days at .10ml per pound of weight. This is in addition to making the Corid water available to drink - use the mixed Corid water to keep him hydrated, so if you need to, syringe that into him.

If the Thiamine is in the food, that should be o.k. You would just worry about "excess" Thiamine - just don't add more vitamins to his food/water that has Thiamine. Make sense?
You can also give him wet grower or chick starter made with the Corid water, to see if he will take that.

I hope he feels better soon, please keep us posted.

Thank you so much. I will do the drench right now. After I read your first post I changed out his probiotic water for the corid water. AND HE DRANK! He has actually been drinking a good bit. I hope that it's a good sign. although he is still not eating.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

It sounds like you are doing all you can.
I wanted to give a warning about burping. I’m into the probiotics stage with a hen that just had sour crop. Massaging and burping her made her crop go down and she would feel better. Then she threw up. Birds don’t throw up.
Make sure while you massage his crop that you are ready in case the burp brings up more then air. Head down butt up and try to get his mouth clear. The biggest concern is aspiration of the vomit.

 

[ChickenTender82]

Tweedle just died. He was sitting in my lap when he had what seemed to be a seizure, vomited and died. I am heart broken. I am contemplating doing a necropsy myself but am not sure. I really what to know what happened to him and if there was more I could have done. Has anyone done one on a bird of their own? I have looked it up and I think I am capable but not sure I can go through with it.

 

[rebrascora]

I'm so sorry you lost him.
I also do my own post mortem exams and I actually find it helps me to deal with the loss. I'm a very emotional person (I cry at the drop of a hat ) but I'm also quite practical, so becoming focussed and absorbed by what I find inside them helps to distract me from the grief. I recommend covering the bird's head with a sock or something once you have checked inside the beak for lesions or plaques. For me the head and eyes are what I identify with so once I have that covered it is just a chicken carcass. I don't use any special tools, scalpels etc are not necessary. I have a little pair of sharp scissors and a sharp kitchen knife and I work in my poly tunnel/greenhouse rather than dissect the bird in the house. The light is good in there, it is warmer than outside and if there is any infection I'm not bringing it in the house. I work on my potting bench on an old plastic feed bag. It helps to have a bucket of warm soapy water and an old towel so that you can rinse your hands when you need to and if you are going to take photos, which is always really useful if you need help figuring out what the problem is, having your phone/camera wrapped in a plastic bag means you don't have to keep taking gloves off to pick u[p your phone for a photo. Taking shots of the organs in situ and then removed enables us to have a better idea of what we are looking at. If there are abnormalities, it is sometimes difficult to ID an organ other than by it's location in relation to other organs.
If you have processed chickens before you should have an idea of what normal looks like and which organs are where.
My gut feeling is that you will find tumours, probably lots of little ones throughout the digestive tract which may look like little white nodules or there may be one or more larger tumours which usually look a bit like white fatty tissue. The digestive tract is where I would focus my attention since his symptoms would indicate the problem is there. Be sure to check the inside of the proventriculus as well as the gizzard.

The final thing I do is to palpitate the length of the gut for large roundworms and cut open any sections where I feel something suspicious. Cutting into the intestines is the only smelly bit which is why I leave it until last. There should not be any significant blood or other bodily fluid, so don't worry about it being an overly messy process.... only if/when you cut into the gut generally although with this guy having crop problems there may be some liquid and smell in the upper digestive tract.

I hope I have reassured you that it is something that you can have a go at and along with others will be happy to help you figure out what was going on.

Good luck.

 

[SongBaby33]

That is very sad I love Cockoo marans.And I have had loads of hens in the past with sour crop.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Thank you for the reply @Wyrop Rock. They were on Doxycycline 50. They wormer I used was Safeguard (fenbendazole) dewormer for goats, suspension 10%. i gave 1/4 cc. I have the Corid liquid here so I will put that out there for him to drink. But i have some questions. He's not really drinking anything. Should I tube feed the water to make sure he is getting it? The baby parrot food has thiamine in it, so i won't use that. What should I feed him? would his grower crumbles mixed with the corid water work?

Give him a direct drench of undiluted Corid Liquid for 3 days at .10ml per pound of weight. This is in addition to making the Corid water available to drink - use the mixed Corid water to keep him hydrated, so if you need to, syringe that into him.

If the Thiamine is in the food, that should be o.k. You would just worry about "excess" Thiamine - just don't add more vitamins to his food/water that has Thiamine. Make sense?
You can also give him wet grower or chick starter made with the Corid water, to see if he will take that.

I hope he feels better soon, please keep us posted.

 

[ChickenTender82]

It sounds like you are doing all you can.
I wanted to give a warning about burping. I’m into the probiotics stage with a hen that just had sour crop. Massaging and burping her made her crop go down and she would feel better. Then she threw up. Birds don’t throw up.
Make sure while you massage his crop that you are ready in case the burp brings up more then air. Head down butt up and try to get his mouth clear. The biggest concern is aspiration of the vomit.

Thank you for the warning! I will look out for that.

 

[coach723]

I'm so sorry you lost him, .
Here is another link with instructions and pictures:
https://vet.uga.edu/oldvpp/programs/afvet/attachments/how_to_necropsy_a_bird.pdf
Best advice I can give you is to take your time. If you need to stop and breathe for a bit and take a break, do it. It can be difficult when it's a loved bird. Take as many pictures as you can to post and people will help you as much as they can. Taking pictures of organs while in place, and then again when removed can be helpful, also something in the picture for scale (like a coin) can help when looking at individual organs. I would take a very good look at the digestive tract. It also may be a good idea to save everything until you get answers as some questions may be coming from what is seen. It really is the best way to know what happened, difficult as it is.