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

[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]

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.

 

[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.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm so very sorry to hear about Tweedle
You can do a necropsy yourself if you are up to it. I only seem to have one link that works at the moment that shows how to do a necropsy. @coach723 do you have links to any other necropsy manuals?
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/focus/contents/ceva_necropsy.pdf

@ChickenTender82 if you can take photos of what you see and post them, we will try to help you that way too.
I'm so very sorry. It can seem hard to open one up, but once you start, it can be quite interesting, especially figuring out what you come across. I don't mean to sound morbid there but a lot of times it's the only way to get some answers unless you send the body to your state lab.

There's also some very good detailed youtube videos from Cornell
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzf8tGKj10zzE5jXlhAxw5Z7UaPJV6aIB&app=desktop

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Chullicken]

Some really good info being shared here that is legit and shows experience. Just adding so the thread gets attention. With my experience, I find making a cold weather soaked food mash with medications/vitamin additives in a heated up smooshed texture has had pretty good results. They think they are getting a treat and not regular food. I also take the opportunity to disinfect their food and water dishes with can harbor large counts of bad bacteria as well as scrape a few inches off their run floor and replace it. Just to get the nasty thing exposed to the air.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

I’m so sorry. It’s never easy losing one.