Crop Problems...

[tulie13]

OK, I panicked a few days ago about a "big bubble" on the chest of one of my young pullets, and learned a LOT about Sour or Impacted Crops. So yesterday we see the same pullet with a very big squishy crop...

I picked her up so we could feel it and see how she was doing, and she PUKED ON ME!

I figured it was possibly Sour Crop, as she puked (yuk!) and it was squishy, rather than hard like an Impacted crop. I had also read that post and link about "helping" them to puke by holding them upside down. Poor girl - she puked about 6 times total last night with a little help from us. We put her in a Rubbermaid bin in the house with us, so we could watch her.

Vinegar water (yes, apple cider vinegar) and Olive Oil soaked bread in with her. She didn't seem to eat or drink much, but I got a little vinegar water down her last night by touching it to her beak - she would drink a little bit.

This morning, her crop is STILL big, and somewhat squishy, although it seems like it might be a little harder now. Is it impacted and we just got the backed up liquid out with the puking? Do we need to FORCE feed her olive oil to try to get things moving?

She pooped a few times, very runny stuff, almost like gritty liquid. There are a couple "normal" looking poops in the box from last night, too. So not ALL runny stuff. But the crop is still big/squishy. Could it take a couple of days to go down? Should we force more puking? Force olive oil? HELP, PLEASE - any advice would be welcome!

 

[KattyKillFish]

i really hope you get an answer, i need to know a bit about impaced/infected/swollen crops. mine seem to have what looks like air bubbles? they don't seem to be bothered by them, they have normal poops and what not... but it's been a week or so now. i'll be watching this post to learn a few things! going to try vinegar water on them!

 

[tulie13]

I'm replying for a "bump". She kept "burping" and acting like she wanted to puke again, so I held her upside down and out it came!

Crop is still big, she's not eating AT ALL (she is only being given bread with olive oil) and only drinking a little (some vinegar water, and I put a second cup with some electrolyte/vitamin solution). She got down some of the vitamin water a couple of hours ago, but then she puked about 30 minutes ago.

Any more recommendations? Should I keep "helping" her to puke? Or just leave her be? Force feed olive oil?

The crop is still a big bubble, like a golf ball, and she's only 2 months old. She is also the "runt" of the batch, it seems - she is smaller than the rest of her siblings. So a golf ball-sized crop is pretty big on her! Any more suggestions? I don't want my chickie to die or suffer.

 

[MoodyChicken]

Try getting some probiotics in her crop. The good microorganisms will hopefully outnumber the bad ones and start getting things moving again. If I remember correctly, sour crop is similar to bloat in that bacteria build up gases and fluids. The probiotics will help with "competitive exclusion." Good luck! Try flushing her crop a few times and then add the probiotics. I think that will help.

 

[tulie13]

She keeps pecking at the bowl in an empty spot, away from the food/olive oil that is in there. There is a little pile of food in the bowl, and the rest is "bare". She has been pecking at a bare spot for an hour straight - PECK PECK PECK PECK PECK...

I'm afraid to put her back in the coop with the others, she is sort of a runt, and with these crop problems, I think she needs to be sheltered.

Probiotics - I have some chick supplement liquid that is electrolytes and vitamins, and some probiotics in it. This problem started after I fed the chickens some yogurt, so I'm afraid to try THAT.

 

[tulie13]

It's Day 3 - her crop is still big. Not drinking much, I don't think - she only has ACV water in there right now. I've fed her a little starter crumbles in water with probiotics. She hasn't puked today - should I "help" her puke again? She will sometimes puke if I hold her upside-down.

Try to help her puke? Keep doing what I'm doing? Any other suggestions?

 

[KattyKillFish]

what kind of probiotics? there is no feed store or vet here, what can we use instead?

 

[tulie13]

Quote:
You could try some Acidophilus which can be found at most drugstores and Wal-Mart - It's Lactobacillus Acidophilus.

I've got some other stuff that has 11 different "good bugs" in it, it's called Primal Defense. I gave her some of that on some soaked chick starter, but her crop just seemed to be getting bigger and not going down.

We had a "puke session" yesterday afternoon, and I think every scrap of chick starter from the last 2 days came up.

I've just got vitamin/electrolyte solution that has some probiotics in it in her box. This is some stuff I got with my chick shipment - it's a powder you put in water. I figure she might get some nutrition from it.

I don't know what else to do - her crop seemed bigger again this morning, so we just did a "puke session" and some stuff came up, a couple of chunks of something, too. So maybe her impaction is starting to break up? I wish someone would tell me whether I should keep making her puke or not.

And whether I should try to force feed olive oil to her. Anyone??? HELP!

 

[LynneP]

I'd ease off on the 'puking' for now, beacuse you're been lucky that she hasn't aspirated liquid/food into her lungs. I know the golf ball size sounds big, but really, is it that bigger than normal?

Some normal things you can feed to keep her crop acidified and prevent sour crop

are

diced tomatoes

diced cucumber

Keep the acv in the water.

Just went through an alfala impaction with a hen recently- some thoughts here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7693-sick-hen

 

[tulie13]

I guess I'm not sure at this point how small it SHOULD be - she really hasn't eaten anything since yesterday, and it still feels like a squishy golf ball. Is that normal at this point? Or is there still possibly something wrong?

I don't want her to eat and have it just sit there and ferment, if there is something stopping her up, she needs that stuff to pass through first, right? Should I feed her some olive oil?

She still makes motions like she WANTS to puke once in a while, like she's trying to push something up. You know what people look like when they are miming "gagging and puking" - sort of like a spasm.

I just checked her after getting back from being gone for a couple of hours. She's had nothing but liquids - vitamin water with probiotics. And her crop is HUGE.

She looks like she is really trying to puke.

Any more ideas?