threeblueducks
Chirping
Hello,
This morning when I let out my chickens, I noticed that one of my two ex-meat hens, Robin, had a very big looking crop. Upon closer examination, it felt like a balloon full of air, completely full. She is a big hen, but the crop was around the size of an apple or tennis ball, not hard, but not doughy.
I isolated her in our sheep stall, which has a dirt floor, and gave her only water, as I have read to do during the first 24 hours for sour crop.
Robin is less than a year old, born in March. She is very heavy (could be described as obese) but is otherwise a normal chicken, lively, eating (or trying to anyway). I did notice that when I picked her up she made kind of a gurgly, swallowing sound and seemed to be re-swallowing liquid. While I was down there, she pooped once and it was watery, yellowish, and appeared to be mostly urates with a small blob of fecal matter.
There has been a slight change in their feed — in the last couple weeks, we started mixing in textured layer feed or scratch with their all-flock, to help them keep warm as it is getting colder. Also, we set out a dish of oyster shells and grit for them yesterday, though I didn’t feel anything that felt like that in her crop. (I didn’t want to press too hard on it tho)
I did not want to make her throw up her crop contents like a couple articles were suggesting because that seems dangerous and very uncomfortable for her.
One article said to give some apple cider vinegar and another said that yogurt might help. If either of these are good options or if you have any other ideas, please let me know!
Is this sour crop? If so, what are the best steps to treat it?
I really want to help her, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
This morning when I let out my chickens, I noticed that one of my two ex-meat hens, Robin, had a very big looking crop. Upon closer examination, it felt like a balloon full of air, completely full. She is a big hen, but the crop was around the size of an apple or tennis ball, not hard, but not doughy.
I isolated her in our sheep stall, which has a dirt floor, and gave her only water, as I have read to do during the first 24 hours for sour crop.
Robin is less than a year old, born in March. She is very heavy (could be described as obese) but is otherwise a normal chicken, lively, eating (or trying to anyway). I did notice that when I picked her up she made kind of a gurgly, swallowing sound and seemed to be re-swallowing liquid. While I was down there, she pooped once and it was watery, yellowish, and appeared to be mostly urates with a small blob of fecal matter.
There has been a slight change in their feed — in the last couple weeks, we started mixing in textured layer feed or scratch with their all-flock, to help them keep warm as it is getting colder. Also, we set out a dish of oyster shells and grit for them yesterday, though I didn’t feel anything that felt like that in her crop. (I didn’t want to press too hard on it tho)
I did not want to make her throw up her crop contents like a couple articles were suggesting because that seems dangerous and very uncomfortable for her.
One article said to give some apple cider vinegar and another said that yogurt might help. If either of these are good options or if you have any other ideas, please let me know!
Is this sour crop? If so, what are the best steps to treat it?
I really want to help her, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!!
