Did I kill my chicken unintentionally?

[Luckybaby]

My chicken have impacted crop since last week Saturday. I force feed him olive oil and water since Sunday using the syringe. He didn't start drinking water on its own, except yesterday, when he seems to be better. Yesterday, his crop contains 50% less than what is in there on Saturday, and I decided that I should give him apple cider vinegar, because I thought he have a sour crop. His crop contains solid food every morning hours after last week Saturday, but all of the liquid seems to be in the digestive system or intestines, since I can't feel it anymore on those time. Right now, I think his crop is impacted, and it is not a sour crop, since there is no unusually stink smell coming out of it's mouth. There are no other symptoms, except impacted crop from Saturday to Wednesday night(before I force feed him with ACV).

Yesterday, I use the syringe to force feed it 7-8ml pure apple cider vinegar and about 4-5 ml of water after the ACV. I only put 0.5 to 1.5ml at a time on the top of it's mouth. About an hour after I force feed it, he is breathing through it's mouth, sneezing, making loud noises while breathing, and I saw few amount of liquid that came out of it's nose. Two hours later, he is still breathing through his mouth, but i can't hear anything, unless I try to put my ears close to his mouth and he is no longer sneezing

About an hour ago, I heard noises in the chicken coop. When I went in there, I saw him trying to get out through the wired gap on the coop, and white cloudy liquid is coming out of it's mouth. While I am trying to put his whole body back to the coop, I saw him opened his eyes, and few seconds later, he is no longer moving.

Can 7-8 ml of pure apple cider vinegar that is usually available in the supermarket kill a 4.5 pound and about 2 year old rooster, if he drinks it within few minutes? Did it die, because some ACV or water went inside his lungs, even though I put it on the top of his mouth, and I put 0.5 to 1.5ml at a time? I really feel bad right now, since I think that I killed him.

He is the leader of the flock, and the father of all of my chickens that hatched in my parent's property.

 

[Judy]

The long term prognosis for sour and impacted crops is pretty dim, whatever else may or may not have happened. Sorry you lost your chicken.

 

[Luckybaby]

The long term prognosis for sour and impacted crops is pretty dim, whatever else may or may not have happened. Sorry you lost your chicken.

Is it possible that he had apple cider vinegar overdose?

 

[TiaRC]

It sounds like you may have accidentally flooded his lungs with either water or the apple cider. I'm sorry. The coughing, nose dripping, and foaming is a good indication.

 

[ten chicks]

Never give pure vinegar to a bird or any animal b/c it will burn internally. There are other methods to treat impacted or sour crop. Yes,it is possible you accidentally aspirated him,that and the straight vinegar was not a safe combination/treatment.

 

[Luckybaby]

Never give pure vinegar to a bird or any animal b/c it will burn internally. There are other methods to treat impacted or sour crop. Yes,it is possible you accidentally aspirated him,that and the straight vinegar was not a safe combination/treatment.

I read some backyardchicken thread regarding sour crop treatment, and some wrote about putting apple cider vinegar in their water. I thought it was ok to make him drink pure apple cider vinegar, since I use it for sauce and for me, it taste a lot better than olive oil(I force feed him about 12ml to 14 ml olive oil 2x before I force feed him ACV) for as long as I force feed him water after the ACV( I feel like I need to drink water after drinking ACV). I can think of only 3 possible errors, which are, I didn't mix it with water at the correct dosage, I overdose him, and/or some went inside his throat.

 

[Luckybaby]

I tried to check his crop today, and I found a lot of whole corn, few and small feathers and one charcoal or burned wood about 2x bigger in length and width and 1.75x taller in height than most whole corn in his crop. I tried to push the charcoal or burned wood inside his proventriculus, but it couldn't fit. I also saw one whole corn inside his provenriculus. The crop and the part of proventriculus up to 2 inches away form the edge of the crop closes to the proventriculus all look normal(I didn't see any hard yellow or white chessy bumps that might indicate that it have canker and other diseases). In my opinion, it have impacted crop, and probably the only way to get that thing out is through surgery. I never expect any of my chickens to eat something bigger than something that can fit in their proventriculus. My few weeks old chicks wouldn't even eat whole corn. I think am given them enough food everyday, and sometimes they are overfeed(since their crop is almost at their maximum capacity). Maybe the thing get food on it, and he tried to swallow it, since he can't take it out?

 

[Judy]

Unfortunately, he wasn't the first chicken to swallow something too big to go through, and essentially indigestible. Again, I'm sorry. Sounds to me like he could / would have died of either problem.

If it ever comes up again: the safest way to encourage them to drink is drip the water on the side of ther beak, one drop at a time, and let them pull it in. Also, there are writeups on her on how to tube feed. The breathing opening is in the middle of the floor of their mouth; somewhere I've seen a diagram of this, too.

Many or most of us here treat our chickens as best we can. It's inevitable that mistakes will be made. Just as, once in a while, a chicken is closed in a door, or some similar accident. But all told, I don't think there is any doubt that we also save a whole lot of chicken lives, or just make them more comfortable.

 

[Fancychooklady]

It's always difficult to know how to respond in emergency situations. The best we can do is research in the hope that we can with deal the many dilemmas that chickens get themselves in to.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/answers-from-chicken-vet-on-impacted.html