Does my hen have sour crop?

[Average Flock]

Today I noticed that my older Ameraucana hen (4yrs) had a full and squishy crop as if it was filled with a liquid. Her coop is currently being treated for a lice infestation After I dusted her when I picked her up she regurgitated a brown sludge looking liquid. Am I correct in assuming that this is sour crop? I've had older hens in the past who I have suspected of having sour crop and have tried the regurgitation method, with little to no success. I'm considering trying a crop bra. What exactly causes sour crop? And does anyone have any other treatment ideas that I could try? What is worked as treatment for you in the past?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I wouldn't jump to a crop bra right off the bat.

Check her crop first thing in the morning before she's had anything to eat or drink, if the crop has not emptied, then begin treat the symptoms according to the article below. I highly recommend you read through the whole article and the comments sections too.

Is your hen acting sick? Does she lay eggs? Has she been dewormed?


https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[Average Flock]

The tricky part is the birds live at my grandparents house. We got them as a 4-H project and used it for bonding time with my grandfather, and because at the time the local law prohibited keeping chickens were I lived. My grandfather says he gets three eggs a week from that coop, so she could possibly be laying but I am not sure. I haven't noticed any major symptoms of sickness from her, although she is noticeably overweight. To be honest I don't believe the hens have ever been dewormed, but we have never had any problems with any sort of parasites before this lice infestation. I plan to check for signs of worms the next time I can go.

 

[akitafriendakita]

Crop bra won't do anything for sour crop. Sour crop is just a bad yeast infection occurring in the crop, and yes, dark brownish liquid spilling out of a very full crop is definitely a sign. Crop bras are meant for chickens with pendulous crop who need help holding the crop up, this does nothing for a fungal infection in the crop obviously.

Chickens who do not have sour crop but the crop is too full will just spit up undigested feed/water (you can tell it's feed.) It won't look like dark brown liquid like you're describing.

Go out and buy monistat 2% from the grocery store or something, off-brand is fine (and cheaper/same thing.) Once you have it, try to drain your hens crop as much as you can to get out as much as that yeast as possible before the first treatment. Rub her crop, when she starts to gurgle up liquid, tip her upside down [forward, like you want to puke her] briefly and push the crop and try to expel as much as you can as fast as you can (you don't want her to choke, that will kill her.) Do that for less than 5 seconds and then let her catch her breath - it helps to remove liquid from their beak/have a towel ready to wipe the beak, the hole they use to breathe/fill their air sacs is located right next to the hole they expel liquid from so get the whole beak clear so they can breathe again.

It doesn't need to be fully drained, just try to get a lot of the liquid yeast out at first so the medicine can hit the walls of her crop initially and not just float around in a pile of liquid. You should only need to tip them like one time to get rid of the initial yeast blob, you don't want to do it too much because it's a risky move that can choke/suffocate your chicken.

Then give her about one inch of monistat, my chicken will just eat it so you may not need to force feed it. I just offer it to them like it's a treat and they eat it. If she's not interested, I just mix it with a little yogurt and they'll eat that.

Then massage the crop to try to spread that monistat around all over in there. Give her monistat in the morning, and again at night (twice daily) for 7 days. Make sure you do it for the full week even if it seems like it's gone earlier, yeast and other fungi are very resilient to treatment and will grow rapidly if not fully eradicated from the problem area. You don't want to go through treatment all over again haha!

Sour crop is often caused by other issues, such as blockages or worms, so make sure there isn't anything like that going on too because it will reoccur if you do not get rid of the blockage. A blockage will cause tons of food/water to sit in the crop, which is a perfect environment for yeast to grow [this is how sour crop occurs, and why it's often linked to blockages.] Your massages may get rid of the blockage though during the sour crop treatment, hopefully.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

The tricky part is the birds live at my grandparents house. We got them as a 4-H project and used it for bonding time with my grandfather, and because at the time the local law prohibited keeping chickens were I lived. My grandfather says he gets three eggs a week from that coop, so she could possibly be laying but I am not sure. I haven't noticed any major symptoms of sickness from her, although she is noticeably overweight. To be honest I don't believe the hens have ever been dewormed, but we have never had any problems with any sort of parasites before this lice infestation. I plan to check for signs of worms the next time I can go.

You likely will not see worms in the poop, getting a fecal float is the best way to know if worms are a problem.

The only way you'll know if the hen has Sour Crop is to check her out for a few days in a row. The crop need to be checked/felt first thing in the morning before she's had anything to eat/drink. If it's not emptying, then address that symptom.

 

[Average Flock]

Crop bra won't do anything for sour crop. Sour crop is just a bad yeast infection occurring in the crop, and yes, dark brownish liquid spilling out of a very full crop is definitely a sign. Crop bras are meant for chickens with pendulous crop who need help holding the crop up, this does nothing for a fungal infection in the crop obviously.

Chickens who do not have sour crop but the crop is too full will just spit up undigested feed/water (you can tell it's feed.) It won't look like dark brown liquid like you're describing.

Go out and buy monistat 2% from the grocery store or something, off-brand is fine (and cheaper/same thing.) Once you have it, try to drain your hens crop as much as you can to get out as much as that yeast as possible before the first treatment. Rub her crop, when she starts to gurgle up liquid, tip her upside down [forward, like you want to puke her] briefly and push the crop and try to expel as much as you can as fast as you can (you don't want her to choke, that will kill her.) Do that for less than 5 seconds and then let her catch her breath - it helps to remove liquid from their beak/have a towel ready to wipe the beak, the hole they use to breathe/fill their air sacs is located right next to the hole they expel liquid from so get the whole beak clear so they can breathe again.

It doesn't need to be fully drained, just try to get a lot of the liquid yeast out at first so the medicine can hit the walls of her crop initially and not just float around in a pile of liquid. You should only need to tip them like one time to get rid of the initial yeast blob, you don't want to do it too much because it's a risky move that can choke/suffocate your chicken.

Then give her about one inch of monistat, my chicken will just eat it so you may not need to force feed it. I just offer it to them like it's a treat and they eat it. If she's not interested, I just mix it with a little yogurt and they'll eat that.

Then massage the crop to try to spread that monistat around all over in there. Give her monistat in the morning, and again at night (twice daily) for 7 days. Make sure you do it for the full week even if it seems like it's gone earlier, yeast and other fungi are very resilient to treatment and will grow rapidly if not fully eradicated from the problem area. You don't want to go through treatment all over again haha!

Sour crop is often caused by other issues, such as blockages or worms, so make sure there isn't anything like that going on too because it will reoccur if you do not get rid of the blockage. A blockage will cause tons of food/water to sit in the crop, which is a perfect environment for yeast to grow [this is how sour crop occurs, and why it's often linked to blockages.] Your massages may get rid of the blockage though during the sour crop treatment, hopefully.

I was able to pick her up from my grandparents and start treatment yesterday. On top of the monistat I have been giving her some coconut oil to hopefully help with any potential blockage. I noticed that last night her poop was stringy and green, and I am not sure if that's normal? Today it has returned to a dark brown color, but her droppings are very small. Would this imply a blockage? This morning before she was fed her crap had not emptied from last night. Her crop is also still balloon like and very noticeable without having to closely examine her, but it appears that today she didn't spit up any liquid, which I believe she did yesterday. She's not appearing lethargic and she hasn't lost any color in her comb. While she's on monistat is there any withdrawal period for eggs? She did in fact lay one today.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It takes time to resolve crop issues, so continue your treatment for a full 7 days, twice a day.

 

[Average Flock]

Here's a bit of an update: was able to start treatment on Wednesday which means that I've given her 2 and 1/2 days of monistat. Yesterday morning I noticed she had green stringy, almost pellet-like poop. This morning when I checked on her she had very large but somewhat normal looking poop, however, after I cleaned her cage she did have black sludge and stinky poop. Since she's had a variety of different droppings, I think that I shouldn't be too worried about the abnormal ones. Unless they can continue. She's remained pretty active. She has been eating, drinking, her comb hasn't lost any color, and today she was preening herself. Yesterday she laid an egg. As for her crop, it still feels like a water balloon, although I noticed today that I couldn't feel any of her feed in her crop from yesterday, just liquid. Not quite sure what that would mean other than there is some type of drainage happening. Before I start treatment, her crop was very noticeable without even having to pick her up and closely examine it, and today I think that it is less visible. She also is missing feathers around her vent, but I think that might be due to the lice infestation that we had but thought it was worth noting here. On top of the monistat I have probiotic that I put in her feed, and I've been trying to give her some coconut oil. Attached her to photos of the weird poop, and a photo I took of her today in case there's anything super noticeable or worrying about any of these.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Have you dewormed her? If so, with what and the dose?

 

[Average Flock]

Have you dewormed her? If so, with what and the dose?

I have not given her any wormer. I did some digging and it doesn't look like there's any official wormer for chickens, correct? Do you have any recommendations for a wormer? Particularly one on the cheaper side as I am trying to finish up my bachelor's degree is summer and currently drowning in student debt. I would love to be able to cover all of my bases and be able to eliminate that potential problem.