Empty crop at night:

[RobotChicken]

Ok, so this is something of a followup.

I have a year old brown leghorn who hasn't laid in 2 months.

This spring she went through a molt and came out of it in the middle of may. She stopped laying back at the beginning of July. As advised I gave her yogurt, I also put out grit and shell in a new bowl which for some reason enticed them to eat both.

Now her comb is still shrunk like if she was in a molt. And she is losing feathers but also growning new ones all over. So it almost looks like she is molting again, and has been doing so for about 6-7 weeks now.

She is acting perfectly normal, seems to eat normally, etc, except when I goto check her at night, her crop feels completely empty, if I can even feel it, this is in contrast to my other 3 hens who have a nice full crop from pecking around all day.

The only other bit of behavior that is out of the ordinary is that she is not squatting for me. I didn't think that was of any concern since when she went through the molt last time she had no interest in squatting for me.


So should I be concerned? Is she ever going to come out of a molt? Something else wrong?

 

[RobotChicken]

Anyone? Felt her crop again tonight and its like there is nothing there, my other 3 hens have nice full crops.

 

[pixie74943]

bump, interested to see what people say.


Maybe head out there before dark and give her a space of her own with lots of nice yummy foods to boost her back up? Pretty sure going to sleep on an empty stomach isnt good for her. If she gets extras for a couple of nights, maybe her energy levels will pick up some more and she'll be able to feed herself better

 

[Elite Silkies]

I would isolate her. Could they be running her off from the food? Sour crop, maybe.

Can anyone help?

 

[Eggs4Sale]

I'd put her in a cage and keep her in the house to monitor what she eats.

I'd give her hard-boiled egg yolks, lay crumble, a teaspoon of plain yogurt, and polyvisol (without iron) all mashed together for breakfast. After she ate it, I'd feel her crop and see if it feels larger.

Then I'd put a measuring cup of lay crumble in the cage, noting the amount. That way you can see how much she eats throughout the day.

I'd also have another measuring cup of water with ACV added.

At the end of the day, I'd feel her crop again. If the food level is down in the cup, it should be in her crop, right?

If the level is down, but you don't feel it in the crop, then that's weird.

She really sounds like she needs vitamins for quite a while. A special diet for just her to get her back on track.

 

[caralouise1974]

I'm having a similar problem with my BO. She's getting thinner by the day, and her crop is always almost completely empty.

However, she's acting totally normally, scratting around with the others and looking after her six week old chick wonderfully. She's full of energy and you wouldn't know anything was wrong until you picked her up and felt her bones sticking out and her empty crop. Her feathers are looking great too - she's in the middle of a moult and the new feathers are really coming along well.

She goes through the motions of wanting to eat - runs up to me when I have treats, pecks around the garden, eats tons of clover and grass - but never seems to have anything in her crop. She's pitifully thin now, after seven weeks of brooding and six weeks of mothering. It all started around the time she went broody, and then was made worse by a serious mite infestation (which has been cleared for over five weeks now, and she's still not eating much). She will eat bird seed, scrambled egg, fresh soft white bread, worms, maggots (farmed, not foraged), grass, sunflower seeds, and cooked oatmeal, but that's about it, and only in small amounts.

I'm taking her to the vet at midday today. I really hope something can be done for her.

I'll report back if we find any answers.

Very sad

 

[Eggs4Sale]

WORMS


It just occurred to me....

Appetite good, but no flesh......

Worms.

When were they last wormed?

 

[caralouise1974]

Sadly not that simple in my case unfortunately. We wormed with flubenvet at the beginning of june, and we also used ivermectin pour-on when sorting out the mites six weeks ago, so my girl cannot have much of a worm load at the moment. Can she?

 

[pixie74943]

not likely, but possible. Parasites tend to multiply quickly in the right conditions.

I dont think it would hurt to worm her again, plus plenty of TLC

 

[caralouise1974]

Vet thinks something insidious is going on. She only weighs 2 kilos, whereas as an adult BO she should weigh around 4 kilos. Her crop is fine, her stools are normal (but small), and her mouth, eyes and vent all look okay. He is also pretty convinced she doesn't need worming yet again, and advised against it while she is so frail. (He said that if it were worms she would be eating a lot but losing weight, whereas the problem is that she's simply not really eating.)

He has put her on Tylan Soluble (again), as he suspects she never really beat her mycoplasma back in March. (Yes, I know, mycoplasma isn't 'curable', as such, and I know a lot of you guys would have culled rather than tried to treat. Not me though - she's a pet and I love her.) He has also given me some Avia-Charge 2000 supplement for her, in the hope that it will perk her up a little.

We are going for another weigh-in in a fortnight, and if she isn't responding by then, we may have to decide whether to let her go, or subject her to blood tests, x-rays (and of course that means anaesthetics), and stressful examinations/investigations.

So, essentially, I'm sorry RobotChicken, but there's no real firm answers here for you. Apart from perhaps try Avia Charge 2000 and make sure your girl doesn't have CRD. Good luck