Full Crop In the Morning & Not Eating

[KristinJ8307]

So this is my first time raising chickens, I researched it in the past but decided to wait bc I had a 2 year old then 2 years later another baby. Here we are 4 years later and my 17 year old cousin went and purchased 8 chickens. He couldnt manage them so now I had them. We built the a wonderfully large coop but there is so much I dont know about caring for them!

I was reading up on crops yesterday and its seems not a minute too soon. One of my girls has a definite issue going on. Her crop is at least golfball sized this morning and wasnt that big before. I didnt realize the importance until reading up on it yesterday. I checked her this morning and it was still full and she just laid down at the feeder when the rest of the birds were chowing down. I read about vomitting her and did that a bit but it made me nervous. The vomit did not smell and she didnt seem do be in any discomfort from what I was doing, she didnt fail or flap and when I set her down she stayed right with me.

I definitelt cant afford a vet bill. My husband was laid off last month. What should I do??

 

[azygous]

Yeah, don't vomit a chicken. It can result in fluid backing up and choking the chicken and sometimes, instant death.

There may not even be an issue with your hen's crop. Not all information you see on crops is accurate or even safe or helpful. I wrote up a short article condensing the possible crop issues and how to figure out which you're dealing with and how to treat. Give it a read. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

A hen with a crop disorder will behave sickly, not wanting to eat. A hen with sour crop may "leak" fluid from her beak as she bends over to pick up grit. A hen with an impacted crop may shun food but drink water in copious amounts.

To assure healthy crops, make grit available and offer probiotics or Greek yogurt a couple times a week to install good microbes in the digestive tract.

 

[KristinJ8307]

Yeah, don't vomit a chicken. It can result in fluid backing up and choking the chicken and sometimes, instant death.

There may not even be an issue with your hen's crop. Not all information you see on crops is accurate or even safe or helpful. I wrote up a short article condensing the possible crop issues and how to figure out which you're dealing with and how to treat. Give it a read. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

A hen with a crop disorder will behave sickly, not wanting to eat. A hen with sour crop may "leak" fluid from her beak as she bends over to pick up grit. A hen with an impacted crop may shun food but drink water in copious amounts.

To assure healthy crops, make grit available and offer probiotics or Greek yogurt a couple times a week to install good microbes in the digestive tract.

Just got home from work and seeing this, going to read your article now. Do you recommend ACV in their water once a month for probiotics? Thank you so much for your post, I really didnt feel comfortable with vommiting her so I appreciate that feedback, I definitely wont do it again. I definitely dont want to hurt her, Im so worried about her, my kids absolutely love our girls!

 

[azygous]

ACV is fine. I used to use it. Now I skip the ACV and ferment the feed I feed to my flock. It contains natural probiotics. It's very easy to do and chickens love it. I credit fermented feed for the long lives my chickens achieve, oldest being thirteen. This is a feat since my flock carries a serious avian virus. Sour crop is very rare in my flock since I've been feeding FF.

 

[KristinJ8307]

ACV is fine. I used to use it. Now I skip the ACV and ferment the feed I feed to my flock. It contains natural probiotics. It's very easy to do and chickens love it. I credit fermented feed for the long lives my chickens achieve, oldest being thirteen. This is a feat since my flock carries a serious avian virus. Sour crop is very rare in my flock since I've been feeding FF.

Interesting, I assume you avoid other issues like moldy food and bug infested food when fermenting it as well?

I live in Florida and we have been having a ton of rain this summer. Ive been working a lot of overtime the past couple weeks and my grass is (quite) a bit high so I was figuring that was the cause of my impacted crop

 

[azygous]

Tall grass can be a problem. But, grass grows as it rains. It's hard to keep up with it.

I have lots of tall grass right now, as well. It's decided to rain in southern Colorado this year. But my chickens seem to ignore the tall stems. They also get kale and chard every few days, so their cravings for greens is satisfied by that.

Usually, chickens graze on the tender blades and ignore the tough stems. But there are chickens that are gluttons for grass and overdo it, getting impacted. Such a chicken should probably be restricted and not permitted near that tall grass until you have a chance to mow.

 

[KristinJ8307]

Tall grass can be a problem. But, grass grows as it rains. It's hard to keep up with it.

I have lots of tall grass right now, as well. It's decided to rain in southern Colorado this year. But my chickens seem to ignore the tall stems. They also get kale and chard every few days, so their cravings for greens is satisfied by that.

Usually, chickens graze on the tender blades and ignore the tough stems. But there are chickens that are gluttons for grass and overdo it, getting impacted. Such a chicken should probably be restricted and not permitted near that tall grass until you have a chance to mow.

I had the whole flock restricted to a pretty small area and they pulled up all the grass. We have a good size yard that wraps around the back of the house all fenced in with a tall chain link security fence that is cover with thick vines and ivy, preventing any sort of escape. We have large oaks that cover the entire area so little threat from the skies. I decided to widen their ranging area so they arent just stuck in one spot eating ever last bit of green in sight. They do seem to like the additional freedom and space but I will definitely have to be vigilant with my mowing for now on. Ive learned that lesson the hardest possible way. I will be devastated if she doesn't recover!

I quickly realized I have QUITE a lot to learn, I thought it would be easy peasy to raise some chickens. I realize now I underestimated the depth of knowledge required to be a good chicken keeper. I will be a diligent student though to get myself up to par and take good care of our girls!

 

[azygous]

You said the operable words - "good chicken keeper". My friend's older sister has decided to keep chickens, most likely, knowing her, as moveable yard ornaments. Recently one hen died. I asked my friend if her sister was in the least curious as to why her chicken died. She said, probably not. She just went to the feed store and bought another one.

To be fair, this was pretty much my mindset after one of the first two chickens I started my flock with died a couple days after I adopted her. I wasn't curious about why she died. I should have been, it turns out. She likely died from lymphoid leucosis that my flock has been carrying ever since.

I commend you on being concerned and wishing to learn. Hopefully, you will be a regular BYC user and we can help you shorten your learning curve, and I predict soon you will be helping others.

 

[KristinJ8307]

You said the operable words - "good chicken keeper". My friend's older sister has decided to keep chickens, most likely, knowing her, as moveable yard ornaments. Recently one hen died. I asked my friend if her sister was in the least curious as to why her chicken died. She said, probably not. She just went to the feed store and bought another one.

To be fair, this was pretty much my mindset after one of the first two chickens I started my flock with died a couple days after I adopted her. I wasn't curious about why she died. I should have been, it turns out. She likely died from lymphoid leucosis that my flock has been carrying ever since.

I commend you on being concerned and wishing to learn. Hopefully, you will be a regular BYC user and we can help you shorten your learning curve, and I predict soon you will be helping others.

Yes I fully intend on learning all the things!! And there is so so much to know!! Tbh I didnt even know what the crop was or why it mattered until 2 days before I posted this. One of the other chickens kept separating from the flock and laying down in the corner. I knew immediately that wasnt normal and not a good sign so I started googling. Turns put she just seemed to have hurt her foot. Once she got up and started moving around I could see she had a weird hop going on. I separated her into a big dog kennel cage I have and kept her in the garage overnight. The next day she was back to her old self albeit with a slight limp. We have meat chickens and we had some serious thunder storms and one of the meat chickens came running across the yard like a bat out of hell and trampled her foot running into the coop and I think it aggravated an injury she had at 3 weeks old (her foot was hurt as a little chick). When googling signs and symptoms of a sick chicken of course crop issues keep coming up. I had previously noticed our girl doing this weird thing where it looked like she was maybe trying to stretch her neck or something. And for a day and a half to two days I had started to notice her crop being quite large but didnt think much of it. Well, as soon as I started reading about impacted crop I knew right away that was the problem and that it was much more important than I originally thought.

I also now realize there are various other preventative measures I need to research and implement ASAP to keep our flock healthy and happy.

 

[JLB]

My 1 1/2 year old black Orpington was vibrant and healthy until she started her first molt. That was when the liquid excrement started. And she was unsteady on her feet .We took her to the veterinarian and she tested negative for parasites. X-rays showed no blockages in her digestive system further down but that the x-ray indicated "too many rocks" in her crop and advised me to feed her bulky foods like rice to move them out. The problem is, she won't eat. Otherwise she is active and her unsteady feet have resolved. I massage her crop at least once daily, but it remains full and I think it may be the rocks that keep her feeling satiated and not eating.
Any ideas? Please help.