Full crop..possibly sour crop?

[JanaBanana1]

My young hen has a full squishy crop. Yesterday while i was holding her upside down to check her vent she vomited on me..at first I thought it was poo? After reading up here I really think her problem is a full crop. She wont eat, sits alone fluffed up and does this weird movement with her head. My husband said her crop was full...now I need to know what can I do to help her? Can someone please help me? Do I make her vomit, and if so how?

 

[tiny529]

I've heard that giving them olive oil and gently massaging their crop in a downward motion for a few minutes many times a day can help.

 

[shareverwonder]

I'm having the same problem with my hen. She is acting exactly the same way. I tipped her forward and she vomited clear stuff. I'm not sure what to do for her either.

 

[GrandmaChickie]

I don't know if this will help either one of you or not, because I knew exactly what was wrong with my hen. After the 5/22/11 tornado in Joplin, there was debris all over our yard, and in our coop. I watched my hen grab up a piece of that pink styro-foamy insulation and choke it down before I could get to her. Sure enough, two days later she looked miserable, not eating, losing her color in her wattles. I spent one entire day giving her a mixture of olive oil and red wine (which she quite seemed to like after a while), first by eye-dropper, then she started drinking it herself. Then I would massage her crop for 20-30 minutes, while she and I watched TV. Well, I watched; she mostly went to sleep. I tried to gently break up what I could feel in there, because I KNEW it was the insulation. Then we'd take a break for an hour or so, and do it all over again. It wasn't quite magic, but it worked really well, and she was able to eat and drink on her own by the next day. Took a few days for her other end to start working as well--I was very afraid the insulation would just get caught somewhere else down the line, so to speak, but she's alive and well today! Best of luck to you, and I hope there's a happy ending to your story!

 

[tiny529]

Thanks for that info! I just lost a girl yesterday to what may have been sour crop and I fear that another one might have something going on now. I haven't seen anyone eating anything weird, so I don't know what the cause could be!

 

[GrandmaChickie]

I think the idea is that the olive oil helps lubricate things to move along, and the red wine is acidic to help break it up. I think it mostly encourages them to drink the oil. I may just have alcoholic chickens....

 

[CountryKitty]

I had a chick with this a few weeks ago--it was my first time with it. Googled what to do, but since the vets are closed on Sunday, I didn't think I could get the antibiotics for the chick. I mixed some olive oil with a tiny pinch of baking soda (antacid) and some juice of a jar of minced garlic in the fridge (garlic has antibacterial properties). I drizzled some into her beak and kept the chick in a quiet spot in the house in a box for 24 hours. She had been so bad at the start that she couldn't stand and I came within a hair's breadth of putting her down, but after 24 hours was just fine; crop was the normal size and she was interested in food and water. Then she flew out of her box to crap in a house plant so I turned her loose in the henyard.

 

[JanaBanana1]

Thank you! I am going to add a pinch of the baking soda and garlic juice in the morning to the olive oil. I hope she makes it I have kept her away from her sisters all day in a cage. Poor girl looked so sad...

 

[JanaBanana1]

I couldn't wait..went out and got her tonight and gave her the stuff..she is now resting on my lap

 

[speckledhen]

Same protocol or all sour crop issues. Separate the hen, 24 hours with no food, only water with 1/4 teaspoon of acidified copper sulfate (comes in powder form usually at the feed store) in a gallon in plastic waterer only. If you can't find that, use 2 tablespoons of organic, unfiltered apple cider vinegar in the plastic gallon waterer, changed daily.

Day 2, add only plain yogurt.
Day 3, add plain scrambled egg to the yogurt.
Each day, massage the crop, several times each day, pushing toward the back of the crop, not upward.
Day 4, maybe some soupy oatmeal added to the eggs and yogurt, but NO grains. Hopefully, that will clear it up.


Don't try to make them vomit or they can aspirate and choke to death.