help?! chicken starving liquid crop

[peaceful]

I have a sick chicken who hasn't been eating, is light as a feather and has liquid in her crop. I'm thinking sour crop?
I separated her yesterday and she isn't doing well. When I first realized she was sick and picked her up, a bunch of liquid came up from the pressure of my hand as I was looking at her rear (dried diarrhea) and then she was having trouble breathing from it. When I have gently massaged the crop, I can feel no blockage, though even that will bring liquid up sometimes. Her crop is small this morning, still with liquid. Sometimes she moves her neck as if trying to clear a blockage but I can feel none. She is so light. I'm worried she will starve.
It is Sunday morning and we live far enough out of town that in particular any natural or home remedy suggestions would be welcome. How do you administer something without them choking if they don't eat or drink it themselves? Poor girl. She has such soulful eyes.

 

[fiberart57]

Hello, sorry that you are having difficulties.

I'm not sure what's causing your chick's problem; it sounds a bit like long grass in an impacted crop. I'm not a health expert, but there are some measure you can take to give her some nutritional help.

If you haven't already, move her into a quiet, cool spot.

First of all, you said that you were far away from a store but if you had access to a grocery store, some liquid vitamins that they sell for babies; Poly-vit-sol, without the iron would help. If not that, then some electrolytes in a diluted mixture with water. Putting a bit of ACV in the water will help as well. Even though she won't eat or drink, if you put it in an eyedropper or something of the same ilk, she'll get it down.

Despite the fact that she's oozing liquid from her crop, she needs fluid.

The next thing you can do is hard boil an egg and make a gruel out of the yolk and get some of that in her. You do this by running a bead of it along the side of her beak and she'll work her beak and get it in. This will take some time.

Another thing that might help move things along is applesauce. What works for babies also works for chickens. If you have an apple, microwave it with a bit water until it's soft. Cool and then feed the same way as the yolk.

Have you checked stools for worms? Is she of cocci age?

You may be correct in the sour crop, there's a few good threads about it if you do a search. Sour crop can sometimes be helped with ACV and plain yogurt.

Good luck, Mary

 

[peaceful]

Thanks so much for the response Mary!! She is a three year old hen. Yesterday I was researching and separated her from the others and put in with her water with electrolytes, ACV, and the tiniest bit of GSE from a capsule. I also offered her yogourt (which she didn't eat). Today her stomach is gurgling and she just had incredible foul smelling green diarrhea. I don't see any worms in the poop. A few whole grains amongst the green stuff. I don't know anything about cocci.
She is very quiet with her head tucked in a bit. Her poop didn't smell that bad yesterday.

 

[peaceful]

Anyone else have suggestions?

 

[fiberart57]

I'm glad she seems a bit better - however, if there's whole grains in her poop she might need some grit to grind her food.

Layer feed is already soft enough for them to eat without grit, but if you give snacks like grains they must have grit. They are particular about the size and shape and I have found that even though mine free range, they still take in the MannaPro grit I buy them. Change it every couple of weeks, because of their fussiness about shape and size.

Mary

 

[peaceful]

Thanks again Mary!!
I'm afraid she is not doing well, mostly sitting quietly with her eyes closed, mostly empty crop now still with some liquid.
I have alternated her between having her isolated and putting her back in with the others a bit in the day to see how she is doing since she seems to prefer being with them. There is lots of grit available and I don't think that is the problem. Research says that green in the poo means the digestion isn't working properly, and I think that is why she has got a few whole grains in her poop. Something is really wrong with her digestive system somewhere. I think I should try antibiotics now for sure is it isn't too late. But I am completely unfamiliar with them and live relatively far out of town although there is a little store nearby that might have something. I brought her inside to observe her and was able to get her to peck at a few bits of fresh corn and sunflower seed, but she won't seem to touch yogourt, applesauce, green smoothie, and isn't interested in grain or food really generally. She seems weak. She only really gets upset when I try to feed her anything with the dropper, including water with ACV or olive oil. When I put it on her beak now she just lets it drop off. I'm not having much luck prying open her jaw. Is there a trick to open the jaw? It's like she knows she should eat but knows it's just not working.
Anyone know how to give antibiotics?