- Mar 3, 2014
- 7
- 0
- 7
I am relatively new to chicken keeping but have always followed along here on this site and now I am in need of some advice myself...
I have hen (lowest in the pecking order) who developed sour crop- I caught it because she was acting extra lethargic- but not before she had apparently lost a terrible amount of weight (which I didn't catch because of all her feathers!)
Initially I brought her in, emptied her crop and she perked up a bit- then after some time I fed small amount of scrambled eggs (which she initially ate) and yogurt (which she wouldnt touch) Since she was already so skinny and had stopped eating I decided i couldnt wait to take her to a vet- who does treat birds but I didn't feel too confident about his knowledge- he agreed that she had sour crop- he gave her a steroid injection ( I'm not clear on what that was for) and sent us home with Nystatin which I have been treating with for three days. I am also giving her vitamin water, and vegetable broth with probiotics but I figure the Nystatin probably doesn't discriminate and will likely kill the good bacteria too.
She is slightly less lethargic than she was before but not much and she is barely eating- she will eat three pecks of eggs and a little water and that will be it for the day and so she is also barely pooping (although what there is looks a LITtLE healthier) but no matter what she has (a few sips of water, meds, etc.) her crop just bloats up with gas which I have to massage away over the next few hours. She is so thin I am terrified that if she doesn't get some more nutrition in her soon she will get too weak to go on.
I am wondering if there is any product ( I know there is for dogs and cats and other mammals) that I can get that she will eat no matter how poorly she is feeling that has crucial nutrients in it- or else if anyone has any feeding suggestions of something that chickens are crazy about. I don't want to feed her anything very fibrous since she's not digesting well bit I need to get something into her - and hopefully something that won't create a lot of gas.
I am pretty afraid to try and tube feed her since i haven't done it before and I don't have anyone to help me.
Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance...
I have hen (lowest in the pecking order) who developed sour crop- I caught it because she was acting extra lethargic- but not before she had apparently lost a terrible amount of weight (which I didn't catch because of all her feathers!)
Initially I brought her in, emptied her crop and she perked up a bit- then after some time I fed small amount of scrambled eggs (which she initially ate) and yogurt (which she wouldnt touch) Since she was already so skinny and had stopped eating I decided i couldnt wait to take her to a vet- who does treat birds but I didn't feel too confident about his knowledge- he agreed that she had sour crop- he gave her a steroid injection ( I'm not clear on what that was for) and sent us home with Nystatin which I have been treating with for three days. I am also giving her vitamin water, and vegetable broth with probiotics but I figure the Nystatin probably doesn't discriminate and will likely kill the good bacteria too.
She is slightly less lethargic than she was before but not much and she is barely eating- she will eat three pecks of eggs and a little water and that will be it for the day and so she is also barely pooping (although what there is looks a LITtLE healthier) but no matter what she has (a few sips of water, meds, etc.) her crop just bloats up with gas which I have to massage away over the next few hours. She is so thin I am terrified that if she doesn't get some more nutrition in her soon she will get too weak to go on.
I am wondering if there is any product ( I know there is for dogs and cats and other mammals) that I can get that she will eat no matter how poorly she is feeling that has crucial nutrients in it- or else if anyone has any feeding suggestions of something that chickens are crazy about. I don't want to feed her anything very fibrous since she's not digesting well bit I need to get something into her - and hopefully something that won't create a lot of gas.
I am pretty afraid to try and tube feed her since i haven't done it before and I don't have anyone to help me.
Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance...
