*help* i think my hen has sour crop!? *sad update we lost her*

[obe10]

my little "henrietta" is acting lethargic, and is very skinny. i have checked her crop and it is not emptying! she is eating, but literally skin and bones! the only thing i could think of is worms, or sour crop i have given her some Wazine 17 wormer and am hoping for the best. she has been like this for a while, but i just now realized it was this bad, although it could have been a number of things: she is getting ready to molt, she has recently had lice, and now she either has worms or a crop issue!!! talk about a triple whammy! i will try to get a picture soon. but any advice on any other things i should be doing? i will also include some information about her:



1) What type of bird , age and weight. mixed breed, brahma/silkie. approximately 5 years old. don't know exact weight but she is really skinny and a lot lighter then normal.
2) What is the behavior, exactly. lethargic, and you can tell she feels bad.
3) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. none
4) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. first she had lice, now she is having a large molt.
5) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. she has been drinking a little water and eating a mix of layer mash/scratch and i have given her some lettuce which she has eaten.
6) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. sticky, smelly and green. i have to wipe it off her butt
7) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? wazine in her water,and apple cider vinegar.
8 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? there is no vet around here, and i could not afford that anyway. i intend to treat her myself.
9) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. pics below.
10) Describe the housing/bedding in use. straw

hope you guys can help, thanks.

this is her bone right under the skin. you can see how skinny she is

here is a pic when i first realized she was sick (she looks a lot worse now)

this one isn't that good but it is a full body pic i took today

 

[obe10]

bump?

 

[verthandi]

Some plain yogurt might help with firing up her digestive system. She has been through alot and wormer can also reduce the helpful bacteria in the gut. I have found if mine won't even taste the yogurt that by sprinkling a little bit of their food on the top, they usually will try it.

Does her crop go down over night?

 

[obe10]

i don't know if her crop goes down overnight i will find out by tomorrow i have tried the yogurt before so i will try that again tonight and see if she will eat any. yogurt will help with her good bacteria level right? thanks for you help.

 

[verthandi]

Quote:
Yes it would. I noticed that you have parrots also, if you have any of the parrot vitamin's they seem to work well on the chickens too. The one that I use even comes with a spout that drips out one drop at a time. I use a drop morning and night for about a week, then go to once a day for a week or so more. I put it directly in the side of their mouth, so I am sure they are getting it.

 

[purpletree23]

Triple whammy is right.

Dust her with poultry dust to make sure she doesn't have any more lice or mites. They are easy to miss.

Give her lots of nutritious food. She is trying to fight worms, recover from the lice and her poor body is trying to make new feathers.

Give chopped greens ( I use frozen chopped spinach....don't cook just thaw and squeeze out the water), scrambled egg, cottage cheese, yogurt, cooked oatmeal and Cheerios. Don't give all at once but make sure she gets something special everyday. I mix the greens, eggs and cottage cheese together and just keep it in the fridge. The cooked oatmeal I mix with the yogurt and also keep this in the fridge. The Cheerios I just sprinkle on the ground.

Give some fruits like grapes, apples and strawberries. Not too much because it can cause diarrhea.

Also give her 4 or 5 pieces of cat food every day. It has a lot of protein but don't overdo it because it also has a lot of salt.

Oh by the way..If you haven't already..... treat all of your hens for lice and worm them and give them this diet in addition to their laying pellets. They will be chubby and healthy going into a trying winter.

 

[obe10]

Quote:
very helpful, thanks i will do everything i can to save her, she is me baby. i don't have any parrot vitamins at the moment, but i do have some cat food. is there any particular kind? my cat eats "wiskas" wet food, could i give her a little of that? and what about the wormer, i panicked last night cause she was so thin so i mixed a big dose and gave her some in her water. she would not drink, so i dribbled some into her mouth with a syringe. she has always been stubborn! i plan to put her back with the others this AM because i will be gone most of the day. i have already wormed/dusted everyone, and maybe i should do it again. we never have anything close to winter here in SC, but i will fatten everyone up anyway

*sigh* it just kills me to see her this way.

 

[obe10]

she seems to be getting worse! any suggestions? help!

 

[obe10]

i gave her some apple cider vinegar....

 

[threehorses]

When did you last worm them all, when was that - just this week or within 2-3 weeks? What do her droppings look like right now? Pretty skinny and dark green, solid though - or different?

The big thing is getting her to eat more. At this point, if you look at parrot vitamins I'd pick up a small container of parrot starting formula. It's powdered formula in a screw-top can or a little ziplockable bag by Exact or Zupreem I think. It's the powdered food for baby parrots. It has the vitamins, probiotics, enzymes, minerals, and the nutrition is very very dense. It's also more high protein than usual poultry food which could help put weight on her.

You know how they make tubed high calorie food for cats and dogs that you give in case of a lack of eating? Well this works that way but for birds in a pinch. You don't make it hot like the label suggests - make it lukewarm. If you ever have to get her to eat by dropper, that's waht to use.

In the mean time, will she eat eggs boiled? Anything that she reallyr eally loves and can't resist?

She needs a lot of nutrition and her digestive tract probably can't process a lot. There's also a chance that she has Marek's or a cancer that is making her lose weight, but we're going to try to rule that out with nutritional work for her.

How about probiotics, yogurt, etc? Has she eaten any of this? Is she drinking now? Did you find out about her crop for sure? Do you have any B vitamins, B12 or anything, that can maybe spark her appetite?