(Help Please!) Vomiting lethargic Hen

[Clucking_Caramel]

She just passed away as we were bringing her inside. Yes she drank the apple Cider vinegar herself.

 

[Clucking_Caramel]

I dont understand how she died. We just picked her up and carried her. We didn't even get a chance to put her down.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

She just passed away as we were bringing her inside. Yes she drank the apple Cider vinegar herself.

I'm so so sorry for your loss. She knows you were trying to help her and that she was loved and sometimes that's the most we can offer. From your description it sounded like there were fluids bubbling up and she was inhaling it. To know what actually caused it, you could take her in for a necropsy which might not be a bad idea since this has happened more than once. Again, I'm so sorry for your loss and I'm sorry that I couldn't be more of a help to you.

 

[Eggcessive]

So sorry for your loss. Many experienced chicken owners have tried to make their chicken vomit, and it choked to death. That should not be done. With a puffy crop, it should never be massaged or squeezed, or they can vomit and choke. A hard or doughy crop can be massaged, but do not make them vomit.

Water should always be available to a chicken with a crop problem. Water is the best way they can flush out the crop. Learning to tube feed water to try to loosen the crop contents, and then suck it back out is helpful. The 2 articles that @aart posted are pretty informative.

Since your hen’s crop contents smelled very bad, it may have been to advanced to have helped. In my experience with crop problems, most were related to reproductive disorders putting pressure on the digestive organs causing the crop to slow down and not empty well. Then impacted and sour crop set in. I have never saved a chicken with sour crop, and one I treated for 6 weeks.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry.

 

[MROO]

This is a good way to 'drown' a bird...the fluid ends up in their lungs and they die.

Did she drink the ACV on her own?

Here's some good info about crop issues and how to treat them:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ntion-and-treatments-of-crop-disorders.67194/

I know this is an older thread - over a month old - but I have to add a footnote, here. This post may well have just saved my sweetest rooster's life!

Pippin, a one-year old Nankin bantam rooster, was "droopy" and lethargic, just standing around with his eyes closed. I brought him inside, where it's warmer, gave him electrolytes, which he readily drank on his own, once I eye-droppered it alongside his beak. While Pip was drinking, I gave him some of our homemade flock-block, which he devoured! Then I did some BYC research. I looked hard at sour crop, as his was a bit watery, but there was absolutely no sour smell at all. In fact, he smelled cloyingly sweet.

That really threw me off, especially because the sweet scent was vaguely familiar. I knew I'd smelled it before, but couldn't place it. When I tossed he lap towel I'd used into the laundry, I commented that it smelled like our rec-room after one of my brother's crazy teenage parties ... of stale munchies and spilled beer. Then I remembered what his treat block was full of ... munchies, raisins & cranberries. The proverbial lights blared to life ... Pippin smelled like stale, overly sweet, homemade wine!

Based on that little tidbit and the fact that his crop was squishy, Pippin is now on miconazole, as recommended by the article in aart's note, above. So far, so good. We'll give it the full seven days, but Pip's already looking brighter. Thanks @aart!

**Note to anyone using Pedialyte packets as an emergency electrolyte solution ... do NOT use a concentrated cherry flavor packet. The resulting "Kool-Aid smile" really knocks you for a loop until you figure out that there is no blood in your chicken's mouth!

 

[MROO]

That really threw me off, especially because the sweet scent was vaguely familiar. I knew I'd smelled it before, but couldn't place it. When I tossed he lap towel I'd used into the laundry, I commented that it smelled like our rec-room after one of my brother's crazy teenage parties ... of stale munchies and spilled beer. Then I remembered what his treat block was full of ... munchies, raisins & cranberries. The proverbial lights blared to life ... Pippin smelled like stale, overly sweet, homemade wine!

When I first noticed the "stale wine" smell on Pippin, he couldn't stand up. He kept laying down and would stagger when he walked. His lack of coordination suggested something more sinister. That was another reason I questioned the "sour crop" diagnosis, at first. Once he started with the miconazole, which the little goof pecks right off my finger with no hesitation, he's now back to his usual perky, happy, spoiled self. He's still a little thinner than I'd like, but there are absolutely no signs of the lost appetite, lethargy or poor coordination. I still plan to continue the treatment for the full seven days, but his recovery is nothing short of miraculous ... until you consider DD's theory:
With a sour crop full of fermenting berries, Pippin wasn't as sick as we thought. He was DRUNK!