Help with sour crop?

[CedarAcres]

So one of our 2 1/2 month old chicks has what I believe is sour crop. Her crop is soft & watery feeling and she is lethargic. I noticed this for the first time today, she was fine yesterday. I have isolated her in the house so I can monitor her better.

I've seen lots of varying opinions on how to treat sour crop, from emptying the crop through massage to monistat. Just looking for some other's recommendations on how they have successfully treated sour crop.

 

[Erin Hiscock]

My chicken crop is also big, think its blocked. My partner tried to massage for about 5 mins. She hasn't been laying for a few days. I'm frightened to force olive oil down her. Should I add ACV to the water? Can she die? Or will it pass?

 

[CedarAcres]

Well I ended up visiting our vet, who happens to specialize in birds & exotics, and owns quite a few chickens herself. She agreed about the sour crop. She said it isn't too bad yet, and she expects her to improve. She gave her baytril, reglan, and some sub q fluids in the office, then I have to give her the baytril & reglan twice a day for a week. She also did a fecal since my chicken pooped in the office and it showed that she had some sort of infection going on, so that's why she's getting the baytril.

She already seems perkier (I'm assuming because of the reglan) and she has actually started to eat and is moving around. So hopefully she keeps getting better!

 

[CedarAcres]

I'm just posting this in case in helps someone else in the future

Last night I gave her a syringe full of yogurt with active cultures in it. She is very good at taking anything from a syringe. How I do it is hold her so she is comfortable, place the syringe next to her beak (toward the front), and push a very small amount out. She tastes it, and will swallow it. I like to do it very slowly so she is able to swallow it at her own pace. I give her medicine the same way.

She started picking at her food last night and actually eating some. She has also started going to the bathroom more (after almost a day of nothing) so that makes me think things are starting to move. Her poo has odd greenish bits in it, which makes me think that's from the infection.

This morning she loudly greeted me and promptly jumped up and has been eating all morning. Her crop was less full of liquid this morning, but it definitely did not empty. She is acting much better though, more alert, eating, not hunched up with puffed feathers. She's getting dosed with .6 ml of baytril and .4ml of reglan twice a day by mouth. The baytril is an anitbiotic for the infection detected in her fecal test and the reglan is used to help empty stomach contents (or in this case, crop contents) and get the system moving.