Help

[pattyp]

Hi I have a chicken that has what looks like a water ballon crop. She has had this for quite some time now and it has not seemed to both her. Recently I was told she may have sour crop so we massaged her crop to try and drain it. Whilst some liquid came out it didn't smell like anything. Also more recently we have noticed that she has started to what we thought was loose feathers around her crop area but saw her picking at them yesterday. Her cone seems to be pink rather than red? She is still eating and drinking just fine and pooping as well. The rest of the flock have not been picking on her anymore than normal. I think she is the lowest in the pecking order. Does anyone have any ideas about what might be up with our little Roxy????

 

[JesNflock]

Hi I have a chicken that has what looks like a water ballon crop. She has had this for quite some time now and it has not seemed to both her. Recently I was told she may have sour crop so we massaged her crop to try and drain it. Whilst some liquid came out it didn't smell like anything. Also more recently we have noticed that she has started to what we thought was loose feathers around her crop area but saw her picking at them yesterday. Her cone seems to be pink rather than red? She is still eating and drinking just fine and pooping as well. The rest of the flock have not been picking on her anymore than normal. I think she is the lowest in the pecking order. Does anyone have any ideas about what might be up with our little Roxy????

Hi pattyp, is her crop empty in the morning before feeding?

 

[pattyp]

Yes. It's much better than after she eats

 

[JesNflock]

Her crop should be larger after she eats but should definitely go down by morning. My young BR's (when I first got her) crop was doing that (it would stay kinda full..go down some but not completely gone) I was worried about sour/impacted crop. I isolated her and withheld food for a day and massaged it a lot. I started her back on applesauce then when I gave her crumbles again I would take up her food sometime before she would go to sleep so that she had a longer time to empty her crop ( I couldn't give probiotics at that time because she was on Corid for Cocci at the time) (Not sure, but I feel like maybe with my chick that her crop maybe was slow to empty or on it's way to sour or impacted crop.) Have you given any probiotics? You could give her a little bit of yogurt. I am by no means an expert in this area but this helped in my situation. Do you have pics of her when her crop is full?

 

[pattyp]

she gets yogurt 1-2 times a week. I think what concerns me is that when her crop is full (and also does not seem to empty as well as the others) it looks like a balloon and swings a bit like a pendulum. also that she seems to be loosing and pecking her feathers from her crop area. I gave her some egg this morning I might try that for a few days as well as her normal bits and pieces.

 

[Eggcessive]

Crop problems seem to take a long time to help. Your chicken's crop may have lost some tone from being too full during a past impaction or sour crop episode. You might back off anything for a couple of days besides very soft foods like apple sauce, and raw or soft egg. Probiotics in her water would be better than yogurt since chickens don't tolerate much dairy. Antifungal drugs like Nystatin and Medistatin are good to give orally for sour crop. Here is a good link to read: http://www.tillysnest.com/2012/01/crop-issues.html

 

[JesNflock]

Crop problems seem to take a long time to help. Your chicken's crop may have lost some tone from being too full during a past impaction or sour crop episode. You might back off anything for a couple of days besides very soft foods like apple sauce, and raw or soft egg. Probiotics in her water would be better than yogurt since chickens don't tolerate much dairy. Antifungal drugs like Nystatin and Medistatin are good to give orally for sour crop. Here is a good link to read: http://www.tillysnest.com/2012/01/crop-issues.html

Oh, I didn't know that about chicks and yogurt.Definitely good to know. Learned something new!

 

[Eggcessive]

Most of us give our chickens plain yogurt, but just keep the amount very small. There is a product called Probios as well as other brands of probiotics that are good.

 

[pattyp]

Thankyou... Have been trying some more protein with her will see how she goes. She is still happy enough and still laying and not being treated differently by the others so hopefully she will be ok. Appreciate the suggestions.