Hen not eating, making a strange vocalization

[thkosan]

My beautiful 8 month old Silver Laced Wyandotte did not come out of the coop this morning. I enticed her off the perch with raw egg yolk but when she tried to eat it she made a barking sound -- a single-syllable hiccup. I put her in a playpen with food and water and she periodically makes this sound but is not eating. Her crop has some liquid in it (nothing solid), but it is not distended and she is not spitting up any of the liquid. Any idea what I am dealing with and what I can do?

 

[77horses]

mm...our old hen was doing this a couple weeks ago. She was going, "Uck!" like noises, really loud, like a hiccup. She did this once and a while, but it went away. Not sure what her crop felt like(she's wild and won't let anyone pick her up or touch her if she can help it)

It may be sour crop??? Maybe you should try(DO NOT TRY IF YOU AREN'T SURE!!!!) hang her upside down and massage her crop gently, and she will puke up any nasty stuff. This is what I have heard that people do if their chickens have sour crop, or something stuck in the crop. But again, bot sure if they give any mineral, etc. to their chickens when they do this, but I just heard of it.

I hope she gets better and it's nothing serious!
(Is she laying yet?)

 

[77horses]

Oh and if you decide to do the crop massage method, after she pukes up the stuff, give her some (AFTER WAITING ABOUT 24 HOURS) yogurt or something that can be easier for her to digest:
Here's something that may help, from http://humboldthens.blogspot.com/2006/02/sour-crop-impacted-crop-nothing-at-all.html
"I had a chicken a couple of years ago that had an impacted crop - I tried to induce vomiting , massage with olive oil, epsome salts and every other piece of advice available until the only option was to operate at this stage the chicken was nothing but skin and bone and with the vet pricing the op at £100. that wasnt an option.
So I did it myself got some antibiotics from the vet and cut the skin then cut the crop the chicken hardly noticed (it was very ill) I pulled loads of long grass out about the size of a cricket ball. Stitched the crop stiched the skin , I honestly thought she would die - 'under the knife' but when I put her in a pen in my kitched she actually had a drink and started to peck the paper, I was told not to feed her for 24 hours but once that was up fed her a mix of yoghurt egg and oats etc., which she ate imediately. within 2 days she was better than she had been for 2 weeks - within a week she was back with the other hens and as right as rain."

 

[77horses]

method for telling if a chicken has sour crophttp://www.1976design.com/blog/archive/2004/04/16/sour-crop/)
"A quick method of telling whether a chicken has Sour Crop or not is to gently squeeze it and sniff the air that’s expelled from its mouth. If the bird has Sour Crop then the air will smell awful, if not…"

 

[thkosan]

Thanks for your reply. Her crop is not distended, and she didn't puke anything up when I massaged it. It is definitely not presenting as an impaction -- her crop is not full or hard.

 

[Wynette]

You need to make sure she's getting nutrition and water, so if she's not eating or drinking, consider hand feeding her with a syringe. Can you tell if she's lost weight? If so, it's important for her to keep her strength up. You can buy baby bird handfeeding formula at most any pet store. Mix up a slurry of her regular feed and water, along with the baby bird handfeeding formula. I've done this in a blender, and blended for a good, long until it's smooth. Sometimes, they'll lap it right up. If not, you can draw some up into a syringe and hand feed her. Is she laying? Is there any chance she could be eggbound? The "hiccup" sound makes me wonder if she's got something stuck in her throat - can you open her mouth and shine a flashlight down to see if you can see anything that shouldn't be there? Any other symptoms? How does her poop look?

 

[thkosan]

She is eating on her own, just very infrequently. I mixed baby bird formula with boiled rice and she ate a bit of that on her own. The only other symptom is that she is sleeping a lot.

I have not looked down her throat -- but that's an excellent idea and I will do that as soon as hubby gets home and can hold her for me! She does not have discharge of any kind or I would give her some Tylan. Her poos look normal. She is laying (not today, though). I massaged her and I can not feel a bound egg.

I made an appointment for tomorrow morning at the avian vet. Hopefully this is something that she can recover from.

 

[77horses]

good luck!

and it's a good sign that she's standing, eating/drinking on her own, etc.

 

[Wynette]

Good luck and keep us posted! Sounds like you've got all your bases covered for now. Fingers crossed!

 

[thkosan]

My beautiful hen just died. Only 7 hours before her vet appointment. I'm so sad.... I will take her for a necropsy on Monday. For her to expire so quickly she must have had something pretty serious.