Hen vomiting

[KiwiChook]

Hi Beautifulbirds, thanks for your replies.

I gave her the garlic treatment for about 4 days. She is back on the garlic now (24hours).

It seams I could operate or flush, both could quite easily kill her. Bugger.

The vet recommends more cooking oil. Keep her off the grass and only feeding her soft food. I could try regular massaging as well.

There is improvement this morning! She’s up and about eating, which I’m pretty happy about, but of course her crop is still puffed up. It’s like some days she just has bad days, throws up and sits down with the eyes half shut then the next she’s looking ok.

Thanks for your suggestions. Really appreciated.

I wonder if because the crop feels soft (not a hard impaction) it would be ok to try the “flush” method.

 

[beautifulbirds]

Hi Kiwichook, glad to hear the wee one is up and running. My gut says stay with the garlic. You will probably find (if you review) that she has been up and down depending on what treatment you have employed. If she is making progress with the garlic then stick with it. I know folk mean well when they give you other advice but you need to follow closely and pay attention to what seems to be working.
What about the wheatgrass juice? Have you got any, cazn you get some?
In relation to operate or flush; I would flush as (like me) you probably will kill her if you use the knife. Here's a thought, could you use a garlic flush? Maybe garlic and honey with a dash of apple cider vinegar? Honey is such a good healer and acv is always good. Do a google and see if you can work out what would be most beneficial. I personally thought those two websites were quite helpful with the information they had.
Anyway, keep me posted and if you need any help just holler.
Cheers Lisa.

 

[princess araucana]

Hi Kiwichook, any improvement with your hen?

I will try garlic with my roo who's crop won't go down after surgery, worried about stuff in there.

Can you give too much garlic? I just chopped some up and he gobbled it down. Is that ok?

 

[beautifulbirds]

Hi Princess A

You can't overdose on the garlic, steep about 10 garlic cloves in boiling hot water, wait for it to cool - room temperature - then dose chooks with it. MAKE SURE IT IS NOT HOT.

 

[Svalur]

Hi there, I'm interested to know what happened to your vomiting hen. I had a very sick hen who was vomiting and not eating. I took her to the vet, who couldn't find anything wrong, but said she was very sick and suggested euthanising. She said we could try antibiotics as a last resort, and my hen immediately improved. She is now eating and even occasionally laying, but still seems slightly depressed. I still think there might be something wrong but am at a loss as to what it could be.

 

[Lindy loo]

HI KiwiChook, Interested to see how you are getting on. I have lost 3 of my girls in the last month, not sure if it was some sort of virus, but the vet was useless. The last one I ended up euthanasing. I live rurally and of course people look at you funny if you take your chook to the vet. After the last one passed they all seemed to improve and I thought Oh Thank God, whatever it was has finished, but tonight I notice my favourite girl Ginger is looking remarkable similar to what you have described with your chook. I currently have her isolated and have given her runny porridge made with water, a bit of sugar and a wee pinch of salt to replace any electrolytes she may have lost due to vomiting, and water with kumarahou and cider vinegar in it. Her crop also feels wobbly, and when she was vomiting, it was mostly water. I am hoping like anything it is not sour crop as I dont really feel confident to flush it out Looking forward to hearing how you are getting on xx

 

[Pork Pie]

HI KiwiChook, Interested to see how you are getting on. I have lost 3 of my girls in the last month, not sure if it was some sort of virus, but the vet was useless. The last one I ended up euthanasing. I live rurally and of course people look at you funny if you take your chook to the vet. After the last one passed they all seemed to improve and I thought Oh Thank God, whatever it was has finished, but tonight I notice my favourite girl Ginger is looking remarkable similar to what you have described with your chook. I currently have her isolated and have given her runny porridge made with water, a bit of sugar and a wee pinch of salt to replace any electrolytes she may have lost due to vomiting, and water with kumarahou and cider vinegar in it. Her crop also feels wobbly, and when she was vomiting, it was mostly water. I am hoping like anything it is not sour crop as I dont really feel confident to flush it out Looking forward to hearing how you are getting on xx

Have you smelled her breath? Not the nicest of experiences, but it could give you an idea if you are dealing with sour crop.

 

[Lindy loo]

Shes sleeping now, but I will do that tomorrow morning and see if theres a smell. yuk lols. She seemed a little bit perkier this evening, she had a bit of porridge and some water, but her comb is still floppy, normally its standing up. Will post back tomorrow morning re the breath

 

[Pork Pie]

Shes sleeping now, but I will do that tomorrow morning and see if theres a smell. yuk lols. She seemed a little bit perkier this evening, she had a bit of porridge and some water, but her comb is still floppy, normally its standing up. Will post back tomorrow morning re the breath

OK, enjoy

 

[rebrascora]

Hi

I have a bantam pekin hen that may have a similar problem. I got her back in April and I have a sneaky feeling that she had never had access to grass before because she was like a kid in a sweet shop when I free ranged her and gorged on grass. I worried about the size of her crop but she was happy and otherwise healthy and after a month or so she went broody and raised some chicks and then went back to laying eggs again, but her crop was slowly getting larger to the point that she was nearly tipping over with it. She went broody again but I didn't give her eggs and after a few days I broke her of it but in picking her up I realised that she was skin and bone but with that huge pendulous crop she looked fat. Being broody was definitely not helping the problem.
I put her in a pen on a hard surface with no access to grass and massaged her crop 3-4 times a day. She was ravenous but there was little point in giving her much food as her crop was full to bursting. Unlike your bird that was voluntarily vomiting I could not get my girl to regurgitate despite numerous and quite lengthy attempts.
She was so ravenous that she was eating the small amount of sawdust I had sprinkled down as bedding and I had to remove it.

I gave her very small wet oily feeds 4 times a day with massage and gradually after about two weeks it has gone down. My gut feeling is that once the crop gets so big, it flops forward with the weight of it and blocks the outlet into the digestive tract. I was pretty sure initially that my girl had an impacted gizzard and was doomed, but the massaging and small wet feeds seem to have got her back down. The problem is that her crop has been stretched beyond the norm and it has lost a lot of it's elasticity as a result and of course, as soon as she has free access to food and grass she is gorging herself again. I'm now thinking that a crop bra may help support her crop and help compress it to keep the food moving, may be the answer for her.

Just something else to consider for your girl. Good luck with her. I felt so terribly mean restricting her food when she was clearly starving but with that crop full of food it wasn't like she didn't have any, but just that it wasn't going through her system. Thankfully my girl didn't get sour crop with it. I think the correct term may be pendulous crop.

Best wishes

Barbara