- Mar 25, 2024
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Hello, everyone.
I know it's early in the morning, but I was hoping someone could help me. I have a Speckled Sussex hen that is 1 year and ten months old named Molly. Last night I found her on the top perching bar with a huge, watery crop. It was massive. Like we are talking small grapefruit sized, and completely full of liquid (there may have been solid food in the center, but I couldn't apply enough pressure to find out). It was hard moving her without her spitting up some of the liquid and aspirating it, even with me trying to hold her as careful as possible and not apply any pressure to her crop. She spit up maybe four times on the way inside and I gently set her down each time. I have her in a pop up crate in my room. Even with her just standing there, she would spit little bits up, and open and close her mouth a few times to get it down. It was a clear liquid, almost just like water.
I couldn't smell much of anything on her breath, though there may have been the faintest smell of bread, I really don't know.
I was hoping that if I monitored her overnight, her crop would be down by morning. That gets to why I am up so early, she only pooped once when I first brought her in. It was small, milky white, and only liquid. She has not pooped since. I can't massage her crop to try and help anything pass, and I'm terrified to even try to give her anything with her potentially aspirating more liquid.
I feel all the chickens crops every night, and there was nothing out of the ordinary last night. Around 6:00 PM, I had gone out and they all ran toward me when they saw me, including her. Right now she will open her eyes and observe me, but she didn't move around much at all before I put her in the pop-up crate. She is holding her wings away from her body. Her tail is a bit low, but not too terribly. She hasn't been making many sounds, but she made a few tiny ones before she went down for bed. Her breathing in general seems fine, but she sneezes and coughs every once in a while. Maybe once every 5-10 min.
As some of you may know, we have had horrible issues with worms and deworming in the past. Almost every 2 and a half months, we were reaching the point of the hens becoming lethargic from roundworms and then going into shock from the dewormer/worm die off. This is even with nutridrench and molasses flushes given right after we administered the dewormer to help counteract the worm die off. I just couldn't keep watching them go into shock. I did a ton of research and started giving them equal parts papaya seeds & squash seeds, along with a higher dose of cayenne pepper. It has now been nine months from the last deworming period we did, and they are doing much better than they had ever done before. It is the best I've seen them since that horrible de-wormer cycle that put so much stress on their bodies. I'm guessing worms are probably involved in some way, but even if I tried to give her dewormer, I have no clue how to even get it in her, if it would do anything since her system seems stagnant, or if she would survive going through shock again.
I do not know if she laid an egg recently. I have two Speckled Sussex hens, and they tend to alternate days for laying eggs. I got a Speckled Sussex egg today.
Can anyone help me? What can I do to help my sweet Molly? She is really not feeling well. Her crop has not seemed to go down at all in 4 and a half hours. She has not pooped again. I'm so worried, I can't go back to sleep. I've never had a situation like this before. Normally, I would give her some coconut oil, or give a massage, but I feel like I can hardly touch her without worrying about her aspirating liquid.
Thank you in advance.
Soli Deo Gloria.
I know it's early in the morning, but I was hoping someone could help me. I have a Speckled Sussex hen that is 1 year and ten months old named Molly. Last night I found her on the top perching bar with a huge, watery crop. It was massive. Like we are talking small grapefruit sized, and completely full of liquid (there may have been solid food in the center, but I couldn't apply enough pressure to find out). It was hard moving her without her spitting up some of the liquid and aspirating it, even with me trying to hold her as careful as possible and not apply any pressure to her crop. She spit up maybe four times on the way inside and I gently set her down each time. I have her in a pop up crate in my room. Even with her just standing there, she would spit little bits up, and open and close her mouth a few times to get it down. It was a clear liquid, almost just like water.
I couldn't smell much of anything on her breath, though there may have been the faintest smell of bread, I really don't know.
I was hoping that if I monitored her overnight, her crop would be down by morning. That gets to why I am up so early, she only pooped once when I first brought her in. It was small, milky white, and only liquid. She has not pooped since. I can't massage her crop to try and help anything pass, and I'm terrified to even try to give her anything with her potentially aspirating more liquid.
I feel all the chickens crops every night, and there was nothing out of the ordinary last night. Around 6:00 PM, I had gone out and they all ran toward me when they saw me, including her. Right now she will open her eyes and observe me, but she didn't move around much at all before I put her in the pop-up crate. She is holding her wings away from her body. Her tail is a bit low, but not too terribly. She hasn't been making many sounds, but she made a few tiny ones before she went down for bed. Her breathing in general seems fine, but she sneezes and coughs every once in a while. Maybe once every 5-10 min.
As some of you may know, we have had horrible issues with worms and deworming in the past. Almost every 2 and a half months, we were reaching the point of the hens becoming lethargic from roundworms and then going into shock from the dewormer/worm die off. This is even with nutridrench and molasses flushes given right after we administered the dewormer to help counteract the worm die off. I just couldn't keep watching them go into shock. I did a ton of research and started giving them equal parts papaya seeds & squash seeds, along with a higher dose of cayenne pepper. It has now been nine months from the last deworming period we did, and they are doing much better than they had ever done before. It is the best I've seen them since that horrible de-wormer cycle that put so much stress on their bodies. I'm guessing worms are probably involved in some way, but even if I tried to give her dewormer, I have no clue how to even get it in her, if it would do anything since her system seems stagnant, or if she would survive going through shock again.
I do not know if she laid an egg recently. I have two Speckled Sussex hens, and they tend to alternate days for laying eggs. I got a Speckled Sussex egg today.
Can anyone help me? What can I do to help my sweet Molly? She is really not feeling well. Her crop has not seemed to go down at all in 4 and a half hours. She has not pooped again. I'm so worried, I can't go back to sleep. I've never had a situation like this before. Normally, I would give her some coconut oil, or give a massage, but I feel like I can hardly touch her without worrying about her aspirating liquid.
Thank you in advance.
Soli Deo Gloria.
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