Hen with sour crop, how should I treat it?

FattySmough

Songster
May 2, 2021
275
518
211
South Kansas
Hello everyone.

I'm having issues with a Speckled Sussex hen that has sour crop. For the past few days I noticed that her crop area was a bit swollen, but didn't know that I should be concerned about it. I knew something was wrong yesterday as she tried to go to sleep inside the nest box instead of on the roost, and when I picked her up to move her some dark and very foul smelling liquid came out of her beak and onto my arm. I removed food and water from the coop overnight and checked her crop again in the morning and sure enough, her crop was still full and felt swollen and soft.

Anyways, I started doing research on how to treat sour crop and found lots of different opinions including:

-giving nyastatin, medistatin, or miconazole twice a day orally for a period of one week

-withholding food during the period of treatment

-gently massaging crop area several times a day

I hoped to avoid withholding food from her if possible because that would require me to seperate her from the rest of the flock, (she hates being cooped up by herself.) but I can do that if necessary. If necessary I might be able to find a vet that would see her but I want to avoid that if possible.

Does anyone have any ideas on which of these methods are best? What have you guys done to successfully treat sour crop in your chickens? Please share what you know with me. Thanks in advance.
 
You should not massage a puffy full crop because it can cause aspiration (choking) on crop contents if they come up. Only massage a firm or doughy full crop. You can withhold food temporarily with an impacted crop, but since sour crop is an ongoing longer term problem, they do need some food for nutrition. Watery feed, egg, that sort of thing. If I were you if vet care is available, it might be best. They could empty her crop with a feeding tube and flush the crop, and teach you how to do that. It is much more safe than trying to make them vomit. I have never successfully treated sour crop. They all nave died eventually after weeks of treatment. Here is a good article by Azygous:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/hen-with-sour-crop-how-should-i-treat-it.1515041/
 
Thank you for your reply. After inspecting her crop again I noticed what felt like a fibrous lump of material inside her crop. We have lots of hay in our coop and yard so I suspect it might be blockage from ingested hay. I could try to treat her for impacted crop, but I may end up taking her to a vet if I can find one since I have no experience dealing with illness in chickens.

By the way, could you repost the link to the article by Azygous? I believe you posted a link to my own thread on accident. Thanks again for your help.
 
Yes sorry. Here is the thread I meant to post a link to:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

I would try getting her to drink a lot of water. Sometimes giving some chilled coconut oil cut into small pieces to peck at (1 tsp daily) can help to soften something in the crop. Then massage the material several times a day. But if it is puffy with fluid, it may cause vomiting and aspiration.
 

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