Hi y’all, I need advice…

[kittykotekie]

Hi y’all, I need advice…

So, one of my chickens (Penelope) has sour crop, and I’ve been giving her nystatin that I got from the vet, for the past nine days.

I have manually emptied her crop and gradually tried giving her soft food, as well as been keeping probiotics and electrolytes in her water.

When I got home from work tonight, I noticed that her crop felt squishy and decided to empty it, and suddenly during that the water came out of her eyes, as well as her mouth.

Now, she has been breathing through her mouth, and I’ve been looking online to see if I should not give her water tonight.

I work 12 hrs tomorrow at my job and I have absolutely no way to really watch her tomorrow, and I don’t have anyone close to me who can.

I have two other chickens who are perfectly healthy and happy, so this is strictly w/ her (even when she was a baby, one of her wings lacked as much feather) so, unfortunately I could tell immediately that she was going to have a weaker immune system.

I have no way to get her to a vet tomorrow/immediately, and I only have Sunday off (+ the only vet near me who will even see a chicken doesn’t open til Monday).

Please y’all, what can I really do? I’m so afraid. I was crying while holding her earlier, and I feel like such a awful chicken mom.

 

[azygous]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/ Read this if you already haven't. There are other causes of sour crop such as the crop hanging (pendulous) too low for it to empty normally overnight. This could be why your hen isn't improving.

Don't be alarmed by the fluid escaping through her eye sockets as eyes, ears, and throat all are connected to the upper respiratory system. But you should never hold a hen upside down to empty the crop. She can aspirate fluid into her lungs and die.

And never withhold water from a chicken for any reason. They often will drink a lot of water if their crop is clogging up. Other health conditions such as egg binding can severely dehydrate a hen and aggravate the stuck egg. Those are just two conditions where a hen can self administer treatment by drinking a lot of water.