Hoping to save my hen💕

[Golden_Girlies]

Hi!
I’m having trouble helping my 8 month ISA Brown hen Blanche! She’s had sour crop a few times in the past, but made good recovery and never showed more symptoms than the squishy/nasty smelling crop.

The first sign of illness was her becoming uncoordinated and unable to hop up to the roost at night. For almost a week now she’s been inside with the following symptoms:

lethargic, runny bile poo, crop not emptying fully, lost weight, stopped laying, ‘wobbly’ weak walking, eyes closed, seems to be pain in her crop (she reacts pretty strongly to me touching it gently), breathing a bit like gape-worm symptoms

Not present: bloody poo, weasing, sneezing, parasites in poo, no egg bound stance or swelling/firmness in the abdomen.

She still has a bit of an appetite, drinks water a few times a day, and her comb is a good red colour (?). She also appears ‘cozy’ and grinds her beak and ‘wipes’ her beak in her box, and makes occasional chicken sounds.

Treatments: I first put her on some vitamin/electrolyte water and fenbendazone dewormer, but it didn’t seem the right fit so I’ve had all the hens on a coccidiosis treatment for the last three days. She’s been content to stay inside, but has walked around a bit outside on sunny days. I also tried her on a baby aspirin to see if her symptoms were due to pain, but it didn’t appear to have any affect.

Any tips or suggestions are welcome! I’m still unsure of what she’s dealing with, as she hasn’t responded much to the deworming treatment despite it clearly seeming like a parasite issue. I do understand she might be in her last days, but i want to do everything I can to help

 

[nuthatched]

It's Not a parasite issue, her being a high production breed would lean to it being a reproductive issue.

 

[SkyAJK]

@Eggcessive
@Wyorp Rock

Above are Educators here and whoever online will be able to help you.
I hope your ISA Brown girl gets better.

A couple year back my Isa Brown girl went through similar. I tried everything that I know and one morning she passed away. I did not know about this forum here at the time, but I am glad that you come here for help. I would love to know what is wrong with your girl and treatment.

 

[Eggcessive]

It is unusual for a young hen under 2 years to suffer reproductive disease, but it does happen occasionally. Coccidiosis is also seen usually in young birds under 3 months old. Do you know why she developed crop problems? Did she have an impacted crop before the sour crop? Does she have granite poultry grit available to help her gizzard grind her food? How much fenbendazole did you use and how many doses? Gapeworm is rare, but sometimes other worms can cause problems. Her droppings look like a hen who is not eating well, and possibly with liver problems or reproductive disorder. Is her lower belly under the vent enlarged? I would offer her some moistened chicken feed and some soft cooked egg daily. Is her crop emptying by early morning? If you should lose her, it can be good to wait her do a home necropsy or have your vet do a thorough one. We get pictures of necropsies here and can help sometimes identify a cause of death if you post some.

 

[Golden_Girlies]

It is unusual for a young hen under 2 years to suffer reproductive disease, but it does happen occasionally. Coccidiosis is also seen usually in young birds under 3 months old. Do you know why she developed crop problems? Did she have an impacted crop before the sour crop? Does she have granite poultry grit available to help her gizzard grind her food? How much fenbendazole did you use and how many doses? Gapeworm is rare, but sometimes other worms can cause problems. Her droppings look like a hen who is not eating well, and possibly with liver problems or reproductive disorder. Is her lower belly under the vent enlarged? I would offer her some moistened chicken feed and some soft cooked egg daily. Is her crop emptying by early morning? If you should lose her, it can be good to wait her do a home necropsy or have your vet do a thorough one. We get pictures of necropsies here and can help sometimes identify a cause of death if you post some.

I’m not sure why she developed the sour crop (other than eating too enthusiastically), it did seem odd and I suspected she had some kind of underlying issue, she stood out from the 3 other hens when I got them at 12weeks old.
She hasn’t ever had an impacted crop, and at this point it is squishy enough thst I don’t think it’s impacted. I will offer some more grit though, thanks for that idea!
The fenbendazole was “small pea size” for 5 days, she’s on the 4th dose.
Her crop isn’t empty in the morning, and the moistened food has been the only thing she’ll eat so far - I’ll see if she wants some scrambled egg!
No swelling under her vent/belly, but that area seems tender as well.

Thanks for your time and info!

 

[Golden_Girlies]

@Eggcessive
@Wyorp Rock

Above are Educators here and whoever online will be able to help you.
I hope your ISA Brown girl gets better.

A couple year back my Isa Brown girl went through similar. I tried everything that I know and one morning she passed away. I did not know about this forum here at the time, but I am glad that you come here for help. I would love to know what is wrong with your girl and treatment.

Sorry for your loss! I might be in a similar situation with my hen, I guess it might be a breed issue

 

[AGeese]

Hi!
I’m having trouble helping my 8 month ISA Brown hen Blanche! She’s had sour crop a few times in the past, but made good recovery and never showed more symptoms than the squishy/nasty smelling crop.

The first sign of illness was her becoming uncoordinated and unable to hop up to the roost at night. For almost a week now she’s been inside with the following symptoms:

lethargic, runny bile poo, crop not emptying fully, lost weight, stopped laying, ‘wobbly’ weak walking, eyes closed, seems to be pain in her crop (she reacts pretty strongly to me touching it gently), breathing a bit like gape-worm symptoms

Not present: bloody poo, weasing, sneezing, parasites in poo, no egg bound stance or swelling/firmness in the abdomen.

She still has a bit of an appetite, drinks water a few times a day, and her comb is a good red colour (?). She also appears ‘cozy’ and grinds her beak and ‘wipes’ her beak in her box, and makes occasional chicken sounds.

Treatments: I first put her on some vitamin/electrolyte water and fenbendazone dewormer, but it didn’t seem the right fit so I’ve had all the hens on a coccidiosis treatment for the last three days. She’s been content to stay inside, but has walked around a bit outside on sunny days. I also tried her on a baby aspirin to see if her symptoms were due to pain, but it didn’t appear to have any affect.

Any tips or suggestions are welcome! I’m still unsure of what she’s dealing with, as she hasn’t responded much to the deworming treatment despite it clearly seeming like a parasite issue. I do understand she might be in her last days, but i want to do everything I can to help

I'm sorry to hear. Every time I read a thread like it just makes me rethink the losses I've had under similar circumstances.

Could it be a yeast infection? Then you were probably in the right thinking. Internal laying? Hardware diesease? Seems many ailments share symptoms. Of three with like symptoms I still have one and she definitely did have hardware in her gizzard.

My go to broad spectrum is Ivermectin, because there's some thought that it's more than just an antiparasitic. But the important thing is you're taking action and ruling things out. Are you able to carefully massage her crop here and there?

One thing that may help her spirits, and rule out isolation as a potiental contributor to lathargy or depression is to bring in a friend with her. Company alone has an effect in my experience.

 

[Eggcessive]

The pea sized dose is not an accurate measurement. I would get a syringe from your feed store or pharmacy and remove the needle. Dosage is 0.25 ml (1/4 ml) per pound. You can try to weigh her on kitchen scales or hold her while weighing yourself, and subtract your weight to get her weight. My ISA browns were about 5 pounds, so that would be about 1.25 ml. In your other thread with pictures, it could be a pendulous crop, which occurs when one overeats and the crop loses its elasticity and tone. A crop bra can be helpful with pendulous crops to limit the amount they eat.

 

[AGeese]

Correction to what I wrote, as to yeast miconazole or generic.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She’s had sour crop a few times in the past, but made good recovery and never showed more symptoms than the squishy/nasty smelling crop.

lethargic, runny bile poo, crop not emptying fully, lost weight, stopped laying, ‘wobbly’ weak walking, eyes closed, seems to be pain in her crop (she reacts pretty strongly to me touching it gently), breathing a bit like gape-worm symptoms

Treatments: I first put her on some vitamin/electrolyte water and fenbendazone dewormer, but it didn’t seem the right fit so I’ve had all the hens on a coccidiosis treatment for the last three days.

she hasn’t responded much to the deworming treatment despite it clearly seeming like a parasite issue.

She hasn’t ever had an impacted crop, and at this point it is squishy enough thst I don’t think it’s impacted.

The fenbendazole was “small pea size” for 5 days, she’s on the 4th dose.
Her crop isn’t empty in the morning

There's no mention of when she last laid an egg, is she laying at all? Have her eggs been normal hard shelled eggs?

How are you treating the Sour Crop. I use a yeast/anti-fungal medication like Miconazole or Clotrimazole to treat Sour Crop.
Usually a crop issue is a Symptom of an underlying condition, a few common ones are Reproductive disorders, Infection, Worms and/or Coccidiosis.

With her being a production bird, she may be having some reproductive problems. It's always hard to know. If she's not laying eggs or has had problems with production, then the likelihood of this being reproduction is greater. Cancer, EYP, Salpingitis, etc. are common in laying hens.

Give the Correct dosing of dewormer (Fenbendazole) as state in Post#8. Finish the Corid since you started it. I'd also begin addressing the crop symptoms, information about what to use and how much along with treatment is in the article below.

Do continue to encourage her to eat her normal feed. Hopefully she can make a turn around and improve for a period of time.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/