How long can sour crop cases last?

[ChickoBicko]

Hi, I'm new here! I've been dealing with what I think is sour crop in my 7-month old Chocolate Orpington. I noticed the issue about 2 weeks ago when I saw noticed a less energetic disposition and diarrhea-coated feathers by her vent. I brought her in the house and made a chicken hospital first thing.

She has clear/whitish liquid diarrhea very often, usually soaking through all of the newspapers in her chicken hospital within a few hours. She only ever wants to drink water and has zero interest in eating food. I currently have 2 ceramic bowls of water in the cage with her -- one with electrolyte, probiotic, and apple cider vinegar, the other has Corid dewormer in it (just in case the sour crop was triggered by an internal parasite infection.) After reading threads on BYC, I started a 2x daily course of the Monistat cream yesterday evening, along with crop massages. Hoping this may start to clear things up. Side note -- I did treat her with permethrin spray right away when this first started, too, because she had visible lice and the nasty egg clusters at the base of her vent feather shafts. I haven't noticed any adult lice crawling since then.

Her energy is certainly lower and she sits around looking pale most of the time. However, despite eating almost nothing for going on 2 weeks now, her eyes are bright, she preens, sings, and is strong enough to almost wiggle out of my grip when I am giving her the oral Monistat cream. So I'm definitely not giving up on her!

I'm wondering how long your sour crop cases have lasted? And has anyone had success in curing sour crop after loooong periods of time? Or is the outlook dismal at this point? Thank you for your time and help!

 

[nuthatched]

Can you smell the sour crop? She could be anemic from the mites.
Give her plain water, if the probiotics electrolytes have b vitamins, they cancel out the corid. In small doses, electrolytes and probiotics are good but there can be too much of a good thing.
The water drinking could hint to an internal inflammation.

 

[ChickoBicko]

Can you smell the sour crop? She could be anemic from the mites.
Give her plain water, if the probiotics electrolytes have b vitamins, they cancel out the corid. In small doses, electrolytes and probiotics are good but there can be too much of a good thing.
The water drinking could hint to an internal inflammation.

Thank you for replying and for the insight!

I tried smelling her breath several times -- I haven't been able to smell the telltale bad breath that a lot of folks talk about. I will try again when I get home tonight.

Yeah, I definitely feel like I am loading up the water with a lot of stuff. I'm just not sure which additive would be most beneficial to her right now? I will also check the labels on the probiotics and electrolytes for B vitamins when I get home, too.

I'm torn between thinking this could also be an impacted crop. However, the crop is squishy-feeling, unlike the cases of impacted crop I've read about, which present as a hard-feeling crop.

If she is anemic from mites, what would you recommend would help her out? Thank you in advance!!

 

[Razzlefrazzle]

I agree that a clean slate would be helpful. I'd give only plain water and try to get her to eat some easily digestible food like a wet mash of pellet/crumble food or a little cooked rice. As long as she is drinking a lot more than she is eating she is going to have diarrhea. Take water and food away at night and check her crop in the morning. If it's flat and empty her crop is fine. If it's still squishy it's likely sour with a possible obstruction somewhere in the digestive tract.

Has she been laying/is she laying yet? Do you have a mixed flock or are they all the same age? Have you ever dewormed your flock?

 

[ChickoBicko]

I agree, I do feel like I've been over-treating every ailment she could possibly have. A clean slate would probably be good for all parties.

I will check on her crop first thing in the morning and see if it is still squishy. It seems to have been squishy all along, but not sure if that's just due to the sheer amount of water she drinks.

She started laying probably about a month and a half ago or so. I checked for possible egg-binding, but did not feel anything. I feel like if she was egg-bound, she wouldn't have made it this long. I have a mixed flock, from my 7-month old ones to 3-4 year old hens. I have never dewormed my flock, do you have a recommendation for the best course of action for that? Whenever I order chicks (including all my current hens), I opt in for the coccidia vaccination, but of course that doesn't cover all parasites.

Thank you so much for your response!

 

[Razzlefrazzle]

I agree, I do feel like I've been over-treating every ailment she could possibly have. A clean slate would probably be good for all parties.

I will check on her crop first thing in the morning and see if it is still squishy. It seems to have been squishy all along, but not sure if that's just due to the sheer amount of water she drinks.

She started laying probably about a month and a half ago or so. I checked for possible egg-binding, but did not feel anything. I feel like if she was egg-bound, she wouldn't have made it this long. I have a mixed flock, from my 7-month old ones to 3-4 year old hens. I have never dewormed my flock, do you have a recommendation for the best course of action for that? Whenever I order chicks (including all my current hens), I opt in for the coccidia vaccination, but of course that doesn't cover all parasites.

Thank you so much for your response!

Excessive drinking will cause a squishy crop during the day as well as watery poops, so I'm thinking of that as the "true" symptom at this point, unless you find her crop still soft in the morning. Lots of things can cause thirst/loss of appetite. Since she's been inside awhile we can probably rule out things like moldy feed and environmental toxins, leaving either worms or an infection the two most likely issues imo.
An oviduct infection could stop laying and cause her symptoms but she would probably be feeling very poorly and she doesn;t have other common symptoms like water belly or penguin stance (right?). She could also have a bacterial or fungal infection of her intestines, but you'd probably be able to smell a difference in her poop.
A heavy worm load is another possibility and easy to treat for... If you've never treated for worms in 3-4 yrs you either have a very strong, healthy flock and/or minimal exposure to infected birds. Up to you to decide how likely it is that your birds have worms or get a fecal float test done if you want. If you do decide to deworm Valbazen or Safeguard are good general wormers, but don't use Safeguard (or anything with fenbendazole) if any of your birds are growing feathers as it can stunt/damage new feathers.
Finally, now that your hen's system is "off" it can take a few days to get it back to normal even if nothing else is wrong, so be patient and try to give her time to recoup before putting her through another treatment. Encourage lots of little meals (a little buttermilk on layer mash or cooked rice is healthy and tasty) to get her digesting food again. She's also probably lonely and a little stressed if you've been keeping her isolated for weeks, so depending on how well she seems I would consider either bringing another hen inside to keep her company for a bit or letting her out with the flock during the day. (If she's been separated for weeks you will have to monitor reintegration closely to make sure no one bullies her.)

 

[ChickoBicko]

Thank you so much for the insights!

To answer your questions, no, she fortunately does not have the water belly/penguin stance that goes along with a possible oviduct infection.

Having treated her for almost a week now with the Monistat cream for what I thought was sour crop, she seems much the same. Her crop is usually quite full/water balloon-ish (mostly due to the amount water she drinks) but does shrink down at different points throughout the day. I can sometimes hear the gurgling in her crop, not sure if this is a normal thing? A few improvements: some interest in food and thereby some semi-solid poops. Still the excessive thirst, so if she hasn't responded to the miconazole cream in another day or two, I'll need change my treatment approach. I think I will go ahead with the Valbazen treatment after she is done with the miconazole cream. Just trying to rule things out here...thanks again for your help!

 

[TropicalChickies]

Thank you so much for the insights!

To answer your questions, no, she fortunately does not have the water belly/penguin stance that goes along with a possible oviduct infection.

Having treated her for almost a week now with the Monistat cream for what I thought was sour crop, she seems much the same. Her crop is usually quite full/water balloon-ish (mostly due to the amount water she drinks) but does shrink down at different points throughout the day. I can sometimes hear the gurgling in her crop, not sure if this is a normal thing? A few improvements: some interest in food and thereby some semi-solid poops. Still the excessive thirst, so if she hasn't responded to the miconazole cream in another day or two, I'll need change my treatment approach. I think I will go ahead with the Valbazen treatment after she is done with the miconazole cream. Just trying to rule things out here...thanks again for your help!

Just one thing I noticed -- Corrid is not a dewormer. It treats coccidiosis, not worms. So if you gave her Corrid, she could still have worms.

 

[chickenherder26]

OP, how did this turn out for you?