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How to cure sour crop

Discussion in 'Emergencies / Diseases / Injuries and Cures' started by Sandstorm495, Dec 3, 2012.

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  1. Dec 3, 2012 #1
    Sandstorm495

    Sandstorm495 Chillin' With My Peeps

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    Dec 2, 2012
    Darwin, Australia
    Have you ever had sour crop in your chickens? It's when the food in the crop doesn't all digest at the one time so the stuff thats left in the crop ferments and the feathers fall off and the skin kind of starts to rot. Any advice on this matter? I have it on one of my chickens. It's been going on for weeks now, so it's not life threatening, but I really would like my chickens feathers to grow back!! I have tried putting vinegar in the chooks water as a website suggested and it seemed to work, but the feathers are still not grown back!!
    Anyway, I had no idea how vinegar was going to work... [​IMG] Please reply as soon as possible :)
     
  3. Dec 3, 2012 #2
    Chick_In_The_Burbs

    Chick_In_The_Burbs Chillin' With My Peeps

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    Jun 26, 2010
    Western Washington
    I had to do a lot of research for one of my girls with sour crop. First step is to try and drain what you can from the crop, kinda like getting the infection out of a wound. Hold her firmly and tip her forward so her crop drains out her beak. Be sure to tip her up every 3 seconds or so since she won't be able to breath while you have her tipped down. Once you have the crop drained administer the vinegar. This will help kill off the bacteria. There may be more for continued treatment but I never got that far with my girl.

    Also, give her an exam to be sure it's not being caused by something further down the line. In my girls case, it turned out that she had a softball sized tumor that had blocked off her ability to finish processing food or lay an egg. It stopped everything but respiration and circulation. :/
     

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