How to treat sour crop

[Turnip Farm]

I'm treating sour crop in my English Orpington hen. I have an avian vet. She had her on lactose basically to lube her digestive tract, and I think you can order it online from Foster's and Smith. Also antifungal tablet, fluconazole. And an injection once a day at first. I'm supposed to feed a high fiber diet, no layer food. Squash, berries, watermelon, nothing leafy. Chop the food or cook it so it's softer if she won't eat it. To get nutrition into your bird feed scrambled eggs. No grit. Imy hen responded to treatment very quickly. The diet helps everything move through her, keeps her hydrated while the impaction that causes sour crop breaks up. I'm now at the point of introducing small amounts of layer pellets again. And yes, stewed pines diced work too! Also other stone fruits.Chickens don't digest dairy products, but I wonder if Kefir might be better for prebiotic than yogurt. It's really loaded with good bacteria...more than yogurt.

 

[Heather Berg]

I have a hen who appears to have sour crop. I noticed this yesterday, just a few minutes ago when I went to check on her she had a very liquidity BM and it was white, also she took a step forward and seemed off balance. Not sure if my presence made her nervous or has anything to do with her current ailments. Any advice?

 

[Connie Deuel]

Hold her upside down with her head away from you and massage from the bottom to the top of the crop so the liquid is released. After this you can feed her layers pellets mixed with natural yogurt and apple cider vinegar in her water. Repeat this every day until her crop returns to normal, and if it persists for more than a week take her to the vet for anti-fungal medicine. To avoid further problems make sure there is a supply of grit always available. Good luck!

Thanks I'll try it

 

[Connie Deuel]

I'm treating sour crop in my English Orpington hen. I have an avian vet. She had her on lactose basically to lube her digestive tract, and I think you can order it online from Foster's and Smith. Also antifungal tablet, fluconazole. And an injection once a day at first. I'm supposed to feed a high fiber diet, no layer food. Squash, berries, watermelon, nothing leafy. Chop the food or cook it so it's softer if she won't eat it. To get nutrition into your bird feed scrambled eggs. No grit. Imy hen responded to treatment very quickly. The diet helps everything move through her, keeps her hydrated while the impaction that causes sour crop breaks up. I'm now at the point of introducing small amounts of layer pellets again. And yes, stewed pines diced work too! Also other stone fruits.Chickens don't digest dairy products, but I wonder if Kefir might be better for prebiotic than yogurt. It's really loaded with good bacteria...more than yogurt.

Thanks

 

[bevis]

Ok, i have had older girls with sour crop / blockage and some ive lost and some ive saved. i read this thread and learned about the possibility of using krill oil. I have a girl right now that is almost 4 and suffering from blockage or sour crop. i vomited her a few times in hopes of recovering her. it was not working and she was declining and filling up over and over. So off to the wally world i went in search of krill oil. I found capsules of 350 mg and bought them. i came home and got out a cordless drill and a 1/16" drill bit. i held the caps with a pair of pliers and drilled a hole in one of the ends, squeezed the contents of the capsule with another pair of pliers into a shot glass. i drilled and emptied 6 capsules. i then used a 1ml syringe to suck up 1ml of the oil. it looks like i could have got away with 4 caps instead of 6 for 1ml. i picked her up and sat her in my lap and opened her beak and slowly fed her the krill oil from the syringe. at this time i then put her in a nesting box inside the house because i thought it was getting close to her time to go as she was getting weaker and weaker and was unsure what, if anything, the krill oil would do.

So i came in the house and worked on something else. i came out to check on her about 3 hours later and to my shock, she was not in the chicken house. i looked around in the run and there she was walking around and pecking at the ground. i was in total shock. how could this be possible ? that was 4 days ago and she now seems that she never had an issue. i have no explanation other than the krill oil addressed the blockage / sour crop in short order. i continued to feed her watered down mash with yougurt and sardines in olive oil for a couple of days so she was eating only soft stuff.

thats my experience with krill oil and it appears to be a miracle cure in this case at least.
i will be using it along with b12 in the future to address these type of issues. if you have a chicken that does not want to eat, B12 liquid seems to be the ticket. I feed them at least 3-4 ml a day and it usually gets them eating within 24 hrs.

as far as vomiting your girls, i guess ive been lucky and never hurt one. i would suggest that you follow the directions found in multiple places here but add this step. while you have her tipped and vomiting her, DO NOT let her snap her head up after she has vomited ! i use the thumb of my left hand on the back of her neck / head so she cant snap her head up. i use my thumb to gently shake her head a couple of times to make sure she does not have a beak full of liquid before i let her lift her head up. that may be the reason i have never had one aspirate into her lungs. or maybe im just very lucky. im certainly no expert.

 

[Sagenovese]

Hi Eggcessive,
He said the tumors could be caused by a number of issues but given my experience with the other hen who died w classic Marek's I'm confident it was. How long does it take for Marek's to cause tumors?
If this is an example then from time of exposure it took between 2-3 years. She died at 4 years old and was exposed at almost 2.

I know this is an older thread. I have a roo right now who has sour crop. But, when massaging, I can feel little pea or marble like hard lumps in there. I am thinking that these are tumors. I know that Mareks causes tumors but so do other things. I was looking at Lymphoid Leukosis, too. At the moment, I am thinking I'm going to lose this roo. He's tough and hanging in there and sometimes seems to bounce back, but today he looks like he won't make it through the night.

There are no specific signs of Marek's... it really is only the swollen fluid filled crop and tired/sleepy and not hungry... I wouldn't say I've noticed anything that looks like paralysis or lack of coordination.

 

[bevis]

I know this is an older thread. I have a roo right now who has sour crop. But, when massaging, I can feel little pea or marble like hard lumps in there. I am thinking that these are tumors. I know that Mareks causes tumors but so do other things. I was looking at Lymphoid Leukosis, too. At the moment, I am thinking I'm going to lose this roo. He's tough and hanging in there and sometimes seems to bounce back, but today he looks like he won't make it through the night.

There are no specific signs of Marek's... it really is only the swollen fluid filled crop and tired/sleepy and not hungry... I wouldn't say I've noticed anything that looks like paralysis or lack of coordination.

You may want to seek the advise of Eggcessive or TwoCrows.

 

[oak_abode]

After losing a chicken to sour crop last year, this year we read every single post from every single forum about sour crop cures, and used the info to develop our method when one of our newer chicks came down with it as well. She was cured in about 5 days, and has been sour crop free for a week now, so we went ahead and made a YouTube video detailing exactly what we did to make it go away. I'll embed the video below. I'm also attaching the blog post with all the notes & directions that are in the video, since it can move kind of fast.

Click here to view the blog post on sour crop home treatment.
I hope this helps someone. Sour crop is so awful when left untreated, so we were very relieved to see it go away completely, and now feel much more prepared for the next time we have to deal with it.

 

[bevis]

After losing a chicken to sour crop last year, this year we read every single post from every single forum about sour crop cures, and used the info to develop our method when one of our newer chicks came down with it as well. She was cured in about 5 days, and has been sour crop free for a week now, so we went ahead and made a YouTube video detailing exactly what we did to make it go away. I'll embed the video below. I'm also attaching the blog post with all the notes & directions that are in the video, since it can move kind of fast.

Click here to view the blog post on sour crop home treatment.
I hope this helps someone. Sour crop is so awful when left untreated, so we were very relieved to see it go away completely, and now feel much more prepared for the next time we have to deal with it.

Please post how you made the garlic water as its nowhere in the video.
Im thinking that's a very important part of the process.

 

[themadhousechooks]

I just treated my hen a week ago for sour crop. I held her under 1 arm like a football and tipped her over while massaging her crop upwards, she was sick this way and emptying the stuff out of her crop (it stunk). I did this morning and early evening every day till she was better, it took 3 days to clear her crop. I kept her in a cage so she could rest and not access any other food, i put acv in her water and fed her yogurt sprinkled with chick feed.
I was scared to make her vomit as i knew it was dangerous if she aspirated it into her lungs, after she did vomited i would lift her up for a few seconds to let her take a breather then i would tip her again and repeat the massaging.
It's surprising how much the bring up.
Good luck and let me know how you get on.

I have done this with my 8 week old hen today and lots came out! What yogurt do I feed her and do I mix it with chick crumb? Can I feed now as it’s been a few hours?Thank you