I can't loose another one, especially not this one! I need to know exactly what to do. Please help me!

[KCChickenMomma]

This is a long one, I hope you stick around. This is Maybelle, or M.J., after her papa, Mudd. He's moved on to bigger and better things but before he left, he gave me one thing, Maybelle. She's a Buff Orpington/Silkie/Americuana. I don't think there will ever be another like her and I'm pretty sure she has sour crop. I just lost one last week to sour crop and I'm terrified going to loose her.
A brief history.
My flock has eyeworms. I started treatment with ivermectin. It was ineffective. I have since learned the right stuff is Valbazen and have treated them. I'm seeing a huge improvement in their health. Maybelle is due to get treated again on the 18th. Unfortunately, I think it might be causing crop impactions and sour crop. I just treated 3 of my hens for impactions. They all cleared nicely and are doing fine. I checked everyone 3 days ago because I had one that was impacted and on hunch I thought there was going to be more. The only thing I can attribute it to is the worms. The impactions were nothing significant. Just their feed, no grass or anything that shouldn't be there. They were all dry though. No fluid. Maybelle was not impacted 3 days ago. She seemed fine 2 days ago but yesterday afternoon she was laying in a nesting box I keep on the ground in case a hen doesn't feel well. I had a gut feeling it was sour crop and this morning her crop is still full of liquid and swollen like a water balloon. There's no smell and she's not regurgitating and of the fluid. I think it's the beginning of the infection. It's also possible that she's been exposed to mold. We had a few serious rains and some of the dirt hasn't dried out still. I've been moving things around to let the sun hit the wet spots but I did notice some white stuff on the top of the soil. I'm assuming it's mold. I read that mold is toxic to chickens and can cause sour crop and since this is the second one. There is one other possibility. I found a lash egg in a nesting box. Idk if it was hers or not or if she might have eaten part of it. Maybelle likes to check all the boxes for broken eggs and loves to drink the yolk when she finds them. The lash egg had fluid in it instead of hard pus. So nohere's my question. For those of you that have successfully treated sour crop exactly what did you do? Should I give her antibiotics in case she has an infection? If so, how and when do I treat the sour crop? What should I start with? I'm planning on giving her some coconut oil this morning just in case she is impacted. Thanks for reading and I am praying that this time with the help I get from you all I can save my precious Maybelle.

 

[GermanKennhuhn]

Hello there! I’ve had a hen with an impacted crop before but I’ve never dealt With sour crop. @azygous should be able to help.
I hope your hen makes a speedy recovery!
best wishes!

 

[azygous]

Giving the coconut oil is a very wise place to begin. This article I wrote will fill you in on what else you need to do. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

Worming often does cause dead worms to clog the digestive tract. even eye worms are in the digestive tract since the eyes are directly connected to the throat. That's where the dead ones will end up, being swallowed into the crop.

 

[KCChickenMomma]

Giving the coconut oil is a very wise place to begin. This article I wrote will fill you in on what else you need to do. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

Worming often does cause dead worms to clog the digestive tract. even eye worms are in the digestive tract since the eyes are directly connected to the throat. That's where the dead ones will end up, being swallowed into the crop.

Thank you, it's good to know I'm getting something right. The problem with the coconut oil is I dont think im supposed to massage her crop when ots so full of liquid. Should I do it anyway? If not, how will it.work if shes impacted? I've read your article several times over the past 3 weeks. I feel like I'm missing something though. Like there has to be something more I can do. I've ordered the medistatin. This stuff here and should get it by Tuesday. https://images.app.goo.gl/FKkjFgdtyTxUscgJ6
Should I start treatment with the Miconazole cream until then? Should I offer her food when I give the medicine or wait an hour or two? I believe that they die from starvation caused by the sour crop and I can't let that happen. I've never let any of my birds suffer like that. So Maybelle has to eat. How do I empty her crop? I can't risk her aspirating.
Thank you for helping me. I'll do whatever I have to do to for her so if you can think of anything else please let me know.

 

[KCChickenMomma]

Giving the coconut oil is a very wise place to begin. This article I wrote will fill you in on what else you need to do. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

Worming often does cause dead worms to clog the digestive tract. even eye worms are in the digestive tract since the eyes are directly connected to the throat. That's where the dead ones will end up, being swallowed into the crop.

I also got this stuff recently and I'm wondering if I should give it to her in her water now and if I do should I offer her plain water as well?
https://www.mannapro.com/poultry/supplements-care/hydro-hen

 

[KCChickenMomma]

Thank you for the virtual hug! It is needed and appreciated!

 

[azygous]

Yes, chickens can starve from crop disorders. It's why I don't recommend withholding food while others seem to be in favor.

Yes, do the cooconut oil, but don't massage.

Yes, start treatment with the miconazole immediately. There are several methods of treating crop yeast. Medistatin, copper sulfate, and miconazole. All should work. It's just a matter of choice.

 

[azygous]

Vitamins won't hurt, and it also doesn't hurt to provide plain water as well.

 

[Countryhippie]

This is a long one, I hope you stick around. This is Maybelle, or M.J., after her papa, Mudd. He's moved on to bigger and better things but before he left, he gave me one thing, Maybelle. She's a Buff Orpington/Silkie/Americuana. I don't think there will ever be another like her and I'm pretty sure she has sour crop. I just lost one last week to sour crop and I'm terrified going to loose her.
A brief history.
My flock has eyeworms. I started treatment with ivermectin. It was ineffective. I have since learned the right stuff is Valbazen and have treated them. I'm seeing a huge improvement in their health. Maybelle is due to get treated again on the 18th. Unfortunately, I think it might be causing crop impactions and sour crop. I just treated 3 of my hens for impactions. They all cleared nicely and are doing fine. I checked everyone 3 days ago because I had one that was impacted and on hunch I thought there was going to be more. The only thing I can attribute it to is the worms. The impactions were nothing significant. Just their feed, no grass or anything that shouldn't be there. They were all dry though. No fluid. Maybelle was not impacted 3 days ago. She seemed fine 2 days ago but yesterday afternoon she was laying in a nesting box I keep on the ground in case a hen doesn't feel well. I had a gut feeling it was sour crop and this morning her crop is still full of liquid and swollen like a water balloon. There's no smell and she's not regurgitating and of the fluid. I think it's the beginning of the infection. It's also possible that she's been exposed to mold. We had a few serious rains and some of the dirt hasn't dried out still. I've been moving things around to let the sun hit the wet spots but I did notice some white stuff on the top of the soil. I'm assuming it's mold. I read that mold is toxic to chickens and can cause sour crop and since this is the second one. There is one other possibility. I found a lash egg in a nesting box. Idk if it was hers or not or if she might have eaten part of it. Maybelle likes to check all the boxes for broken eggs and loves to drink the yolk when she finds them. The lash egg had fluid in it instead of hard pus. So nohere's my question. For those of you that have successfully treated sour crop exactly what did you do? Should I give her antibiotics in case she has an infection? If so, how and when do I treat the sour crop? What should I start with? I'm planning on giving her some coconut oil this morning just in case she is impacted. Thanks for reading and I am praying that this time with the help I get from you all I can save my precious Maybelle.View attachment 3107124

OKay so I am currently dealing with the ending of a similar issue. For a few days I noticed my hens crop not emptying fully and it was mostly fluid. I assumed sour crop as well, but it turned out to be such an impacted crop from eating to much grass and the fluid built up and maybe causes a bit of sour crop to go along with it. I had no smell either and only saw her regurgitate once.

I am very new to chickens and this is my first ever time treating impacted/sour crop. But I will tell you every thing I did. I was luckily enough to go to a vet that does treat poultry, they wanted to admit her and test her for 100 different things, which would have cost $2000. I of course could not afford that. So I had them do an over all check up, flush her crop of all the fluid, and prescribe a motility drug and an antibiotic, that cost over $600.

They were able to flush her crop and get all of that liquid out so see better and reported to me that there was an impaction of dead grass and food. They didn't think I could clear it on my own and insisted I admit her and I made the decision to take her home and do it myself.

So first after she got home with the flushed crop I separated her for 24 hours, with no food and water. I think that you need to flush that crop first before anything else because you need to check for an impaction. If you can't afford to have a vet do it, their are videos of how to make your chicken regurgitate the fluid. Its very tricky to do and you don't want to kill your bird, but tons of videos have done it successfully.

After you flush her crop, I left her for 24 hours in a cage in a cage separate from the other hens. As I said no food or water, because I wanted to get any left over fluid out. After that I started with her meds. They gave me a motility drug to keep things moving called Metoclopramide 2ml (which I give every 12 hours for 7 days). Then they gave me an antibiotic called SMZ TMP 240mg (which I give every 12 hours for 10 days). I believe that these drugs had a huge impact on the hen healing so quickly. I went to the vet on Tuesday and by this morning Saturday her crop and the impaction was like the size of a quarter when she woke up this morning. It was like a tennis ball of all grass In there.

Other than the prescribed meds I gave her a teaspoon of coconut oil mixed in with tiny amounts of crumble chicken feed maybe like a handful at a time, I also added warm water to the mix to make it a mash. I also gave her access to warm water to drink at this time, but I did not leave it because she would drink so much at a time and fill her crop and regurgitate it back up. I did this roughly every 4ish hours. I also mixed in some plain yogurt to give her probiotics, but I recently just bought a powder that I am trying out on all my flock as they did not like the yogurt and with the hot weather probiotics and vitamins are very important. The power is called Health gut Probiotics for poultry, I bought it off amazon for like $20.

I would not give her any Apple Cider Vinegar as there is a lot of people who say it is not that great for a chicken with impacted/sour crop, but other people disagree. I stayed away from it. Also the most important thing I did was to massage her crop every 30 of so minutes after I gave her the food and water. Make sure you do this, this to me was what a believe helped so much. I believe after giving the motility drugs, the antibiotic, coconut oil, and preforming the massages is what helped the most. There are so many people that battle impacted crop for weeks. I am still giving her massages off and on and giving her meds of course.

I hope this helped even a little bit and I hope your hen gets better.

Ps: I have never had any issues with worms so I can't give you any info on that front.

 

[KCChickenMomma]

OKay so I am currently dealing with the ending of a similar issue. For a few days I noticed my hens crop not emptying fully and it was mostly fluid. I assumed sour crop as well, but it turned out to be such an impacted crop from eating to much grass and the fluid built up and maybe causes a bit of sour crop to go along with it. I had no smell either and only saw her regurgitate once.

I am very new to chickens and this is my first ever time treating impacted/sour crop. But I will tell you every thing I did. I was luckily enough to go to a vet that does treat poultry, they wanted to admit her and test her for 100 different things, which would have cost $2000. I of course could not afford that. So I had them do an over all check up, flush her crop of all the fluid, and prescribe a motility drug and an antibiotic, that cost over $600.

They were able to flush her crop and get all of that liquid out so see better and reported to me that there was an impaction of dead grass and food. They didn't think I could clear it on my own and insisted I admit her and I made the decision to take her home and do it myself.

So first after she got home with the flushed crop I separated her for 24 hours, with no food and water. I think that you need to flush that crop first before anything else because you need to check for an impaction. If you can't afford to have a vet do it, their are videos of how to make your chicken regurgitate the fluid. Its very tricky to do and you don't want to kill your bird, but tons of videos have done it successfully.

After you flush her crop, I left her for 24 hours in a cage in a cage separate from the other hens. As I said no food or water, because I wanted to get any left over fluid out. After that I started with her meds. They gave me a motility drug to keep things moving called Metoclopramide 2ml (which I give every 12 hours for 7 days). Then they gave me an antibiotic called SMZ TMP 240mg (which I give every 12 hours for 10 days). I believe that these drugs had a huge impact on the hen healing so quickly. I went to the vet on Tuesday and by this morning Saturday her crop and the impaction was like the size of a quarter when she woke up this morning. It was like a tennis ball of all grass In there.

Other than the prescribed meds I gave her a teaspoon of coconut oil mixed in with tiny amounts of crumble chicken feed maybe like a handful at a time, I also added warm water to the mix to make it a mash. I also gave her access to warm water to drink at this time, but I did not leave it because she would drink so much at a time and fill her crop and regurgitate it back up. I did this roughly every 4ish hours. I also mixed in some plain yogurt to give her probiotics, but I recently just bought a powder that I am trying out on all my flock as they did not like the yogurt and with the hot weather probiotics and vitamins are very important. The power is called Health gut Probiotics for poultry, I bought it off amazon for like $20.

I would not give her any Apple Cider Vinegar as there is a lot of people who say it is not that great for a chicken with impacted/sour crop, but other people disagree. I stayed away from it. Also the most important thing I did was to massage her crop every 30 of so minutes after I gave her the food and water. Make sure you do this, this to me was what a believe helped so much. I believe after giving the motility drugs, the antibiotic, coconut oil, and preforming the massages is what helped the most. There are so many people that battle impacted crop for weeks. I am still giving her massages off and on and giving her meds of course.

I hope this helped even a little bit and I hope your hen gets better.

Ps: I have never had any issues with worms so I can't give you any info on that front.

Any bit of successful treatment is helpful.
Do you know how they emptied her crop? I was thinking if I'm going to use a feeding tube to give her an Epsom salt flush then why can't I do the opposite and withdrawal fluids? It makes sense to me but I could be out of my mind too. I'm wondering about the antibiotic. I have an antibiotic that I can give her but from what I understand it makes the yeast grow. So it's very curious to me that it worked
You didn't give her an anti fungal or yeast medication at all and her sour crop healed? Can you tell me what the motility drug was and the dosage? I might be able to get my equine vet to write me an rx. When you did the massage was her crop full of fluid? I hope you don't mind the 20 questions. I'll take any info at this point. She's refusing to eat right now. That's always my biggest problem. She won't even let me give her the coconut oil. I'm all greesed up now. Going to do olive oil via syringe. I've gotten good at using a syringe for fluids. Hardly any comes back out. It's a kind of a slow process because I won't go over .5cc at a time but I get it done. Thanks so much for sharing your story. I'm glad that your hen is on the mend.