I'm pretty sure my hen has sour crop, need advice

[TwoCrows]

This is great news! I was hoping to hear that she was starting to get her appetite back. You can go back to the dry crumbles now, but limit the treats to easy things to digest. Not too much scratch or hard seeds, no bread and no grass yet. Wait until her crop appears to be moving at a normal pace and then you can let her out to graze.

Let us know how she is in the morning. If her slightly filled crop is empty again tomorrow morning, then she is definitely on the mend.

 

[Chicken15]

Will do!

 

[Chicken15]

Checked her crop this morning and I don't think it's empty, either that or it's swollen. Like I said before there's always a small lump there every morning It's really hard to tell but today it was a little bit more noticeable when I felt around.

 

[TwoCrows]

Checked her crop this morning and I don't think it's empty, either that or it's swollen. Like I said before there's always a small lump there every morning It's really hard to tell but today it was a little bit more noticeable when I felt around.

Is it a hard lump or a soft lump? If it is a hard lump, then there could be an obstruction in the crop slowing the crop down still. If it is a soft lump or just he entire crop raised and swollen feeling, then it is possible the crop is souring.

If it is a hard lump, like a marble or a rock in there, then you might need to go back to the oil treatments and crop massages. If the swelling is an over all swelling or soft and mushy, then it is possible that the crop is going sour. As to why she is relapsing is hard to say. Could be something internal going on. I doubt there is an obstruction going on lower down the in the GI tract as usually the obstruction never gets past the crop.

Chicken15, it might be time to start some sort of medication on her. A simple case of slow crop should be getting better by now. But if it is going sour, then it might not hurt to use a medicine to help with the yeast infection.

Is her poop still liquid green? Liquid green can be an infection in the GI tract somewhere. If the poops are solid, then I doubt she has an infection in that area. Did you check her abdomen for being bloated as well? That might be the reason for the souring crop.

If I were you, I would start with some vaginal cream down her throat 3 times a day. Clotrimazole , Load up a syringe, without the needle of course, sticking the tip of the syringe into the top of the tube and squeeze in 1 cc of cream. Shoot this down her beak 3 times a day. First thing in the morning, again at noon and again before roosting. This will help with the yeast infection.

If the yeast infection does not clear up in about 3 or 4 days, then something else internal is going on.

If she is still having liquid diarrhea, then you might want to get her on antibiotics for infection in the GI tract, put in her water. (you would want to separate her from the others so you don't have to treat the entire flock, or put the meds in some baby food and shove that down her throat and then she can be with the others)

You need to look for other signs of illness going on in other areas of her body as to why she is not healing from this crop issue.

 

[Chicken15]

The crop is definitely soft, it feels like the left breast just raised a bit. Her poop looks like when birds leave droppings in a car, it's white/yellowish around the outsides with solid bits in the center. If it really is starting to sour should I vomit her? I have noticed yesterday she spit up a little bit. I felt around the abdomen area and it feels normal.

 

[TwoCrows]

I would give her a vomiting right now. If you see any white chunks in the vomit or smell anything funky, then it is going sour.

Ok...so the crop is soft and raised. It is still irritated. If the vomit is souring, I would start her on some vaginal cream. Yeast infections do not clear up on their own and at this point, we are not sure if this is a simple case of souring/slow crop, or something else is going on. So by treating the only symptom we know of right now, we can rule out one thing at a time.

Is the poop coming out liquid? And are these solid bits brown or green?

 

[Chicken15]

I was only able to make her vomit once, I kept trying but nothing came out. Her crop felt really empty afterwards. The vomit was brown water, no chunks in it. I smelled her beak and it didn't smell like anything. I ur her back in the coop and she immediately went to drink water. As far as the poop goes I haven't seen her go today yet so I can't tell which one's belong to her but, the one she made yesterday had a brown solid piece in the middle, it was shaped like a piece of layer feed. The liquid parts of the poop aren't liquidy like water, they have some consistency.

 

[TwoCrows]

Keep an eye on her. Vomit her every morning as long as something comes up. Even if her crop just feels a bit swollen, if there is anything in there, it has to come out. Doesn't sound like it is souring yet. If you have any probiotics to add to the water or apple cider vinegar to add to the water, one of these will help heal up the crop faster. Get the good bacteria growing in the crop. I think she is really lacking these bacteria to help move the crop faster. And help with the diarrhea. Maybe try feeding her some hard boiled eggs. They are soft to digest and have good amino acids to help digestion. And if she does like them already, this eating will help jump start the appetite.

 

[TwoCrows]

How is she this evening?

 

[Chicken15]

I've decided to vomit her several times and got lots of stuff out, she then ate and drank a little and is now off to sleep. We'll have to see in the morning!