Impacted and/or Sour crop treatment

[Winderdear]

I have read this article by @azygous, and have a question regarding this passage:

If the crop is full and hard and lumpy and the chicken has been drinking lots of water and it smells like sauerkraut, you likely have an impacted crop that has developed a yeast infection. You will be treating the impacted crop first, followed by treatment for the yeast infection.

My hen (who has a slow crop probably due to molting) has a firm crop about the size of a tennis ball which smells like bad gas. It doesn’t smell sour or like fermented food, but it does smell foul. As she drinks more water, the contents of the crop seem to become softer and easier to move around, I feel like it breaks apart and disperses in the fluid, rather than being one solid lump. Other than the crop being big and smelly, the hen has lots of energy and no decrease in appetite.

My husband believes her crop is impacted and sour, but I question whether there is impaction.

We started giving this hen miconazole last night, 1/2” from the tube twice a day. She will only take it smeared on scrambled egg.

We monitor her all day, feed her scrambled egg and lots of water, and give her hourly 5-10 minute massages. She poops every hour or so, usually water with some dark chunks, sometimes just water and urates. Food and water are getting through, but the food is moving very slowly. I have poop pictures if required.

The article mentions that you need to treat the impaction first before the sour crop. Should we stop with the miconazole for now, since it requires her eating more egg in order to take it, and have her fast until the food works its way through?

We already had her fast once for 24 hours (fast was broken 1pm yesterday), and it did not make the crop completely flat, though she was pooping clear water only by the end of that time. She would not eat coconut oil chunks, which was very odd, because normally she loves them.

I don’t want to starve her unnecessarily, especially since we just did so, and because the article says to feed her soft foods if she has a yeast infection to keep digestion moving.

What should we do?

I’m grateful for any help that anyone can offer.

 

[Debbie292d]

The article mentions that you need to treat the impaction first before the sour crop. Should we stop with the miconazole for now, since it requires her eating more egg in order to take it, and have her fast until the food works its way through?

Then what I'd do in the meantime is stop the miconazole and put probiotics in her water. It's doing the same thing as miconazole just not as powerful or effective as that is.

There's one other thing that some swear by that knocks out sour crop and that's Acidified Copper Sulfate. This post by the author of a different crop article was to a new member, but explains it.

 

[azygous]

It sounds like this hen's crop is not impacted. However, impaction can be occurring farther down the digestive tract in the gizzard. This causes the crop to slow and a slow crop begins to grow yeast. Since we aren't able to see inside the chicken, we have to assume this.

Therefore, you can treat for impaction with coconut oil even though the crop appears to only have liquid in it. Since the crop is not impacted, meaning it's not rock solid, you are able to get the miconazole into the crop, and then you can treat for impaction farther down at the same time you treat the yeasty crop.

Was that clear?

 

[Winderdear]

It sounds like this hen's crop is not impacted. However, impaction can be occurring farther down the digestive tract in the gizzard. This causes the crop to slow and a slow crop begins to grow yeast. Since we aren't able to see inside the chicken, we have to assume this.

Therefore, you can treat for impaction with coconut oil even though the crop appears to only have liquid in it. Since the crop is not impacted, meaning it's not rock solid, you are able to get the miconazole into the crop, and then you can treat for impaction farther down at the same time you treat the yeasty crop.

Was that clear?

Thank you for responding! I have some more questions for you, if that’s ok.

So, we are assuming she has an impaction in her gizzard, and to treat it we will give her coconut oil at the same time as we treat her crop for the yeast infection with miconazole?

Should I withhold food for any reason, or can I continue giving her scrambled egg or perhaps yogurt?

Would a stool softener be useless for gizzard impaction?

 

[Winderdear]

Then what I'd do in the meantime is stop the miconazole and put probiotics in her water. It's doing the same thing as miconazole just not as powerful or effective as that is.

There's one other thing that some swear by that knocks out sour crop and that's Acidified Copper Sulfate. This post by the author of a different crop article was to a new member, but explains it.

Thank you @Debbie292d!

I will give the article a read through. I’d like to keep going with the miconazole if it isn’t an issue, but it’s good to know that probiotics can help too as a backup option.