Is there a good preventative for sour/impacted crop?

[awagnon]

I have been reading the posts on problems with sour or impacted crop in our birds. Not having this issue with my girls, but wondering if there's something I can do to help prevent it as they get older. Coconut oil is supposed to have anti-fungal, bacterial, viral properties so is is wise to offer this to them from time to time to help keep their crops healthy and functioning well? Just wondering if there is something I can do to keep my girls as healthy as possible. Thanks for all the wonderful knowledge sharing going on throughout this site. It's awesome!

 

[azygous]

The single best preventative to crop and digestive tract issues is maintaining a healthy population of good microbes in the crop and intestines. You can do this a few different ways.

A popular and easy way to create a crop and intestinal environments that are inhospitable to yeast colonization is good old apple cider vinegar (ACV) with the "mother" sediment. A tablespoon in a gallon of water is all it takes.

Another way is to ferment your feed. This is my choice. Fermentation releases probiotics and extra nutrients from the feed. This has greatly reduced the incidence of sour crop in my flock.

Another way, if you are too busy to ferment, is to give probiotics such as acidophilus as a supplement to your flock.

Lastly, but others will likely come up with more, is garlic. This creates a very inhospitable environment in the crop as does ACV. The only drawback to this is that sometimes the garlic can affect the taste of the eggs, and too much garlic can risk being toxic to the liver. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16910057/ You can avoid this by keeping the dose below .25 gram per kg of body weight.

 

[Chickeeaholic]

Parasites can be a cause, keeping up with worming is a good prevention.

 

[awagnon]

The single best preventative to crop and digestive tract issues is maintaining a healthy population of good microbes in the crop and intestines. You can do this a few different ways.

A popular and easy way to create a crop and intestinal environments that are inhospitable to yeast colonization is good old apple cider vinegar (ACV) with the "mother" sediment. A tablespoon in a gallon of water is all it takes.

Another way is to ferment your feed. This is my choice. Fermentation releases probiotics and extra nutrients from the feed. This has greatly reduced the incidence of sour crop in my flock.

Another way, if you are too busy to ferment, is to give probiotics such as acidophilus as a supplement to your flock.

Lastly, but others will likely come up with more, is garlic. This creates a very inhospitable environment in the crop as does ACV. The only drawback to this is that sometimes the garlic can affect the taste of the eggs, and too much garlic can risk being toxic to the liver. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16910057/ You can avoid this by keeping the dose below .25 gram per kg of body weight.

Thanks so much. What do you think about giving greek yoghurt? It's got some protein and good bacteria. Would that be enough or should I get them actual probiotic supplements? Fermenting the feed sounds interesting, but I use either crumble or pellet feed. All that does is turn to mush when it gets wet. Are you talking about fermenting the scratch that has corn and I believe millet in it? I understood that that is just something to give supplemental and not too much of along with their layer feed. Is there another type of feed I should look for for fermenting or is just fermenting a little scratch enough as a treat every now and then? TIA!

 

[azygous]

Yogurt is fine if given only once in a while due to dairy not being easily digested by poultry. Dairy is more suitable for animals that lactate, and chickens do not.

There are probiotics you can add to the feed each day that are sold at feed stores. Those are active microbes as found in yogurt but minus the dairy.

Fermenting can be done with any form of poultry feed. I do not recommend fermenting scratch grain as it doesn't add nutrition to the feed and chickens will make a mess trying to pick out all the morsels of corn. Scratch should be reserved for an occasional treat and very limited amounts.

Fermenting feed does turn it into "mush", although it doesn't have to have a sloppy wet consistency. I barely cover my dry feed with water and it absorbs it all, ending up with a consistency of cookie dough. It's very easy to do, but it may not be everyone's preference.