I've got a question regarding sour crop...

[guardianoftheflock]

Hi there everyone! So I have like a couple ten week old Cornish Crosses that have sour crop. I cured one with red wine and ACV, but I gave her food after that and it showed right back up. Any advice?? She has to be able to eat until we butcher this weekend(obviously).

 

[coach723]

I'm sorry no one answered you. Sour crop that recurs is often a sign of something going on lower down in the digestive tract that is slowing things down. If the crop is not emptying, or is slow, then food stays in the crop and it allows the bacteria/fungus to grow, causing it to sour. Since these are meat birds, and organ issues are common, my first suspicion would be something along those lines. I would take a good look at this bird when you process it and see what you find.

 

[guardianoftheflock]

Thank you so much for your reply! This is actually my first time raising meat birds, so i'm learning plenty of new things.BYC has been so helpful!!! I would recommend it to anybody. So, would you say that I should be able to put them back on the feed as soon as the sour crop is gone?

 

[coach723]

You can, but if the underlying issue is still there it will probably reoccur.

 

[rebrascora]

I would be inclined to process the bird early. It is only a few days and if it is having digestive problems it is not going to put on much weight and may even lose some and the meat become stressed. You are probably making more work for yourself trying to fix it than you stand to gain. Obviously you do not want to use medication at this stage if processing is that close on the horizon, so you may just have to cut your losses. I agree with @coach723 that you need to be looking at internal organs when you process and check that the bird is not diseased.

 

[guardianoftheflock]

Thank you for your reply! Do you know exactly what I might be lokking for when I process?

 

[rebrascora]

I would be looking for tumours either in the abdomen, putting pressure on the lower gut and slowing things down or the proventriculus and gizzard which are in the thoracic area but just generally anything that looks unusual. If you haven't processed before and don't know what is normal, watch some You Tube videos and perhaps take some photos of anything that you are not sure about and post them here.

 

[guardianoftheflock]

Thanks! Everyone here has been super helpful. I will watch for anything that's not normal.