Lethargic hen, gurgling no appetite

[Phoebetv28]

Hi all,

One of my favorite girls is sick and I’m wondering what to do.

She’s lethargic, hasn’t eaten all day as far as I can tell, doing that little penguin stance and falling asleep standing up.

When I brought her inside she started making gurgling sounds and some fluid (I couldn’t tell but it looked almost like a brown color) came out of her beak. She isn’t doing it anymore now.

Her crop is still full and squishy so I am thinking impacted or sour crop? But there’s no smell that I can tell.

I brought her inside and she drank some water with nutridrench and electrolytes. Her poop is loose and a light yellow color—attaching a photo (apologies…).

We had a similar issue with her a few months ago. I thought she might be egg bound so gave her epsom baths, then I figured it might be sour crop so I gave her a tiny bit of monistat by mouth for four days. She got completely better after less than a week and hasn’t had any issues since then.

She has no nasal discharge or swelling, isn’t coughing or sneezing and other than the one time she gurgled I can’t hear any respiratory distress.

She’s young, just under a year old but laying and was totally fine and laying and eating until this morning.

It was unusually cold last night and I’m wondering if that set this off, though it didn’t even go below freezing.

Does this sound like sour crop? How do I best treat for that? Could it be worms or something else? She doesn’t seem egg bound but I’m having trouble telling just by feeling her abdomen.

Thank you in advance for your help!
Phoebe

 

[Eggcessive]

She looks to have a crop disorder, probably developing sour crop. Most crop disorders happen due to another primary problem, such as a reproductive disorder, worms, or other problem. The yellow urates in her dropping might be related to reproductive infection. Has she been laying eggs recently? Has she had any impacted or a very large crop in the past? If ahe has not been wormed lately, I would worm her with Valbazen 1/2 ml orally now and again in 10 days. Or use SafeGuard liquid goat wormer 1/4 ml per pound given for 5 consecutive days. I would separate her in a wire dog crate near the others with water for a day. Give her some chilled coconut oil 1-2 tsp cut into small pieces to peck, or mineral oil in a little bit of egg. She will need some food and nourishment if her crop goes down some tomorrow, such as some watery scrambled egg. Clean water at all times. Get some human yeast medication—Monistat or miconazole cream, and give her about 1/2 inch orally morning and evening. Check her crop first thing in the morning before she eats or drinks. You can follow this article by @ azygous:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[Phoebetv28]

She looks to have a crop disorder, probably developing sour crop. Most crop disorders happen due to another primary problem, such as a reproductive disorder, worms, or other problem. The yellow urates in her dropping might be related to reproductive infection. Has she been laying eggs recently? Has she had any impacted or a very large crop in the past? If ahe has not been wormed lately, I would worm her with Valbazen 1/2 ml orally now and again in 10 days. Or use SafeGuard liquid goat wormer 1/4 ml per pound given for 5 consecutive days. I would separate her in a wire dog crate near the others with water for a day. Give her some chilled coconut oil 1-2 tsp cut into small pieces to peck, or mineral oil in a little bit of egg. She will need some food and nourishment if her crop goes down some tomorrow, such as some watery scrambled egg. Clean water at all times. Get some human yeast medication—Monistat or miconazole cream, and give her about 1/2 inch orally morning and evening. Check her crop first thing in the morning before she eats or drinks. You can follow this article by @ azygous:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

She has been laying fine up until today! I can tell because she’s the only one who lays green eggs.

She hasn’t been wormed recently, I will go get wormer tomorrow and do that asap. Do you think it’s ok to worm her while she’s in such frail condition?

Thank you for this advice! I will do that and update here.

 

[Eggcessive]

I would worm her since capillary (thread worms) worms can occasionally cause crop disorders. Make sure that she has some granite poultry grit available to help her gizzard work to grind food. Probiotics or a TB of plain yogurt with cultures daily may be helpful in treating a slow or souring crop. Here is some reading about examining crops and causes of crop problems:
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/common-crop-issues-backyard-chickens-ebr-60/