Massive crop!! No foul smell! But it is MASSIVE!!

HennyPenny81

Hatching
Jul 17, 2016
8
0
7
Hi all!

I am a new member here, although I have been helped by the forums many times previously!

So a bit of a problem...

One of my girls- (22 week old Bluebell) yesterday had quite a solid crop. I suspected impacted crop but thought I'd wait till the morning to see how it looked before their morning feed.

In the morning It was still large but felt more fluid filled than solid. I then considered the crop had turned sour but there was no foul smell from her mouth and she is not wiping fluid anywhere- I gave the crop a massage but it is massive!

She is happy in herself and continues to lay and go about her everyday business but has a massive crop.

She is also doing the 'snaking' of the neck which I take to mean she is uncomfortable and is trying to dislodge some of the pressure?

I have had sour crop before in another chicken but that was caused by an underlying condition.
She had foul smelling fluid pouring out of her, wasn't laying, awful breath and looked very down.
I did turn her upside down and the fluid would rush out.

I'm a little reluctant to try this with Blue due to the stress it causes and the worry of her breathing in some of the fluid.


So I was planning on separating her and withdrawing food tomorrow for 24 hours?
They dosing with an acid? ACV or Red wine?
Then giving her some love yoghurt
Before reintroducing her food little by little

They all have fresh water and ACV in their water daily, garlic weekly, oregano and nettle daily too.
All up to date on worming and all the others are healthy.



The thing that concerns me the most is even when the other had sour crop which was big it was no where near the size of blues... So I'm worried about it becoming pendulous due to the sheer weight of the thing!


Any suggestions will be gratefully received!!!!


Many thanks x
 
Welcome to BYC.

You will want to separate her so you can monitor her progress. Let her have plenty of plain water - no food. Check her in the am and see if it's gone down.
@TwoCrows has a great article on treating different crop situations. Treatment is not elaborate and everything needed you can get at your local pharmacy.
I have provided her article link below, also the Chicken Chick has a treatment protocol similar.

Hold off on the wine and acv, you don't want to introduce any more "acid" to a crop that is impacted and could possibly turn sour. Plain water is best.
Let us know how she's doing.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/impacted-slow-and-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/06/chicken-anatomy-crop-impacted-crop-sour.html
 
How is she today? :)

Never use Apple Cider Vinegar when a bird has slow or sour crop. ACV is a wonderful tonic to use on a healthy bird to help sour up the intestinal tract and also over time it raises the PH of the birds body helping it ward of nasty pathogens. But ACV goes in as a sour and yeasts feed on sour. So you will only be making matters worse right now. Probiotics are wonderful to use, soft foods only, no grains, hard foliage or anything that needs time to stop off in the gizzard to be ground. You want the digestion process to move as quickly as possible so yeasts don't over populate as much. The squiggly neck dance she is doing is not only from a full crop but can also mean yeast are growing out of control.

If you can vomit, it will help her. Just do it VERY quickly...one second leaning forward, stand back up. Wait a second for her to catch her breath and lean her forward for another second. That stuff can turn toxic over time, like food poisoning and if you can, it is best to get it out of there instead of letting it run through the bird.

BUT..if you are uncomfortable doing it, don't. Just offer up yogurt, soft foods, dampen her layer feed, no fruits or sweet foods to feed the yeasts. No free ranging so she won't eat stiff vegetation.

You might try some Baking Soda...about a 1/4 teaspoon in 1 ml of Gerber Baby food. Load this into an empty syringe (without the needle) and squeeze onto the front of the tongue area. Do this 2 times a day for a couple of days. This will kill of any yeasts that might be slowing the works down.

Slow crops can happen for various reasons from a simple over yeast growth, something can be internally swollen slowing things down (internal laying, reproductive cancer) enteritis and even coccidiosis can cause a slow crop. Anything that squeezes off the intestinal tract or causes an imbalance of the good and bad bacteria will slow the entire process down.

Good luck and keep us posted! :)
 
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Hi all!

Thanks for the replies!
WyorpRock- that's a great article, very helpful.

I did as suggested and popped her in the 'sick bay' with just plain water and no food- she's not particularly chirpy about this arrangement! Crop seems to have 'lifted' still feels fluid filled but does appear a little smaller.

I also created a 'crop bra' as suggested in wyorps article which does seem to be helping too.

Two crows thanks for the info on the ACV I would have given her water with it in otherwise!

I normally do give live bacteria yoghurt for sour crop- when it has emptied but someone mentioned this can create more mucus?

I was planning on seeing how she is in the morning and if it is better feeding her layers pellets in yoghurt? What do you think? Or should I hold off?

If the crop is still very squishy in the morning I will turn her upside down- (I was away this afternoon so not possible today I will try the baking soda tomorrow too- great tip!

Thanks again everyone for all your help! I clearly needed it!
 
Hi all!

Thanks for the replies!
WyorpRock- that's a great article, very helpful.

I did as suggested and popped her in the 'sick bay' with just plain water and no food- she's not particularly chirpy about this arrangement! Crop seems to have 'lifted' still feels fluid filled but does appear a little smaller.

I also created a 'crop bra' as suggested in wyorps article which does seem to be helping too.

Two crows thanks for the info on the ACV I would have given her water with it in otherwise!

I normally do give live bacteria yoghurt for sour crop- when it has emptied but someone mentioned this can create more mucus?

I was planning on seeing how she is in the morning and if it is better feeding her layers pellets in yoghurt? What do you think? Or should I hold off?

If the crop is still very squishy in the morning I will turn her upside down- (I was away this afternoon so not possible today I will try the baking soda tomorrow too- great tip!

Thanks again everyone for all your help! I clearly needed it!
Yes, yogurt can aid in the production of mucus. I generally turn to the powdered Probiotics, however if I don't have any, I do use yogurt.

Definitely feed her. Withholding food is better for impacted crops. Slow/sour crops can stop completely if they don't have any food in them. So definitely by tomorrow, give her some food. Dampen it too. She will eat it more easily and it will digest faster.

Definitely vomit her in the morning, just remember to do it in quick fast increments. Dont' hold her forward for more than a second or two so she doesn't aspirate on it. If she does breath some of it in, just put her somewhere to cough it out. As long as she didn't get a lot in there, she will be fine.

And I would start on the baking soda tomorrow too. It won't hurt and any yeasts she is growing in there will be killed off. If this is a simple case of slow and sour crop, the yeast alone will slow the entire digestion down to a crawl.

Keep us posted! :)
 
So this morning the size had greatly diminished- down to about a tennis ball that was still squishy.

Did the baking soda x2 today
She was fed pellets with yoghurt as well.

This evening it's huge again and very squishy so I turned her upside down and a good amount came out flecked with white. I'm unsure if this was yeast or bits of yoghurt- I suspect the yeast? There is still quite a bit of fluid in her but I can't budge any more, even with successive attempts. However on the plus side the fluid didn't have that distinctive 'sourness' to it.

I'm about to feed her some more pellets and yoghurt for the night but first I am going to try to tip her again.

She's still laying, pooping and drinking as normal but it is rather large again tonight.

Should I be doing anything else?

Thanks again!
 
Good to hear the crop was a bit smaller in the morning! But I don't like to vomit during the day since the bird needs to absorb liquids, food, nutrients and such. So do it in the mornings only. This is when the gunk is starting to rot. During the day it is usually moving at a slow pace. She can become too dehydrated if you vomit too much in the day. And yes, the crops can seem huge by days end. But it is most important to vomit in the morning when all that stuff is going sour.

BUT..you did a great job!! Sometimes those white flecks can be yeast. Usually yeast is a bit cheesy like.

Keep up the fantastic work with. At this rate she should be on the road to good health in a weeks time!

Keep us posted!! :)
 
Eeek 2 steps forward and 4 back!

Ok so tomorrow AM I:
1 tip her and try to get some fluid out- if she looks watery
2 then feed her soaked pellets in yoghurt
3 just give her plain water
4 bicarbonate of soda mixed with baby food x2

And no tipping after the am!!

Hahaha thanks for the encouragement!!

How much/often should I be feeding her? (Normally they have access to their pellets all day and just wonder along when they fancy a nibble)

I'm so sorry I feel like a bumbling fool!


Thanks!
 

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