Maybe sour crop? Help my hen is really sick

[tmg1018]

I think my hen is really sick.

She is a Black Australorp I think about 2 yrs old (given to me by a friend), we have two of them. This one is Agnes.

A few weeks ago I found a strange looking thing that looked rubbery or like a really misshappen boiled egg next to the coop. Then a really bizarr shaped egg then next day. We had a few days of thin shelled eggs then I noticed Agnes straining while sitting on the perch and looked like egg whites dripping out of her. I looked at her vent and noticed what looked like a piece of straw poking out. I gave her about 30 min alone to see if it would come out. When I checked her it was still there so I grabbed it and it easily came right out but was not a piece of straw at all, it was an empty soft shell that was curled up. We didnt get any other eggs for a while then a couple more thin shelled ones for a coudpl of days. We were back to no eggs at all until yesterday we went out to let the girls out of the coop and saw another weird rubbery thing and next to it a bumpy crumply shriveled up shell.
Agnes would not even attempt eating any of the scratch she normally takes from my hand in the morning when I let them out. I thought that was strange but she seemed ok until the afternoon when I checked on them and she was sitting alone, head down and eyes closed. I took her to the ER vet and they had no clue about chickens. They gave her an antibiotic shot and some fluids ($150) and said find a vet in the morning that takes chickens. I called all over this morning and the vet that takes chickens is out of town (of course). I searched all day and found a feed store that has antibiotics and the medicine for coccicidiosis.
Agnes will not eat or drink so I have been dropping the medicated water on her beak so she sips it. She will only do this for a couple of drops and then closes her eyes and wont take any more. Yesterday and this morning she had all yellow poop. She then had a few all clear poops. She has had a few clear watery poops with a firm brown bit in it this evening.
Her crop feels squishy and grainy so that makes me think sour crop. So I have been massaging it all day every couple of hours. I just tried a couple of times to turn her upside down while massaging her crop to see if anything would come out but nothing did. It did smell bad when I did that though.

I dont know what else to do and I dont know how to "flush" her crop either. Im not even sure if Im getting enough medicated water in her.

Please help

Thanks

 

[tmg1018]

I have pics of the weird rubbery thing and shell that came out of her yesterday but I dont know how to add it here so you can look at it

 

[MTopPA_18707]

http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

Check this site out fast . . . it reviews chicken poop symptoms.

Best of Luck,


-X

 

[tmg1018]

She has had several poops over night that have yellowish runny stuff with some greenish brown firm parts in them. One poop this morning was very small but looked mostly normal, firm and brownish with a little orange too it.

She has been taking some drinks on her own, that made me so happy I almost cried. She is still very sleepy acting and sometimes looks like she is falling asleep while standing near her water and will rest her beak on the top of the waterer with her eyes closed like she is using it to hold her head up. Her crop feels a bit different today, a bit more round, less saggy but still squishy. I am hoping that the change is from her drinking. I did offer her some yogurt and some scrambled egg yolk this morning. I will check in a few minutes to see if she has tried any of it.

 

[tinychicky]

if it is our crop, if you tip her upside down and gently squeeze her crop, liquid will come out her beak. do this often to relieve some of the pressure on it. also, give her some apple cider vinigar. you can mix this in with her water or give it to her plain. also, don't feed her anything but the water/vinigar combonation for at least a couple of days. i know it sounds harsh, but really it's the best cure. oh and also, keep her seperate from the rest of the flock. other than that, i don't hink there is too much you can do unless you want to perform surgery to drain her crop, and i'm not sure exactly how to do that

good luck and i hop anges pulls through!

 

[CathyM]

I had heard that olive oil helps with getting the crop emptied... if you have an eye dropper, try to get some down her throat.

Good luck!!

 

[tmg1018]

Ok I have finally been able to get some stuff out of her by doing the crop massage and turning her upside down. I think it has helped that she has been drinking. I have done this twice and each time quite a bit of yucky brown stuff came up and some tiny bits of grass. This last time a couple pieces of scratch came up too. I can still feel grain in her crop and it is still squishy. She has been really drinking alot since this morning. In fact she has herself soaked all down the front of her from the water. Is she drinking too much?
How many times should I be doing this?

Any help is much appreciated. Im just so worried about her.

Thank you

 

[ipana]

tmg, I am so sorry about your hen. It is so frustrating when we want to help but we don't know what to do. From your description of things, it appears that there may be more than one thing going on. Sour crop and the thin-shelled eggs do not seem related. Her lethargy and unwillingness to eat are worrisome, for sure. While I don't really know how to help you, tmg, I will mention some things that I would try. First, I would not do the antibiotics just yet since you don't know what is wrong with her. If someone else on the forum can speak to that, it would be good to hear what they say, but that's my take on that.

Your bird may need nutrition and possibly some vitamins. We need to narrow down a couple of things, I think. Is her crop empty in the morning? By empty, that means when you put your hand on the right side of her chest/neck, the crop is not noticeable. If it has food in it, it could feel squishy or it could feel hard. If squishy in the mornings, it could be sour crop. If it is hard, it could be impacted crop. Either of these shows that food is not passing through her digestive system. While I hate to put you off on what I would do, without knowing if her crop is emptying overnight, there is not much chance of doing the right thing. So, if you'll post in the morning whether Agnes has an empty crop or not, we can go from there.

I would not try to add vinegar or oil to her crop at this point. That may only complicate things. One thing that wouldn't hurt is some soft food as you are doing...scrambled egg, applesauce may be things you already have. If you have baby food (meat type), that would be good. Monitor to see how much she eats.

I'm sure you're worried to death and I am so sorry. I hope she is not too weak to get helped. Let us know in the morning, OK?

 

[tmg1018]

Tonights update

Agnes has continued to drink copious amounts of water. I feel like she is trying to fill her crop because she is so hungry. I offered her some baby applesauce and she wouldnt even look at it so I braught it up to and touched her beak with it. She went after it with excitement and bright eyes that I have not seen in her for a few days. This of course made me super happy.

I decided not to give her alot because I didnt want her to over do it right away. I left her alone to rest for another 2 hrs or so and went back to check on her.
When I opened the door I thought she looked like she was dead with her head laid in the waterer. I snapped on the light and thank goodness she was alive but she did have her head in the waterer and was soaked.

I dried her off and took her waterer away for a bit. Her crop was pretty full and still very squishy. Im certain it still feels like there is grain in there.

She is acting much better tonight. She is walking abit which she has not been doing for the last few days. Her eyes are staying open when I talk to and pet her also. I offered her a bit more applesauce (about 2 tablespoons). She ate it up happily again.

I will let you know how her crop feels in the morning and how she is doing.

Thank you

 

[ipana]

Thanks for last night's update. Let us know if she is pooping and if her crop is flat this morning. Applesauce would not have much in the way of calories for her so if you have some baby food (meat kind, not vegetables), you may want to try some of that.

I'll check again later to see if there's any news.