Multiple symptoms with this chicken, help!

[suzychappstick]

1 week ago I was checking on my chickens. One was sitting in the coop and was startled when I peeked in. She fumbled down the stairs and I noticed her wings were drooping. I put her by the water and she drank, put her by food and she ate. We had a big drop in MN, so I brought her inside. One mistake I made was that I gave her a little bread once inside to see if she was still eating. Soon she stopped eating and drinking. We lost a chick to impacted crop, so I felt her crop and it was full of mush. She also started to stick her neck out and openning her mouth. After massaging crop she puked up some nasty dark green stuff. Then I was thinking sour crop. I then started to give her electrolytes, liquid vitamins and water with probiotic mixed in. Her crop was also gassy. After massaging I could get her to burp, (stinky!), and it would kind of deflate. Would also at times try to give her some apple sauce even though I know yeast feeds off of sugar, but she hadn't eaten in days. Also tried a little egg yoke, but that seemed to thick for her to swallow. In the meantime, her neck started to twist and slowly got worse. I thought this might be vitamin deficiency? A farm vet gave me some Nyastin for the sour crop. Burps are less stinky and not as gassy. Now she sounds nasally sometimes... Poor thing. So I also have been using Vet RX on her. She is still pooping, I have her a bath last night. It's been a week now. I'm at a loss. Any ideas? Anything else I should try? The twisted neck definitely complicates get food in her. During the day, every couple of hours, I try to get some water mixed with the medicine and rooster booster in there and a tiny bit of applesauce.

 

[Eggcessive]

She may have sour crop. That can be difficult to treat, so I would check with a vet. Emptying the crop can be dangerous, and can cause choking, but that is the usual treatment. So, I would try to get a feeding tube and large syringe to give her water, and flush the crop. Your vet could show you how, and provide the tube and large syringe. Casportpony has a good video on how to tube feed called "Go Team Tube Feeding," if you Google it.

 

[suzychappstick]

Thanks. Problem being I don't really have vets by me that treat chickens. I called an Equine vet that mostly treats large farm animals that gave me the nysatin for the sour crop. I think the sour crop is mostly gone, no super stinky smell but still a little inflated. I think she may have aspirated when she threw up. She has a nasal gurgle. Yesterday the same vet gave me a prescrip for antibiotics. I've been giving her high dose electrolytes in water, Nysatin and working very little scrambled egg in her. She has lost sooo much weight.

 

[azygous]

When a case of sour crop persists even after days of treatment with an anti-yeast medicine, and nystatin is the best one if you're lucky enough to get a hold of it, I suspect pendulous crop.

It's easy to see. Look at your hen sideways. Does the crop hang down below the chest wall like a balloon full of water? If this is what you're seeing, a crop bra can support the crop so it rides higher and can then empty as it should. After that is corrected, the yeast infection should then clear up, but continue the nystatin until it does.

If your hen aspirated fluid when she vomited, continuing the antibiotic should help clear it up. But then you'll need to replenish the crop and gut flora with yogurt or a probiotic since it will be depleted from the antibiotic.

 

[rebrascora]

How old is your chicken?
It does appear that sour crop was the initial problem and now respiratory, perhaps as you say due to aspiration. It sounds like the vet is being pretty helpful. My concern would be that there is an underlying problem causing the crop to slow and sour..... yes, pendulous crop is a possibility but I would also check her abdomen for any swelling... between her legs or below her vent. If she is an adult bird reproductive issues can cause such swelling and a constriction of the gut, leading to the digestive system backing up.
If she is a juvenile bird that has not started laying yet, then Marek's disease might be the cause.... especially when you are seeing her neck twisting. Obviously sour crop will cause weight loss especially if it has been brewing for a while, but muscle wastage is also a symptom of Marek's when the tumours start to develop.

 

[suzychappstick]

I got her last April. Hard to tell with pendulous crop, she maybe has it. She has just lost so much weight there is not much to gauge against. Is there a specific area tumors would be? I think she has started laying but hard to tell who is laying what with 9 hens. I don't feel swelling... She has been pooping a little. Ugh. Does massaging the crop make a pendulous crop worse?

 

[azygous]

Massaging the crop actually will help. But the crop needs to be supported so the contents can reach the "drain", or else the crop will never completely empty, which is necessary for a healthy crop environment.

Here's more on it. http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2016/02/pendulous-crop-in-backyard-chickens.html

 

[rebrascora]

Did you get her as a young chick in April or was she older/adult when you got her?

No, massaging the crop will not make it more pendulous. It is usually pretty obvious if it is pendulous because it sags downward rather than just being a swelling on the chest, if that makes sense.
A tumour can be anywhere on any organ or even cutaneous or sub cutaneous and any size. Sometimes multiple small lesions and other times a large mass. You would not know unless you had a necropsy done or did one yourself. I hope I am wrong about that