My chicken is barfing yellow liquid non-stop and has liquidy yellow stool. She's having trouble breathing. Why can I do???

[Barnette]

Fiona's crop did not fully empty last night I'm doing another Epsom salt flush this morning. Is there anything else I can add to the solution like some sort of lubricant?

 

[azygous]

That's okay the crop didn't completely empty. She's only had one flush so far. she has five to go.

I do think it's a good idea to give her the flush before you offer her food, which I want a report on how much she eats. The Epsom salts doesn't need a lubricant as it stimulates the intestines to produce mucous, a lubricant, and also makes them actively move contents through. And it does it all very gently.

Tell me how full her crop was and what did her poop look like over night?

 

[ssferret]

Thank you so much! We'll give her a little while to calm down after we held her upside down (she hated that) and then we'll do the flush. Tysm!
Also, she's an older hen so she rarely lays. I haven't seen her on the box in months. But she seemed healthy until yesterday

hile back I had a hen who had bloat so she had a real hard time breathing. I tilted her head down to clean her behind. It wasn't long but she suffocated.

I started bawling. She might have been really sick but I'm the one who caused her death and in one of the worst possible ways. You can imagine how I felt.

I know the bloat caused her breathing problems but I wasn't think about what it would do if it was really pushing on her lungs.

It was a couple of years ago but I'll never down to clean her I held her upside down to clean her before

Don't hold her upside down if she has trouble breathing. I'm ashamed to say I did that once when my hen was having problems breathing. (I was trying to clean her some before running to the vet.) She couldntbreathing gets a lot harder

Didn't you see post #14?

I'm really sorry. I didn't. I started writing my post and didn't look back to see if there were any newer posts before I finished it.

 

[Barnette]

That's okay the crop didn't completely empty. She's only had one flush so far. she has five to go.

I do think it's a good idea to give her the flush before you offer her food, which I want a report on how much she eats. The Epsom salts doesn't need a lubricant as it stimulates the intestines to produce mucous, a lubricant, and also makes them actively move contents through. And it does it all very gently.

Tell me how full her crop was and what did her poop look like over night?

Her crop was more than halfway full last night and is a quarter full this morning (just estimating). She only had one poop last night, which was small, liquidy, and colorless. The had a larger yellow and green one this morning, but it was liquid too. Here's a picture of her poop this morning. Also, we are about to do the flush and then food and I'll tell you how much she eats. Thank you!

 

[azygous]

Actually, having the crop that empty this morning is astounding progress! The poop is also encouraging. It shows the Epsom flush is working. Also, you will be relieve to know, it shows no signs of EYP. I think you can stop worrying about that.

When you give her the flush, be sure you get all one-half cup into her.

Give it an hour to work, and when you see her crop has emptied, give her some cooked egg and a little of her regular feed. Then around late afternoon, take up her food, and an hour later, do the second flush.

Are those instructions clear?

 

[Barnette]

Anothet successful flush. And she fought us this time, which I took as a good thing because it means she's stronger today. So, you said to give her some food after that. How long after the flush should I feed her and what kind of food? My mom was thinking yogurt with some herbs. Did you mean the actual chicken feed pellets?

 

[Barnette]

Actually, having the crop that empty this morning is astounding progress! The poop is also encouraging. It shows the Epsom flush is working. Also, you will be relieve to know, it shows no signs of EYP. I think you can stop worrying about that.

When you give her the flush, be sure you get all one-half cup into her.

Give it an hour to work, and when you see her crop has emptied, give her some cooked egg and a little of her regular feed. Then around late afternoon, take up her food, and an hour later, do the second flush.

Are those instructions clear?

Yes, thank you! Will do

 

[azygous]

@ssferret you bring up an important point regarding trying to empty a chicken's crop. When I instructed @Barnette to empty our patient's crop, I was specific in saying to lift the hen off the ground a few inches and tip her forward at a forty-five degree angle. The goal was not to completely empty the crop, but to relieve her of enough fluid so that it wouldn't keep overflowing the crop into her throat, making it hard to breathe.

By holding a chicken upside down to empty the crop, you are causing all the crop fluid to go right past the airway and as the chicken breathes, it sucks that fluid right into the airway and lungs, killing the chicken. It's why I usually advise not to empty the crop in this way. It's just so dangerous.

A better way to help a chicken empty their crop is to gently massage the crop to help the contents move to the proventriculus, the "stomach" which is where the crop contents naturally go next to be digested. See the diagram.

 

[Barnette]

@ssferret you bring up an important point regarding trying to empty a chicken's crop. When I instructed @Barnette to empty our patient's crop, I was specific in saying to lift the hen off the ground a few inches and tip her forward at a forty-five degree angle. The goal was not to completely empty the crop, but to relieve her of enough fluid so that it wouldn't keep overflowing the crop into her throat, making it hard to breathe.

By holding a chicken upside down to empty the crop, you are causing all the crop fluid to go right past the airway and as the chicken breathes, it sucks that fluid right into the airway and lungs, killing the chicken. It's why I usually advise not to empty the crop in this way. It's just so dangerous.

A better way to help a chicken empty their crop is to gently massage the crop to help the contents move to the proventriculus, the "stomach" which is where the crop contents naturally go next to be digested. See the diagram.View attachment 3884383

Thank you for specifying!

 

[azygous]

You can offer her any food that you think she might like. You're doing a very good job. And look at all the money you're saving on vet bills.