My Favorite Serama pullet is sick - Impacted or Sour Crop?

[racuda]

She's seven weeks old and I noticed her normally vertical tail is being carried down, and her feathers are puffed up. She is lethargic. She obviously doesn't feel well.

I picked her up and her crop is very full and somewhat hard. I compared hers to her brothers and sisters. Their crops, are more easily palpated.

Here's what I've done so far:

I dipped her beak in olive oil and she held her head back like she was drinking. She swallowed two or three drops.
Massaged her crop several times in the past few hours.
Withdrew all food and isolated her in a cat carrier in the coop with just water available.
In the morning I'll check to see if her crop has gone down any.
If there is no change I plan to try Glenda Haywood's baking soda flush.

Am I on the right track? Would you do anything different?

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

We had a chick like that recently (of course it was a pullet! Nothing ever happens to roos around here!)
I did the same as you have done. It did the trick here.

She is fine now, but seems to be a little more prone to this than the rest. They only get crumbles.

Best of luck! Sorry I was not much help, but letting you know you are on the right track!
~Jessi

 

[racuda]

Thanks Jessi.

If not for this forum I would probably have lost one of the Serama chicks right after they were hatched to pasty butt. And now now, hopefully, I'll overcome this.

I don't now how I got through life before the internet!

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

I know! Im into instant gratification, and love the internet. Dont know the answer? Google it!

 

[racuda]

Sadly I found her dead this morning. So far everyone else is okay.

 

[tulie13]

Quote:
I'm so sorry - I was about to suggest adding some Apple Cider Vinegar to her water, as whatever is in the crop can rot/ferment. I spoke to a state agricultural guy in Florida when I had all of my girl's crop issues, and he said that one of the biggest problems with slow/sour crops is an overgrowth of YEAST/candida.

This coincides with the comments about birds with sour crop acting "drunk", as yeast will ferment the starches in grains to ALCOHOL!

ACV in the water causes a shift in the pH of the crop that can kill yeast and help restore the natural bacterial balance.

And please don't take this the wrong way as in "you should have" because we are all learning, and you shouldn't feel bad about what happened to your bird. But the next time you see a chicken with a crop problem like this, you may want to try expelling whatever is in there up front, especially if you don't know how long it has been going on. I had another bird (after Chicken Little, RIP) show signs of an impacted or sour crop (full and large in the morning BEFORE I brought them their food, while everyone else had flat crops). I took that bird and pushed out the built-up food in the crop to get all that mess OUT. It was just crumbles, so not too hard to get out. One overnight with some ACV water, and a little soft food the next morning (applesauce with softened crumbles, some probiotics and enzymes) and I let her back out with the others. She's fine.

I don't think she would be fine right now if I hadn't gotten all of that rotting/fermenting stuff OUT of the crop. I learned a lot with Chicken Little.

Obviously if there is a wad of grass or stones or something like that, you may not be able to get it out. But if there is a wad of grass blocking the crop and there is a bunch of food sitting on top of it rotting, you may be able to easily get the food out and buy time to work on the grass ball with olive oil.

I want to credit all of the great advice I've gotten from this forum board when dealing with my little girl, and say that BOY have I learned a LOT in the last 3 months!!! I know I'm a relative newbie here, and with chickens in general, but I got the "school of hard knocks" CRASH COURSE on crop issues!

 

[racuda]

Quote:
Oddly enough, I had just added ACV to the water just a couple of days ago, not for any particular reason.

When I found her this morning the water that I had given her last night had some kind of debris in it. It was nothing that came from her immediate surroundings, but rather what I assume came from her crop.

 

[racuda]

I just had a thought...

Last night before I went to bed, I checked on her to massage her crop. She was asleep and when I reached for her I startled her. Bad. She freaked out, squawking and acting hysterical. I talked to her, rubbed her crop and put her back down. Is it possible that she had a heart attack?

 

[SeramaLife]

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

Im so sorry for your loss!

Im not sure about the heart attack. I just don't know enough about their circulatory system! (yet)