Need a little more help with sour crop

[christall]

My daughter's chicken (Chuck Norris) seems to have sour crop. She (yes, Chuck is a sweet little hen) waddled over to us this morning looking like she had a huge, inflated balloon stuck under her chest. It was very squishy when touched - felt empty and full of air. When my daughter picked her up she seemed to gag a bit so we brought her inside and came here to see what it could be and what we should do about it. We ended up emptying her crop (she did seem to be rather uncomfortable prior to us doing this and MUCH more comfortable after). It was smelly, gross, and prolific. There was SO much *stuff* - but after we were done (her crop felt completely empty - no more *air* or fluid or anything) she jumped down, ran over to the other girls and seemed to be back to normal.

I got the ACV and added it to her water. Saw that it was recommended that she be kept off food for a bit and segregated from the other chickens so she's inside in a kennel right now with a bowl of water/ACV.

I did search and read through MANY of the previous posts on here about treating sour crop but it seemed that as soon as I read one I'd click on the next and it would have the opposite suggestion.

This chicken is my daughter's most loved pet. I don't want to do something and then find out it wasn't the *right* thing.

Here are the stats:

Chuck is about 1 year old. Healthy weight, size. She was behaving normally until I took her away from her sisters!
No other symptoms. Poop seems much more watery than normal - but not grossly abnormal. Eyes are clear, nose is
clear.

She is inside the house w/ only a bowlful of water/ACV.

Her crop seems to keep filling up with air and water (she is drinking fine). Do I keep emptying it? Is that normal? She's not eating food, and her crop is not full of food - it is definately something else (feels air-ish and liquidy). Do I leave her for now (it's "puffy" but not huge and she doesn't seem to be in any discomfort) and let the ACV do its job? Should I add yogurt in the morning (or cooked eggs?).

Just want to make sure that I'm doing the best for this little bird that is much loved.

Thanks,

Christall

 

[klmclain1]

Don't give her yogurt. I know many here use it, and yes, many chickens do well in spite of it. However, chickens do NOT have the enzymes necessary to break down dairy products. Therefore, giving it to them while they're sick is an additional issue their system does not need to deal with. Let her sit overnight and see how it looks in the morning. I've heard of some curing sour crop with Monistat....but I'd stick with the ACV first for a few days.

 

[WI FarmChick]

I hope this helps you. Good luck


Is more hard or like a water balloon? Sour crop will be like a water balloon; whereas, an impacted crop is hard. "Doughy" kinda sounds normal, but that is a vague enough term that it can encompass the whole range of possible problems. Is her crop still full in the morning when she awakes?

If sour crop:
Massaging the crop in a downward motion. Hold all food from her and give her water with some apple cider vinegar (ACV) added to it (preferably ACV with mother, but regular will do). Make sure it is in plastic or glass as ACV corrodes metal and this can be toxic. A few times a day (as available anyway), give her an irrigation syringe full of 1/2 ACV - 1/2 water. This will take some patience as you can only give a little bit at a time to ensure she doesn't choke on it. I had a hen with sour crop that I would massage her crop while giving her the syringe. It would gurgle something nasty and she would have gnarly burps, but she started pushing up against my hand to keep massaging her crop and would open her beak for more of the ACV mixture, so it must've felt better. Sour crop is a yeast infection in the crop (hence hold food so it doesn't ferment more in there). The ACV kills the yeast. After a couple days you should see a difference and after 4 or so days, she should be near normal. Sour crop kills, so act quickly.

If an impacted crop:
Hold food. Give olive oil soaked bread (the bread is just to get the olive oil into the bird). Oil seems to be the best remedy as it slicks up the passage way to allow for food to pass through. It gets tougher it is long grass/hay stuck.

 

[froggiesheins]

I hope this helps you. Good luck Is more hard or like a water balloon? Sour crop will be like a water balloon; whereas, an impacted crop is hard. "Doughy" kinda sounds normal, but that is a vague enough term that it can encompass the whole range of possible problems. Is her crop still full in the morning when she awakes?

If sour crop:
Massaging the crop in a downward motion. Hold all food from her and give her water with some apple cider vinegar (ACV) added to it (preferably ACV with mother, but regular will do). Make sure it is in plastic or glass as ACV corrodes metal and this can be toxic. A few times a day (as available anyway), give her an irrigation syringe full of 1/2 ACV - 1/2 water. This will take some patience as you can only give a little bit at a time to ensure she doesn't choke on it. I had a hen with sour crop that I would massage her crop while giving her the syringe. It would gurgle something nasty and she would have gnarly burps, but she started pushing up against my hand to keep massaging her crop and would open her beak for more of the ACV mixture, so it must've felt better. Sour crop is a yeast infection in the crop (hence hold food so it doesn't ferment more in there). The ACV kills the yeast. After a couple days you should see a difference and after 4 or so days, she should be near normal. Sour crop kills, so act quickly.

If an impacted crop:
Hold food. Give olive oil soaked bread (the bread is just to get the olive oil into the bird). Oil seems to be the best remedy as it slicks up the passage way to allow for food to pass through. It gets tougher it is long grass/hay stuck.

THIS INFORMATION IS VERY VERY HELPFUL AND GOOD.....I AGREE WITH FARMCHICK...

 

[christall]

Thanks everyone.

Chuck is sleeping restfully in her crate inside. She has been drinking the water/ACV mixture well. I'm still not doing well with the "irrigation" thing - but she drank quite a bit
from the bowl and I mixed that 1:1 - Is it the force of the irrigation that is helpful or the high concentration of ACV:water that is helpful. If it's latter than it should be ok to let
her drink on her own with the higer concentration water/ACV, right?

Her crop was definately "water balloon" like. This evening when we put her to bed it seemed a little squishy - certainly not HUGE like it was today. If you kind of felt around for a minute it
felt like there was also something else in there... My daughter thought it felt like grit (we feed them pellets and it didn't feel pellety or like their scratch). Would that be abnormal? She was eating earlier today - but didn't have access to anything after the last purge we did with her.

She seems to really like having her crop massaged and sat in my lap for almost an hour while I did that. When I would stop she'd kind of push herself against my hand - so I'm guessing that it felt good on some level.

So - no yogurt... When should I reintroduce foods? Much of what I see says 24-48 hours. But then they all say to start with yogurt after that. If no yogurt, then what? Egg?

Thanks again - I'm so thankful that she's resting comfortably and things seem under control for now.

Christall

 

[WI FarmChick]

Thanks everyone.

Chuck is sleeping restfully in her crate inside. She has been drinking the water/ACV mixture well. I'm still not doing well with the "irrigation" thing - but she drank quite a bit
from the bowl and I mixed that 1:1 - Is it the force of the irrigation that is helpful or the high concentration of ACV:water that is helpful. If it's latter than it should be ok to let
her drink on her own with the higer concentration water/ACV, right? It is the ACV That kills the yeast.

Her crop was definately "water balloon" like. This evening when we put her to bed it seemed a little squishy - certainly not HUGE like it was today. If you kind of felt around for a minute it
felt like there was also something else in there... My daughter thought it felt like grit (we feed them pellets and it didn't feel pellety or like their scratch). Would that be abnormal? She was eating earlier today - but didn't have access to anything after the last purge we did with her.

She seems to really like having her crop massaged and sat in my lap for almost an hour while I did that. When I would stop she'd kind of push herself against my hand - so I'm guessing that it felt good on some level. That's good.

So - no yogurt... When should I reintroduce foods? Much of what I see says 24-48 hours. But then they all say to start with yogurt after that. If no yogurt, then what? Egg?
She will need to eat Very soft foods. If the crop goes without food for too long (I don't know how long that is) It could stop working properly. Feed yogurt and eggs.
No Sugar Items......as it will feed the yeast.

Thanks again - I'm so thankful that she's resting comfortably and things seem under control for now. Good to hear....Good luck.

Christall

 

[klmclain1]

soft scrambled eggs are good to start with.