Hi everyone. After 8 years of keeping chickens, battling Marek's Disease, I thought I'd dealt with just about everything chickens could throw at me when it comes to illnesses.
Last week I had a small bantam cross rooster present with a really swollen crop and copious amounts of nasty yellow fluid flowing from his mouth when I picked him up.
Sour Crop? That was may first thought. I 'vomited' him till his crop was empty then started him on sour crop treatment. He had one dose of Miconazole and I put him in my brooder cage in my feed room where I could keep an eye on him.
He was very lethargic. Couldn't stand. Couldn't hold his head up. Slept with his beak resting on the straw and his comb became progressively darker till it was almost black. His crop remained empty but he continued to decline until I decided to end it for him.
This past Friday I had a 3 year old EF hen present with the same symptoms. Great. Fluffed, lethargic, squishy water filled crop and when she jumped up onto the pop door ledge she had copious foul smelling yellow fluid flow out of her beak.
When I picked her up there was literally a fountain of this fluid coming out of her. I got her drained, brought her in figuring sour crop again. Started her and the whole flock on water with medicinal copper added along with apple cider vinegar and started her on miconazole twice a day.
Saturday and Sunday she held her ground. Won't eat won't drink, lethargic and weak and VERY thin. Yesterday I started her on liquified scrambled egg with probiotics mixed in and she did have enough energy to struggle with me and did swallow what I got into her but this morning she had fluid again in her crop.
I vomited her again and got on line and started reading. Read that capillary worms can cause sour crop. We have had a very wet spring so anything is possible. This morning I gave her a dose of Safe Guard. She will drink when I place the syringe I use on the tip of her beak and slowly depress the plunger giving her time to swallow. She is so weak though that I am desperate to get some nourishment into her.
I mixed a slurry of chick starter and made balls that I could pop into her mouth and she will swallow them. She just won't eat or drink on her own. And now her comb is starting to darken like the roosters did and she continues to weaken.
Oh! And more alarming. She has only pooped once in three days. I have been giving her 6 ccs of water every four hours but frankly I am going to lose this bird if I don't pull a magic rabbit out of my hat as far as treating her is concerned. I hate to think what is happening to her kidneys.
So @pennyJo1960 @casportpony, @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive I need your help and experience. What else can I do that I've missed?
Last week I had a small bantam cross rooster present with a really swollen crop and copious amounts of nasty yellow fluid flowing from his mouth when I picked him up.
Sour Crop? That was may first thought. I 'vomited' him till his crop was empty then started him on sour crop treatment. He had one dose of Miconazole and I put him in my brooder cage in my feed room where I could keep an eye on him.
He was very lethargic. Couldn't stand. Couldn't hold his head up. Slept with his beak resting on the straw and his comb became progressively darker till it was almost black. His crop remained empty but he continued to decline until I decided to end it for him.
This past Friday I had a 3 year old EF hen present with the same symptoms. Great. Fluffed, lethargic, squishy water filled crop and when she jumped up onto the pop door ledge she had copious foul smelling yellow fluid flow out of her beak.
When I picked her up there was literally a fountain of this fluid coming out of her. I got her drained, brought her in figuring sour crop again. Started her and the whole flock on water with medicinal copper added along with apple cider vinegar and started her on miconazole twice a day.
Saturday and Sunday she held her ground. Won't eat won't drink, lethargic and weak and VERY thin. Yesterday I started her on liquified scrambled egg with probiotics mixed in and she did have enough energy to struggle with me and did swallow what I got into her but this morning she had fluid again in her crop.
I vomited her again and got on line and started reading. Read that capillary worms can cause sour crop. We have had a very wet spring so anything is possible. This morning I gave her a dose of Safe Guard. She will drink when I place the syringe I use on the tip of her beak and slowly depress the plunger giving her time to swallow. She is so weak though that I am desperate to get some nourishment into her.
I mixed a slurry of chick starter and made balls that I could pop into her mouth and she will swallow them. She just won't eat or drink on her own. And now her comb is starting to darken like the roosters did and she continues to weaken.
Oh! And more alarming. She has only pooped once in three days. I have been giving her 6 ccs of water every four hours but frankly I am going to lose this bird if I don't pull a magic rabbit out of my hat as far as treating her is concerned. I hate to think what is happening to her kidneys.
So @pennyJo1960 @casportpony, @Wyorp Rock @Eggcessive I need your help and experience. What else can I do that I've missed?
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