New member 👋! & Sour crop treatment questions

[JadeAnn913]

As I said, I'm brand new to this forum. Also fairly new to owning chickens in general. We started last year with 12 chicks (cinnamon queens and americaunas) and 4 ducklings (Indian runners, which btw was a big surprise as we were told they were pekins lol). All 12 chickens and 4 ducks have done great and been healthy since day one.

We, fairly recently, decided to add to our flock. 6 chicks and 2 turkeys. They are about 5 weeks old and we've just recently started introducing them to the coop and giving them a bit of outside time. The night before last, we noticed that one of our new chicks had a larger chest than normal. She's a French Maran and is quite fluffy, so I actually didn't think much of it until yesterday, because it seemed even bigger at this point.

I, of course, immediately started googling where I discovered crop issues. I felt around on her crop and it feels squishy. Also, when I picked her up last night, she started spitting up liquid. Her poop has also been mostly liquid. This has led me to think this is sour crop and not impacted, but I am clearly no expert.

After reading dozens of different recommendations for treating it, I decided to go out and buy coconut oil and monistat. I also currently have her separated from the rest of the flock and removed her food and water. My question is, should I just skip the coconut oil and go straight to treating with monistat? If I do the coconut oil first, how long should I wait before starting the monistat? How long should I keep her from food and water?

 

[Nomadicus]

Hello and Welcome to BYC!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens. This is a great place to explore and hang out.
Loaded questions better look for answers to the questions on the forums.
I do not personally treat peeps with meds if I can not.

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello and welcome to BYC!

You might want to stop by this article on Sour Crops and how to treat them... https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ntion-and-treatments-of-crop-disorders.67194/

I would stop with the oil and start up with Monistat or use some Acidified Copper Sulfate on her.

You can also post in our Emergency forums for more help... https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/emergencies-diseases-injuries-and-cures.10/

Welcome to our community!

 

[Burnt Brass Homestead]

Hi @JadeAnn913

I have not had any experiences with sour crop but here is an article I found on BYC. Not sure if you have already read it. It is an old article that got good reviews.

How to treat sour crop and impacted crop and how to know which one you're dealing with

I hope you find what you are looking for.

Welcome!

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Welcome to BYC @JadeAnn913

I hope you can get the crop issues sorted out so please do stop by the article that @TwoCrows left you the link for.

Good luck and enjoy BYC

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

My question is, should I just skip the coconut oil and go straight to treating with monistat?

I would not bother at all with the coconut oil. Just the monistat. Twice daily for 7 full days.

If I do the coconut oil first, how long should I wait before starting the monistat?

Start the monistat now.

How long should I keep her from food and water?

Do not withhold water. I would offer her water with poultry vitamins in it and scramble up some eggs and let her eat as much of that as she wants. I would withhold all carb based feed (all commercial) for 3 days and see if she is doing better. Then you can release her back with the flock to resume a normal diet. Just make sure you dose her with her monistat before she gets off the roost in the morning and then again when she goes to roost at night. It is very important that you run the full treatment.

 

[sourland]

Welcome to BYC, and good luck with your chick.

 

[JadeAnn913]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

I would not bother at all with the coconut oil. Just the monistat. Twice daily for 7 full days.

Start the monistat now.

Do not withhold water. I would offer her water with poultry vitamins in it and scramble up some eggs and let her eat as much of that as she wants. I would withhold all carb based feed (all commercial) for 3 days and see if she is doing better. Then you can release her back with the flock to resume a normal diet. Just make sure you dose her with her monistat before she gets off the roost in the morning and then again when she goes to roost at night. It is very important that you run the full treatment.

Thank you! There's honestly just so much conflicting information out there, I became more and more confused with each article I read. I ended up separating her from the others around noon, because I, at the very least knew I needed to keep her out of the feed (she honestly hasn't shown a huge amount of reduced appetite, if any). Then my husband called and said he was told to take her water out as well, which seemed strange to me considering half of what I read recommended adding apple cider vinegar or prebiotics to the water. I did the coconut oil right after I posted, because I figured it couldn't hurt at least, and massaged her crop. It actually does seem to have gone down some now, but I'm wondering if that's simply due to the fact that she hasn't had any water in a bit.

I'm going to go ahead and put her water back in and, I bought some of the Sav-A-Chick probiotics when we got the ducks, but they didn't care for it, so we only used one pack. I'll go ahead and add that to her water and start the monistat tonight.

Thank you again!

 

[SilverBirds]

Welcome to BYC!