Robin and Christina, just got back from the vet. He took a sample of what was in her crop and did some sort of tests on it. He said it's got no bacteria or yeast in it, so not sour crop. It's not impacted either. He said there's a condition called 'pendulous crop' that it could possibly be but if it is the birds usually slowly starve to death. I also mentioned that I'd switched their chick starter from one brand to another because the regular place was closed when I needed it. He said not to
ever do that, I didn't realize that
.
He said something as simple as switching brands with baby chicks can cause enough digestive upset to potentially kill them-his exact words. He said that could be what's wrong also, or what started it anyway. He said for tonight give them alfalfa, scratch, some grit and gradually switch their food back over. The problem is I don't have enough of the food left to do a gradual switch. So I gave all the babies the other stuff he said, which was fun (not) because they're all in separate pens. I guess I'll underfeed them considerably tomorrow, just give them a small amount of their regular feed and some bugs and alfalfa. He said bugs are good. I didn't go into detail about my Dubia colony though, people already think I'm a tool bringing chickens to a vet. Oh well, I'll start caring just as soon as those same people start paying my bills
You know.....that supposed e coli outbreak I had last year? I had *just switched them from Shawnee Mills feed to Purina back then when the 1st one died, too. Same as I did last week. I don't think I ever mentioned the food switch to him at the time. But now I'm wondering if it was even e. coli after all....? Maybe it was something as simple as this digestive upset he was talking about from switching foods fast. That would explain a lot. I'll never know.
