Pekin Bantam with swollen crop feels like jelly?

[lucie868]

Hello, my pekin bantam Raven was absolutely fine yesterday however today she has been extremely lethargic, struggling to keep her eyes open and letting me pick her up when she normally runs off as out of my hens she's the only one who steers away from me. She appears to have some sort of limp and walking very slow or unbalanced. At first I thought this was down to heat exhaustion and tried making an ice pack to help however I have noticed her crop is massively swollen and feels as if its fully of jelly or fluid, there is no sign of redness however when compared to the other bantams they were fine. She can still run if need be and get around but she's not eating as much but she did drink ALOT of water before bed. Any suggestions as to whats wrong with her I'm extremely worried as through research it sounds fatal, please help x

 

[chuckachucka]

I am having a similar problem with my pekin bantam at the moment. Sounds like sour crop where food gets stuck in the crop and fungus grows in there and makes it all squishy and it does not empty overnight. You need to provide plenty of water and massage the crop, withhold food for a day until you think the blockage has cleared and treat with antifungal medicine. The tablets you can buy over the counter for thrush (fluconazole) will work. Sometimes there is an underlying reason why the crop soured such as infection elsewhere in the body that slows down digestion or impaction.

 

[chuckachucka]

I'm not sure about the limp though. Could just be lethargy from the crop issue or something else. Have you checked the soles of her feet for bumble foot?

 

[lucie868]

I think ive dealt with sour crop before 5 years ago with old english game bantam, then we used olive oil too to help would this help the pekin?

 

[chuckachucka]

How is she doing today? Olive oil is good for impacted crop but once it has soured oil can make it worse. You can try live Yogurt and apple cider vinegar but antifungal medicine might be necessary.

 

[lucie868]

Well last night I brought her in gave her water and water some olive oil in and she was still all puffed out and panting aswell as disorientated. Her crop was still jelly like and swollen but this morning I gave her some apple cider vinegar water and yoghurt and she's perked right back up back to normal she's even jumping on the bushes and running around so no idea what could have been up with her I really thought she was on deaths door Thank you for the advice yesterday it really helped as I was a little bit clueless

 

[lucie868]

I checked her crop too and she's been eating so I guess she's digesting food as normal again, it could have been down to the heat too and she may have drank too much fluid