Persistent sour crop

[MandS]

I was away for a few days and got reports that one of my girls had a squishy crop. At first I thought the description was a doughy crop but once I got home, it was obvious it was sour crop due to the smell and the amount of fluid in her crop.

I've drained her yesterday and a bit today. At one point, she seemed fine, the crop was more or less empty and she was back in the run and pecking about.

2 hours later, she's back to square one - crop full of liquid and the smell again. The fluid is clear but dirty (grey/brown).

She is continually moving her neck in the jerky movement they make to get food to go down.

I'm not sure what to do next. I've given her ACV in her water. I wonder if there's something further down in the digestive system that's causing things not to move through. I also gave her small amounts (which she reluctantly swallowed) of live yoghurt.

What would you recommend? I can isolate her for a day and give her just liquids or some sort of concoction to help move things along. I'm really unsure and, because I've been away, I think I'm playing catch up rather than nipping this in the bud. So in all, it's been going on for about 5 days but getting progressively worse over the last 2.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Eggcessive]

Azygous is pretty good with crop disorders. She usually suggests human Monistat or miconazole cream or suppositories given orally. Many are using acidified copper sulfate to treat sour crop. Unfortunately many crop problems are due to another issue, such as reproductive infections or disorders or worms. I would worm her with Valbazen 1/2 ml orally and repeat that in 10 days. Here is Azygous’s article on crops:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/
Here is a good deal on acidifed copper sulfate, and dosage is 1/4 tsp per gallon of water:
https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/acidified_copper_sulfate.html

 

[MandS]

Thanks Eggcessive. I did wonder about the vaginal thrush treatment but was worried about giving a topical medication orally to a bird. Do you know the quantity?

The article is my first reference when something like this happens because it's extremely helpful, however it's not quite following the pattern of the ones she describes, hence me asking.

The gurgling noises from her stomach (not the crop) seem to suggest whatever she's eaten is also bad further down the system.

She's sitting down at the moment and I'm going out every hour to massage her or to drain the crop. When it is empty, there's no hard lump inside, so I don't believe I've got a chronic impacted crop as the base issue

I haven't managed to get any food into her as she's only interested in drinking but I wanted to get coconut oil, which I think you've suggested to me before a number of years ago.

I'm going out again in about 30 mins to try to drain a bit more. I could do the miconazole then. The stuff I have is 2% formula.

 

[MandS]

I persisted with regular massage, live yoghurt and coconut oil. It has worked and, thank God, she is now back to normal.

Thanks again. Hopefully others will find this useful.

Massage every hour at least. ACV water also.

No idea what she ate whilst I was away but thankfully it's now out of her system.

 

[Eggcessive]

Glad that she has improved.