springdalechick
Hatching
- May 30, 2016
- 3
- 0
- 7
Hello Everyone, I just got back into chickens(I had laying hens for several years without any problems).There is so much going on I'm not sure where to start. So here goes..... I have 4 assorted adult hens, an adult rooster and two standard Cochin babies. The chicken house and area are all new. The 4 adult hens were purchased from a local clubs annual auction and looked to be in good health. One is older and doesn't produce eggs anymore and the other three are young adults and have been laying and are all sitting on eggs right now.. A week later I was given a rooster ( 1yr. old) from a local woman who has laying hens and sells eggs. The Cochin babies were purchased from a local breeder. One was about 3 weeks old and the other about 2 weeks. That was in early May. The babies are in a separate but adjoining area. Everything was going very well until early last week I noticed the youngest Cochin baby was not as active as usual and seemed to be kind of hunched over. I picked her up and her breast area was huge. I looked it up on this site (and several others) and it sounded like Sour Crop. Some said to make her purge and some didn't) So I decided to try it. She did clear a stalky type impaction along with a lot of smelly other yucky stuff. The crop got smaller but by morning looked almost the same. I called a local vet who said he treated chickens but couldn't get her in for two days so I tried to feed her light and many times a day and put ACV in her water. Meanwhile her crop continued to be big. The vet did a culture and found her to have a bacterial infection so he put her on Clavamox drops. He did not make her purge he just gave her enough gas to have her regurgitate a small amount. I took her home with instructions to feed her Kaytee hand feeding formula every two hours and free choice water. The vet called later to tell me her fecal was positive for Coccidiosis. He said I could only treat her for one thing at a time so I treated for the bacterial infection in the crop first. He told me that I should treat the rest of my birds also. My baby cochins crop has not really reduced in size. She is still eating (every two hours) drinking and pooping fine so I was thinking I could start her treatment for Coccidiosis on Saturday (that gives her three days in between treatments) I have also purchased and just received a "birdy bra" thinking this may help support her big crop. It says that it can help a chicken with slow to empty crops and stretched crops. Ok so don't judge please, I've been doing what I thought was the right thing to do so far. So here are my questions;
1) Do I treat my other chickens when we are having a heatwave with temps in the mid 90's when the meds are in the water and they will be drinking more? Will they OD? Should I wait for better temps? I will be using Corid 20%. 1/2 tsp per gallon.
2 )I know I will be totally cleaning out their house (I use shavings and has spot cleaned every day) and disinfecting everything but what do I do with the three hens that are sitting on eggs? Will I have to take the eggs away from them? If they hatch, will the babies by ok?
3) Should I have my chicken with the enlarged crop purge before putting the birdy bra on her? Or hope it helps to reduce the size over time just by putting it on?
4) Am I crazy to think that this is all going to work out?
5) Does anyone else have a chicken with a 24/7 crop problem that is living a good life?
Thanks for all your input and advise in advance,
Tami
1) Do I treat my other chickens when we are having a heatwave with temps in the mid 90's when the meds are in the water and they will be drinking more? Will they OD? Should I wait for better temps? I will be using Corid 20%. 1/2 tsp per gallon.
2 )I know I will be totally cleaning out their house (I use shavings and has spot cleaned every day) and disinfecting everything but what do I do with the three hens that are sitting on eggs? Will I have to take the eggs away from them? If they hatch, will the babies by ok?
3) Should I have my chicken with the enlarged crop purge before putting the birdy bra on her? Or hope it helps to reduce the size over time just by putting it on?
4) Am I crazy to think that this is all going to work out?
5) Does anyone else have a chicken with a 24/7 crop problem that is living a good life?
Thanks for all your input and advise in advance,
Tami
