Possible Impacted/Sour Crop But I'm Not Sure....

[susieq2002]

Hey all! I've got another chicken that is sick and I'm thinking that it might be an impacted/sour crop, but I'm not 100% sure. At first, I thought she might have a form of cocci b/c she is acting lethargic, ruffled feathers, not eating, keeping to herself, sleeping a lot, keeping her eyes constantly closed, etc. so I started adding Corid to the water yesterday morning. This morning, however, she is showing no signs of improvement and when I was holding her, I noticed her crop is sticking out a lot. Now, I'm not sure if this is from weightloss or it is impacted, but when I was helping her to drink the medicated water this morning, she regurgitated some of it and it came out a light brown-ish color and it stunk. I've done some research about impacted/sour crop and am going to try giving her some lactose-free kefir tonight as well as massaging her crop a little more but I'm really afraid that I might be too late to save her. If anyone has any suggestions as to what this condition might be (cocci or impacted/sour crop) please let me know. I would really appreciate any and all feedback.

EDIT: (Didn't see this the first time I posted)

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.)
White Leghorn - 1 to 1.5 years old - not sure about the weight

2) What is the behavior, exactly.
Lethargic, sleeping a lot, keeps eyes closed, comb is purple/reddish color, beginning to get tipsy, found white poo on her butt, has stopped eating, keeps feathers ruffled like she is cold

3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms?
About 5 days. I noticed she was keeping to herself with feathers ruffled at the end of last week, but I thought she was just cold. Our temps in Maine were very chilly last week (teens & 20s) but then we had a warm up. She was still eating layer crumbles as of the weekend, but I haven't seen her eating anything yesterday or today.

4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms?
No. She is with 2 other birds and they are both acting completely normal.

5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma.
No.

6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation.
I'm not 100% sure. She was acting completely normal a week ago.

7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Water and layer crumble. I also have a block of seed for the birds to peck at, but they rarely peck at it anymore. I'll also throw in some cracked corn and crumbled oyster shells every now & then.

8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc.
The only poop I've noticed come out of her is the white poop on her butt. Other than that, I haven't seen her pooping at all.

9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far?
I started putting a 1/2 teaspoon of Corid in 1 gallon of water yesterday morning & this morning, thinking she might have a form of Cocci but she has shown no improvements.

10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet?
I would like to treat completely by myself since the vets we have in town don't normally take chickens. (that I know of - there might be one vet, but he charges a lot of money)

11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help.
No pics.

12) Describe the housing/bedding in use
I use shavings only for my bedding & right now, I'm keeping these three chickens in an unoccupied stall in our barn. I've been keeping them separate from the flock (which lives in a coop) due to flock bullying/injuries until I could group them back together.

 

[MisFitzFarm]

Hello there. How is your hen doing? I have limited experience with sour/ impacted crop, but to me it sounds as if she may have it. You seem to be doing all you can for her, the only things I can think of are possibly a warm bath, this may help any blockage to move along, or you could also try olive oil by syringe, which worked well for us, but I have heard mixed reviews of it. If you can stomach it and you are sure of the condition, you can try cutting into the crop to remove the blockage. However, I haven't done this myself, so hopefully someone who has will reply soon. Keep us updated on her condition, and I hope this helped

.

 

[Eggcessive]

Your chicken may have sour crop and coccidiosis at the same time. I saw that you had treated for coccidiosis a few months ago. Have you added any new birds or this hen since then? The dosasge of Corid that you are giving is too low. For treatment of an infection (not preventative dose) the Corid should be 1 1/2 tsp of powder or (2 tsp of liquid) per gallon of water. Some older posts may have stated 1/2 tsp powder, but it is thought that 1 to 1 1/2 tsp is more the right dose. Here is some info about crop problems: http://www.tillysnest.com/2012/01/crop-issues.html

 

[casportpony]

Bring her inside where it's warm and increase the Corid like Eggcessive suggests, 1.5 teaspoons powder per gallon, 1/2 teaspoon is not enough. Once inside you should be able to inspect her poop and if you can take a picture and post it. I'd also do a very thorough exam that includes putting on a lubed glove and checking inside the vent for a stuck egg or other masses, swellings, fluid, etc.

How thin is she?

-Kathy

 

[susieq2002]

A big thanks to all of you for your suggestions, but unfortunately, my hen died before I got home from work last night.

I inspected her crop and it was large, so I'm really thinking that this was the problem. However, I can't imagine what could have gotten tangled up in there because she doesn't go outside, she's been in the barn, I keep shavings on the floor, and there is no straw anywhere in sight. But then I remembered this morning that I've caught my girls occasionally eating feathers off the floor and I'm thinking that might have been the culprit. So I removed all the dropped feathers I could find from the barn & the coop. I've been keeping a very close watch on all of my birds and they are showing no signs of any distress. The other two birds that had been with the one that died are just fine, but I'm going to keep a close eye on them this week to make sure that the problem wasn't cocci. Thank you for the dose recommendations. I had been looking at older posts and found the 1/2 teaspoon so it's good to know that it should be 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons. I feel awful that I couldn't diagnose this problem sooner, but at least I know what to look for in the future if one of my birds starts displaying these symptoms again. She was the funniest chicken too. She used to always run around in a figure 8, squawking loudly, before laying an egg. lol I'm going to miss her.

 

[casportpony]

So sorry for your loss. Part of the dying procees can include the crop symptoms you saw, and I've seen it many time in some of my really sick ones that I was tube feeding. What I mean by that is that if I have been tube feeding them and all of a sudden their crops don't empty they are usually dead in 24-48 hours because their organs have started to shut down.

Can you send her off for a necropsy?
http://umaine.edu/veterinarylab/

-Kathy

 

[MisFitzFarm]

I'm so very sorry for your loss, but you did everything you could for her.

 

[Eggcessive]

So sorry that she didn't make it.

 

[susieq2002]

Thank you guys. I'm thankful she's not suffering anymore. And, so far so good with the other chickens. I'm not seeing any signs of distress or illness at all, which is a huge relief.

Kathy, I didn't know about the uMaine necropsy testing, but it is definitely something I'm going to remember for the future. If this does happen again and I can't save the chicken, then I'm absolutely sending the body for testing just in case there is something else going on in my flock that I don't know of. Thanks again for all of your help.