miniwarrior
Chirping
I posted about my chicken, Butters, having some crop issues about a month ago. I treated her for about a week and she seemed better so out she went with the rest of them again! (See this post for more details on the first incident: www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=452845)
She has been acting totally normal until today when I went to take care of the chickens, Butters was sitting facing the corner of the pen and obviously not doing well again.
1) What type of bird , age and weight: Buff Orpington, 3 yrs., not sure of weight
2) What is the behavior, exactly: Her crop was full of liquid- no hard stuff, just a dark brown/black liquid that was somewhat viscous. She was obviously uncomfortable and kept arching her neck and craning as if trying to dislodge things. When I pick her up, liquid discharge comes out of her beak. It doesn't smell and is tanish-blackish in color (see #9 for more details)
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? Since this morning this go around. She had the same thing happen about a month ago. (see above link to previous thread)
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? nope
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 don't know. There seems to be some issue with her crop or somewhere in her digestive track but I don't know of an incident that would have caused this.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. She normally eats layer crumbles, but today she was not interested in food and I have removed all food and just put water for her.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. I haven't seen any yet- just isolated her.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? After thinking a lot and reading a lot more, I decided to flush her crop by turning her almost upside down and massaging it upward. I have read the cautions against doing this on this forum, but decided to do this because all I could feel in her crop was liquid and she was clearly uncomfortable. I did not want to do the baking soda flush, since her crop was obviously full to the brim with liquid (every time I picked her up to move her, discharge came out). So I had a friend help me flush her crop. My friend held her and tilted her forward slowly while I helped hold her head pointing downward and gently massaged her crop upwards. We did this in short intervals about 8-10 times, allowing her breaks between flushing to breath. Every time we tilted her forward, a thick liquid came out- the first few times it was brown, but the more that came out, the darker it became and looked almost black. There were a few flecks of food in there but not much. She did not struggle and the more liquid we got out, the better she seemed to feel and started trying to walk around again. We stopped when nothing more came out. I have isolated her now, given her some water with electrolytes and a small bowl of yogurt, honey, apple sauce, and a few poly-vi-sol drops with no iron. She has pecked a little at the yogurt and is definitely feeling better now that all that nasty liquid is out! I plan to not give her any of her normal crumbles for at least a day, maybe more.
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 plan to treat her myself.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use. Hay/straw bedding- the link at the top has pics of their general set-up and housing
Does anyone know what problem might cause this to happen repeatedly? Last time she just needed some nursing so my hope is that she will recover and be ok, but I also fear that if this keeps happening it is going to be a lot of stress on her. Because it doesn't smell, I am not so sure it's sour crop- and even if sour crop develops, I don't think it's the root cause of all this. I even called Peter Brown of First State Vet last time and he said something probably got lodged in her crop and blocked it up... but how likely would that be to happen again this soon? ack! such a mysterious illness.
She has been acting totally normal until today when I went to take care of the chickens, Butters was sitting facing the corner of the pen and obviously not doing well again.
1) What type of bird , age and weight: Buff Orpington, 3 yrs., not sure of weight
2) What is the behavior, exactly: Her crop was full of liquid- no hard stuff, just a dark brown/black liquid that was somewhat viscous. She was obviously uncomfortable and kept arching her neck and craning as if trying to dislodge things. When I pick her up, liquid discharge comes out of her beak. It doesn't smell and is tanish-blackish in color (see #9 for more details)
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? Since this morning this go around. She had the same thing happen about a month ago. (see above link to previous thread)
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? nope
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 don't know. There seems to be some issue with her crop or somewhere in her digestive track but I don't know of an incident that would have caused this.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all. She normally eats layer crumbles, but today she was not interested in food and I have removed all food and just put water for her.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. I haven't seen any yet- just isolated her.
9) What has been the treatment you have administered so far? After thinking a lot and reading a lot more, I decided to flush her crop by turning her almost upside down and massaging it upward. I have read the cautions against doing this on this forum, but decided to do this because all I could feel in her crop was liquid and she was clearly uncomfortable. I did not want to do the baking soda flush, since her crop was obviously full to the brim with liquid (every time I picked her up to move her, discharge came out). So I had a friend help me flush her crop. My friend held her and tilted her forward slowly while I helped hold her head pointing downward and gently massaged her crop upwards. We did this in short intervals about 8-10 times, allowing her breaks between flushing to breath. Every time we tilted her forward, a thick liquid came out- the first few times it was brown, but the more that came out, the darker it became and looked almost black. There were a few flecks of food in there but not much. She did not struggle and the more liquid we got out, the better she seemed to feel and started trying to walk around again. We stopped when nothing more came out. I have isolated her now, given her some water with electrolytes and a small bowl of yogurt, honey, apple sauce, and a few poly-vi-sol drops with no iron. She has pecked a little at the yogurt and is definitely feeling better now that all that nasty liquid is out! I plan to not give her any of her normal crumbles for at least a day, maybe more.
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 plan to treat her myself.
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use. Hay/straw bedding- the link at the top has pics of their general set-up and housing
Does anyone know what problem might cause this to happen repeatedly? Last time she just needed some nursing so my hope is that she will recover and be ok, but I also fear that if this keeps happening it is going to be a lot of stress on her. Because it doesn't smell, I am not so sure it's sour crop- and even if sour crop develops, I don't think it's the root cause of all this. I even called Peter Brown of First State Vet last time and he said something probably got lodged in her crop and blocked it up... but how likely would that be to happen again this soon? ack! such a mysterious illness.
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