Saggy bulgy crop, but doubting sour-ness

[carolanne]

Hi all!

Our flock is about 3 months old and loving their pasture and rotty / extra garden fruits and greens

I do have a question about one of the little roos though, he is my favorite of the several we got from the hatchery. For the last week or so his crop has been bulgy and sagging, as though it was sour. But, he is acting perfectly normal (eating, scratching, pooping) and his breath doesn't smell any fouler than any other chicken breath. Could he have a fatty tumor or something like that? They are currently, unfortunately, receiving conventional GM mash.

I'm not really going to vomit him or feed him yogurt or anything... I haven't got time and we have too many roosters anyway. Just looking for opinions on possible other causes of his symptom?

Thanks,
Carolyn

 

[TwoCrows]

Greens, grass and lush vegetation is hard to break down in the chickens system. It takes a long time for grass to be broken down by the gizzard and what happens is, that as the bird continues to eat, all this stuff sits in the crop, waiting to move thru. If it sits there long enough, bad bacteria start to build up, killing off all the good bacteria in the crop and the bird gets what they call a sour crop.

If his crop is not fully empty each and every morning, then he no doubt has a sour crop or is leading up to one. If all that gunk stays in the crop for too many days, he will have issues with a sour crop. When it gets to the point of being sour, the gunk then becomes toxic. Like rotten food you may have eaten, laden with bad bacteria, it has to come out some way. Humans can throw up. Chickens can't.

So at some point, you will need to take action and start with vomiting him. You will also need to keep him from free ranging for a few days so he can begin to rebuild the good bacteria in the crop and get the GI tract moving again.

You can put 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in a gallon of water for a week or so to help combat the yeast infection in the crop, you can also offer up yogurt to replentish good bacteria.

Some birds are prone to sour crop and should not be free ranged.