Sick 4-month-old Leghorn pullet; can't diagnose what's wrong

[GA Sweets]

Greetings,

My chicken has been sick for 2 1/2 weeks. Symptoms below are listed as they were noticed:

- Listless
- Not eating or drinking
- Weight loss (due to the former)
- Yellow poo

Based on these syptoms, we figured Cocci, so we seperated her from the rest of the flock and started her on Corid mixed in her water (2 tsps per gallon) and yogurt, both via syringe several times a day. She did not respond to treatment. I then thought it may not be Cocci, but perhaps some kind of bacterial infection, so we started giving her around 200 mg of Amoxicillin twice a day for 5 days. I did not stop the Corid water or yogurt, thinking she may have more than one thing wrong with her. Still no response. I then noticed her crop seemed larger than the other chickens, especially since she's not eating that much. It appears to be full of air, and if I look through her feathers, I can actually see the water in her crop through her skin. It also appears the skin over her crop is bruised. I have no idea how long it was like this before I noticed it a few days ago. After researching, it seems she may have sour crop, so I have forced her to vomit twice. The only thing I get out of her is a milky, mucous-like substance. It doesn't smell great, but it's not as terrible as others have described. She seems to be getting better, but at the same time, she is listless and refuses to eat or drink, and fights me when I try to feed her. Any advice offered would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your time,
GA Sweets

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hi @GA Sweets Welcome To BYC

I'm sorry you're having trouble.

Can you take her to a vet?

 

[GA Sweets]

I would like to, but we are on a tight budget. If there's anything I can do for her here, I'll do it. I really don't want to lose her. Since she's still alive after over 2 weeks of not eating well, I was hoping I just missed a possible diagnosis that could be treated from here.

 

[mamalovescoffee]

Try flushing her out with an Epsom salt laxative: 1 tsp Epsom salt in 2 Tbsp water by syringe (slowly) twice a day until her crop empties out (it will probably be dramatic and messy).

Once her crop is cleared out, reintroduce beneficial cultures with lactose-free kefir, also administered by syringe if necessary.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

A lot of times crop problems are the result of an underlying condition like worms, coccidiosis, reproductive disorders and sometimes disease. Flushing the crop as @mamalovescoffee can sometimes help, it has to be done carefully.

Since she is not eating/drinking on her own, it will be important to keep her hydrated. The link below has some of the best treatment methods for crop issues that I know of. Tubing or syringing fluids into her may be necessary as well, so I've included links to those as well.

Sour Crop Treatment
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/impacted-slow-and-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments

Tube/Syringe feeding
http://lafeber.com/vet/tube-feeding-birds/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ures-updated-9-15-2016.1064392/#post-18827506

 

[GA Sweets]

Thank you for your replies. I will try the Epsom salt laxative treatment and let you know how that goes.

Thank you!!

 

[rebrascora]

If you have been syringing yoghurt and water with medication into her and she is not eating otherwise, then it seems quite reasonable to expect that what you got back out when you vomited her was probably a mixture of what you put in and the conclusion would be that she is impacted. An Epsom salts flush may not help if things are as blocked as I fear.... if yoghurt and water are not passing through.

My advice would be to start massaging her crop from the bottom upwards several times a day, in the hope that the impaction is in her crop and not further down the digestive tract. She will almost certainly die if you can't get things moving downwards, and she will already have used up a lot of her body condition so it is really important to free things up before she literally starves to death or dehydrates.

Not sure if you are aware of the physiology, but the crop is just a pouch for storing food that has been eaten through the day, to be slowly released into the rest of the digestive tract at night. The opening into the crop is at the top and the outlet at the bottom. If the outlet gets blocked with something that is too big to pass through or a plug of fibrous material builds up, it clogs it up and food and sometimes even water/fluids struggle to get past and the bird can starve/dehydrate even though food is readily available. Sometimes birds will snake their neck trying to readjust the contents of their crop to work things through, but if this has been going on for a long time with your girl, she will probably have given up on that. It may also be that the impaction is further down her system like her gizzard or intestines and then there is not much hope.
She should enjoy you massaging her crop or at least tolerate it well, once she gets over the anxiety of being handled... if she is nervous of being handled. Start off gentle but firm and think of her crop almost like a stress ball. Don't squeeze to hard, but more like kneading. Assess what it feels like now there is less fluids in it. If there is too much fluids in it so that it is refluxing whilst you are massaging, I would suggest vomiting some more out. Vomiting is risky, but probably better than it refluxing whilst you are massaging. If you imagine a balloon full of water and a small lump of clay sitting in the bottom. If there is too much water, it will prevent you from being able to get your hands around the lump of clay, but if you tip some water out you will be able to get your fingers around the clay and break it up. Not saying she is clogged clay but hopefully you will understand the analogy.

Keep her somewhere warm as she will not have the body reserves to keep herself warm and only give access to vitamin supplement water and very sloppy macerated food. I would not force anything more into her crop until you have had a good massage session. If there is a wad of fibrous material, it will take time to break down and you are aiming to push it upwards slightly so that fluids can flow under it. It is usually too big for them to vomit back up, so will take time to break down enough to pass. Aim for 4x massages a day if you can.

Good luck.

Barbara

 

[GA Sweets]

I have tried to feel around the crop gently, to see if there are any blockages or "dough balls" that could be causing an impaction, but all I feel is air. It feels like an air balloon in her chest. I've read that could be caused by rotten food that has fermented, but I don't get anything rotten or really foul smelling when she vomits. This makes me worried that there is something further down her digestive tract. I'm hoping the Epsom salt treatment will do something, anything, to help her. Is there any way to burp her, to get the air out of her crop? The vomiting doesn't seem to help with that...

 

[rebrascora]

If you have got liquids out of her crop then there is no chance of gas being trapped in there so I'm wondering if it could be a air sac underneath her crop that is putting pressure on the crop outlet from underneath and causing it to be blocked. If you really feel there is an air/gas bubble, I would be inclined to get a sterile hypodermic needle and sterilize the area and try to deflate it. If it is gas, the needle alone without a syringe attached will be best, so that the pressure of it can regulate how fast it is released. It is very difficult to imagine what someone else is seeing and feeling but if your gut feeling is that it is gaseous and not fluid, then I can only see benefit in releasing it and to be honest, you have very little to lose, because she will die if you don't do something to get things moving through her system or get her to a vet.
I wonder if she has had some trauma to the chest/neck a while ago that has caused an air sac to develop under the skin. The dark colour you describe might tie in with that. I would probably insert the needle as near the top of the "bubble" as possible and only far enough to puncture it.... If the needle is long, push it through a cork, so that you cannot go too deep.... obviously, make sure the whole lot has been sterilized.
Good luck and please keep us posted. Will be keeping fingers crossed for you.

 

[rebrascora]

Wondering if this link may help diagnose:-
poultryworld.net/Breeders/General/2009/11/Rising-pressure-from-air-sacculitis-WP006961W