SOUR CROP AGAIN!

[Lavender6]

I am beside myself. My 9 month old Orpington has sour crop AGAIN. This is about the 4th time she has had it. I have tried everything. Withheld water and food 24 hours. Allowed crop to totally empty. Then fed yogurt 2 to 3 days, slowly adding scrambled eggs to her diet, powder from crumble, then worked up to full meal. Another time I fed garlic water only till crop emptied, switched to probiotic water, no food but a couple of tsp of eggs and slowly built up food. 3rd time I gave plain water only, monistat suppositories for 7 days. Slowly building up food with yogurt, scrambkes eggs, then crumble. Last time was about 3 weeks ago.
I have 7 chickens and none have it but her. I noticed it again last night, picked her up this morning and walked to her cage and she threw up about a tablespoon. Each time I gently massaged her crop throughout the day. Anyone else with an idea? Can she live and me just do this ever so often? She has plenty of oyster shells and grit. I don't know what else to do. Please advise!

 

[Banana01]

Sorry you are experiencing this, i hope you figure it out. What does her crop feel like in the morning? I have raised chickens a few years and have at any given time 50 live chickens of all ages, and never experienced sour crop issues.

I do not understand giving yogurt and scrambled eggs. I think if you are able to neutralize the sour crop again, you should try giving solid foods. To me if there is no solid food moving through the digestive tract, it can easily form pockets of yeast and fermentation. Solid food acts like a plunger through their system. Banana for example is a prebiotic that is undigestable, but pushes through deep into their system acting like a plunger.

My chickens eat whole corn, cracked corn, and soy based pellet feeds along with grass, bananas, and bugs they find. They go to bed at night with crops that are solid to the touch and empty in the morning.

Instead of feeding probiotics like yogurt, try banana, onion, or garlic to try to clean her system out from the yeast. If it is isolated to the crop, then lots of water and solid foods.

If she won't eat solid foods, what will you do about force feeding? Have you been force feeding her or is she eating crumble on her own? Is she eating a powdery food or is it solid?

 

[Lavender6]

She eats dried crumble. I also feed corn. I give them a treat of pecans sometimes. Her crop is extremely
Large and mushy, not hard at all. She will eat everything on her own that she likes. I had to use a small syringe for yogurt. I have been giving safeguard goat wormer for 3 days for all the chickens

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Does your pullet lay eggs?

Most of the time crop issues are a symptom of an underlying condition.
Get a fecal float to see if worms and/or Coccidiosis are part of the issue. Check her for lice/mites, if she's not a good layer or has production problems, then this can affect the overall health of the bird.

If the crop is truly sour and keeps coming back, then either the infection was never resolved to begin with or she has something else going on causing the system to slow.

I leave my birds with the flock during any type of treatment unless they are getting picked at. They seem happier that way. Provide her with water and wet feed (the whole flock can eat wet feed). Make grit available free choice.
Treat the yeast infection. Miconazole or Clotrimazole given twice a day for 7 days has worked well for me. Deworming and treating for Coccidiosis may be needed as well.

Cut treats like scratch, veggies, fruit, etc. during treatment. Egg is a good treat that the whole flock can enjoy and your girl can too that way she's not left out.

This article will help guide you through treatment.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The little I know about sour crop/Thrush (never experiencing it in my birds), I learned from Gail Damerow. But I do know a lot about gut and digestive tract biology.
It is caused by Candida albicans, a yeast like fungus that commonly lives in the bowels of chicens but causes problems when normal gut biome is disrupted by coccidia, antibiotics or other drugs.
As with all things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Prevention includes good nutrition, sanitation, avoiding antibiotics and other drugs.
For good nutrition, it is imperative that you provide a FRESH complete chicken feed. Go for the best nutrition as in a Purina All Flock Crumble (tends to be higher in A, D and E than other feeds), unless something else with better nutrition is available in your area. There isn't anything wrong with the eggs or some canned fish. Avoid other treats of any kind. The change in diet itself won't cure the problem but complete nutrition is imperative for the bird's body to help cure itself.
Another prevention is to thoroughly disinfect feeders and waterers daily or at least regularly. I would use hydrogen peroxide and a dish detergent.
Avoid crowding birds.
Now for the treatment. Keep her isolated so you can keep everything very clean in her space. Alternately flush her with molasses and Epsom salts. They will drink the molasses but not the Epsom salts. For the flush of molasses, use 3 tablespoons to 1/2 gallon of water for no longer than 8 hours. Epsom salt flushes are more effective but they require hands on because they won't drink on their own. 1 tsp Epsom salts in 1/2 cup of water tubed twice a day for 2 or 3 days. She should recover by then.
Follow that with 1/2 tsp copper sulfate per gallon of drinking water every other day for 5 days in a non-metal waterer. Repeat this treatment monthly.
If there are mouth sores, clean them with hydrogen peroxide.
Now to get her right. while yogurt can provide probiotics, a MUCH better choice for chickens is a product called Gro2Max. It is formulated specifically for chickens and developed in Egypt.
Follow the instructions on the packet but I recommend using a water dechlorinator to prevent city/county water from killing the bacteria in the product.
Good luck. Keep us informed.

 

[Banana01]

Lots of good ideas in this thread about what to do and maybe underlying causes. Really good to hear you are deworming too.

Avoid sugar as that may cause worse sour crop. Maybe try salt water instead of sugar, better yet a sea salt flush. Salt slows fermentation and may help, but nothing more than 1% because I have never tried it. But the indiginous where i live actually give their chickens urine and lemon juice as medicine and they swear it works, and urine does have salt so maybe there is something to it.

I did cross check salt with candida albicans (the cause of sour crop) and research shows that a sea salt flush can sterilize the gut and start fresh. If it were my first time trying a sea salt flush, I would do it for one day in the morning, and then switch to the probiotics in the afternoon. Or research salt flush on your own to get an idea how to do it.

 

[Lavender6]

Does your pullet lay eggs?

Most of the time crop issues are a symptom of an underlying condition.
Get a fecal float to see if worms and/or Coccidiosis are part of the issue. Check her for lice/mites, if she's not a good layer or has production problems, then this can affect the overall health of the bird.

If the crop is truly sour and keeps coming back, then either the infection was never resolved to begin with or she has something else going on causing the system to slow.

I leave my birds with the flock during any type of treatment unless they are getting picked at. They seem happier that way. Provide her with water and wet feed (the whole flock can eat wet feed). Make grit available free choice.
Treat the yeast infection. Miconazole or Clotrimazole given twice a day for 7 days has worked well for me. Deworming and treating for Coccidiosis may be needed as well.

Cut treats like scratch, veggies, fruit, etc. during treatment. Egg is a good treat that the whole flock can enjoy and your girl can too that way she's not left out.

This article will help guide you through treatment.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

I bought them when they were 4 months old. I was new to chickens. Before I real

Does your pullet lay eggs?

Most of the time crop issues are a symptom of an underlying condition.
Get a fecal float to see if worms and/or Coccidiosis are part of the issue. Check her for lice/mites, if she's not a good layer or has production problems, then this can affect the overall health of the bird.

If the crop is truly sour and keeps coming back, then either the infection was never resolved to begin with or she has something else going on causing the system to slow.

I leave my birds with the flock during any type of treatment unless they are getting picked at. They seem happier that way. Provide her with water and wet feed (the whole flock can eat wet feed). Make grit available free choice.
Treat the yeast infection. Miconazole or Clotrimazole given twice a day for 7 days has worked well for me. Deworming and treating for Coccidiosis may be needed as well.

Cut treats like scratch, veggies, fruit, etc. during treatment. Egg is a good treat that the whole flock can enjoy and your girl can too that way she's not left out.

This article will help guide you through treatment.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

She has mites. I have been fighting them for about 6 weeks. I bought them from a lady when they were 4 to 5 months old. I was new too chickens and she really got me good. They had coccidiosis, respiratory infection and red and northern fowl mites. I have been using Permethrin spray for coop and permetherin and , 7 dust for the chickens. I have totally cleaned my coop at least once a week. They are no longer scratching but every one in awhile. She has laid two very small eggs then stopped. I am sure that is from the mites. I am spraying weekly along with alternating 7 dust and Permethrin powder. I put all new woodchips in along with DE. Boy I tell ya, it has been a journey!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She has mites. I have been fighting them for about 6 weeks. I bought them from a lady when they were 4 to 5 months old. I was new too chickens and she really got me good. They had coccidiosis, respiratory infection and red and northern fowl mites. I have been using Permethrin spray for coop and permetherin and , 7 dust for the chickens. I have totally cleaned my coop at least once a week. They are no longer scratching but every one in awhile. She has laid two very small eggs then stopped. I am sure that is from the mites.

I would de-worm too if they came with all those issues. Safeguard (Fenbendazole) dosed at 0.25ml per pound of weight given orally once a day for 5 days.

Keep up with using the Permethrin and cleaning out the coop and disposing of all shavings. Make sure to get all nooks/crannies of roosting bars, nesting boxes, etc. in the housing. Was the coop used or did you build a new one?

I'm so sorry that you are dealing with this. They are young, so I would get them on an 18-20% feed - you can used layer or an all flock feed, your choice, but I would aim for a higher protein until you get them in good shape.

Limit treats like scratch to around 5-10% of their diet.

So did you treat the respiratory infection with antibiotics? This may be part of the problem with sour crop. In addition to treating the sour crop as described in the article I linked previously, I would get the whole flock on probiotics. You can purchase those online or at most feed stores.

 

[Banana01]

I bought them when they were 4 months old. I was new to chickens. Before I real

She has mites. I have been fighting them for about 6 weeks. I bought them from a lady when they were 4 to 5 months old. I was new too chickens and she really got me good. They had coccidiosis, respiratory infection and red and northern fowl mites. I have been using Permethrin spray for coop and permetherin and , 7 dust for the chickens. I have totally cleaned my coop at least once a week. They are no longer scratching but every one in awhile. She has laid two very small eggs then stopped. I am sure that is from the mites. I am spraying weekly along with alternating 7 dust and Permethrin powder. I put all new woodchips in along with DE. Boy I tell ya, it has been a journey!

Avoid sugar, that would feed the sour crop. I made the mistake of recommending banana, that causes fermentation to explode due to the sugar. Avoid fruits, they cause fermentation to explode worse, avoid all sugars. If you are giving yogurt make sure it is sugar free.

 

[Opiumbrella]

I am beside myself. My 9 month old Orpington has sour crop AGAIN. This is about the 4th time she has had it. I have tried everything. Withheld water and food 24 hours. Allowed crop to totally empty. Then fed yogurt 2 to 3 days, slowly adding scrambled eggs to her diet, powder from crumble, then worked up to full meal. Another time I fed garlic water only till crop emptied, switched to probiotic water, no food but a couple of tsp of eggs and slowly built up food. 3rd time I gave plain water only, monistat suppositories for 7 days. Slowly building up food with yogurt, scrambkes eggs, then crumble. Last time was about 3 weeks ago.
I have 7 chickens and none have it but her. I noticed it again last night, picked her up this morning and walked to her cage and she threw up about a tablespoon. Each time I gently massaged her crop throughout the day. Anyone else with an idea? Can she live and me just do this ever so often? She has plenty of oyster shells and grit. I don't know what else to do. Please advise!

medistatin from mikes falconry supplies works great, it will kill the candida completely so it doesnt keep resurging. is her crop possibly pendulous? as that can also lead to chronic sour crop infections.