Sour crop - chicken stopped eating, please help!

[FlowerPower9]

I have a light Brahma that is a year old.

On Thursday evening I noticed that she was acting lethargic, closing her eyes, barley moving around the coop. I brought her inside into a little pen and in the process I felt that her crop was very swollen (about the size of my palm) and very squishy. Smelly liquid then spilled out of her mouth. I figured we had a case of sour crop.

We waited will the morning and began treating it using an antifungal cream mixed with water and then syringed into her mouth. We provided water with electrolytes and withheld food for the first 24 hours. The cream has been given to her in the morning and at night Friday and Saturday. The swelling and squishy-ness of her crop seems much better. It isn’t large anymore and feels like a normal crop. However, when we attempted to reintroduce food on Friday she wouldn’t eat anything, but was still drinking. Yesterday, Saturday, she stopped drinking and eating. She has eaten a few pieces of grit though.

She is still extremely lethargic, and can hardly stand for more than a second, but actively moves away from food and clicks her beak when it is set in front of her. She is also hunched, tail down, and feathers ruffled, but not walking like a penguin. Her abdomen is soft and not heavy. See photo for what her poops have been like (some are much smaller, but it gives a good idea)

She had been giving us a little trouble lately that I don’t know if it has any correlation or not. In April she didn’t lay for three days and then laid two eggs in 24 hours, one from the roosting bar (not typical behavior), which had an odd shell, not soft or thin, just rougher and only half covered in bloom and the other was slightly wrinkled. About 2 weeks ago she laid a very thin shelled egg in the box, and we also noticed that she had a swollen eye the same day. We treated with saline and an antimicrobial eye ointment and she got better after a couple of days. She laid another soft egg a couple days after that in their run, and now here we are with the sour crop. She had been laying normal eggs and laid a normal egg on Thursday, the day we noticed the crop issue.

All the other chickens are acting perfectly normal, and I’ve checked all their crops, monitoring droppings, etc.

I’d like to treat at home, but I’m running out of ideas on how to help her or what is even wrong at this point.

Any ideas and advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[akitafriendakita]

There's usually always another reason for sour crop, typically blockage [which can also be caused by worms.] Start giving her very intense crop massages routinely and try to feel for any blockages or anything unusual, deworm her. If you have felt her crop, do you feel anything in it that seems unusual such as too much grit in the crop or it feels insanely hard somewhere or something?

You mention she has small poops - that is likely another sign of a blockage somewhere.

Chickens will not eat if they feel depressed/bored, have you tried putting her back with the flock to see if she eats with them? Sour crop is not contagious so there's really no risk to just letting her be with her flock.

 

[FlowerPower9]

Thanks for your reply. Any suggestions with the type of dewormer? Our vet will only do a float test if they see her and that ends up being over a hundred dollars so I’d like to avoid if possible. I have been doing crop massages multiple times a day and i can’t feel anything hard or like there is too much grit. I was wondering if she was getting depressed, I’ll try taking her back out and see if that helps the eating.

 

[akitafriendakita]

Thanks for your reply. Any suggestions with the type of dewormer? Our vet will only do a float test if they see her and that ends up being over a hundred dollars so I’d like to avoid if possible. I have been doing crop massages multiple times a day and i can’t feel anything hard or like there is too much grit. I was wondering if she was getting depressed, I’ll try taking her back out and see if that helps the eating.

I just use 'poultry store dewormer' from Amazon and mix it into mash and feed it to the problem chicken, but if she has a bad case of worms, you might need something a little more powerful like Safe-guard which has active ingredients in it [fenbendazole.]

Luckily worms are pretty easy to treat and she'll only need a couple treatments to solve the issue.

Given how mucus-y that poop is, definitely could be a sign of worms because worms do often cause the lining of the intestines to shed and push out mucus in the poop [if they are living in the intestines.] Worms can cause other issues to pop up too because the body/immune system of the bird will typically reject the parasite in an attempt to kill them, which may cause inflammation and other problems all over the place.

 

[FlowerPower9]

I just use 'poultry store dewormer' from Amazon and mix it into mash and feed it to the problem chicken, but if she has a bad case of worms, you might need something a little more powerful like Safe-guard which has active ingredients in it [fenbendazole.]

Luckily worms are pretty easy to treat and she'll only need a couple treatments to solve the issue.

Given how mucus-y that poop is, definitely could be a sign of worms because worms do often cause the lining of the intestines to shed and push out mucus in the poop [if they are living in the intestines.] Worms can cause other issues to pop up too because the body/immune system of the bird will typically reject the parasite in an attempt to kill them, which may cause inflammation and other problems all over the place.

Thank you for the help, we got safe guard today and treated her so hopefully there will be some improvement. She did go out and forage with the rest of the flock, but didn’t eat very much and lagged behind quite a bit. She did drink some water and get some time relaxing in the sun. So here is to tomorrow! Thanks again.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

She's been having trouble with eggs. I would start her on extra Calcium asap.
You can find Calcium Citrate with D3 in the vitamin aisle of stores like Walmart, CVS, etc. Give 1 tablet daily, just pull down on her wattles, pop the tablet into the beak and let her swallow.

Continue to treat the Sour Crop with the Miconazole for a full 7 days (given 2X a day).

A crop that is slow and/or not moving, has turned sour is often due to an underlying condition or illness. Worms, Coccidiosis, Infection and Reproductive disorders are a few common things seen along with crop problems.

Since she's having difficulties with eggs, then she may have a reproductive disorder. Which one is hard to know unless you lose her. Cancer, EYP, Salpingitis, etc. are all common in laying hens.

Deworming is worth a try. Since you have Safeguard, make sure to give her the correct dose of 0.23ml per pound of weight given orally once daily for 5 days in a row.