Sour crop? Green poop?

[bjm287]

Hello all
Today is Saturday the 28th of November. On Wednesday the day before Thanksgiving I went out to my flick to notice a white leg bar chicken in my flock sitting off by herself under the coop. Concerned I checked on her and a chicken that normally ran way held very still as I picked her up.
Her comb was very pale and orange looking. So I brought her in and check for egg binding. She's not egg bound. We believe she has a sour/slow or impacted crop. Her crop is very full and feels soft and squshy. After withholding food for 24 hours it had reduced but was still not flat. Today I gave her wet chicken feed as I had seen recommended and have been giving regular massage to the crop along with dripping water to make sure she stays hydrated.
Also when she came in Wednesday she would not move. You would place her and she held still, would not even lay down or go to the roost or steo. By Friday morning she was acting much more like a chicken and today her comb seems to have gotten some color back.

I just checked her kennel and am seeing very dark green poop, it is consistent all the way through on color and wonder if this is normal, is she getting worse

We decided to administer 1cc Moniatate generic (clotrimazole 2%) 3 times daily. I just have the first dose at 500pm thinking this is sour crop but any advice would be helpful

Is this the right course? Is the poop normal? Is it worse? Is she passing a small impaction?

 

[TwoCrows]

I moved your thread to our Emergency forums for more help. I hope she will be ok!

 

[azygous]

You've provided very good information. Thank you. It makes helping you so much easier. One thing you didn't mention is the age of this hen and her egg laying history.

Older hens, but even some new layers, get into trouble when they release eggs too close together or they are having problems building adequate shells and instead, lay thin shell eggs or shell-less eggs. My question is has this hen had egg quality problems recently?

The yellow urates is a concern. It often indicates a reproductive infection. If your hen has ever laid a shell-less egg, these are difficult to pass, take longer to pass, and can be in the oviduct at the same time a new egg is coming down the chute. Sometimes one of the eggs will get stuck and break, releasing yolk which invites bacteria. If left untreated, this can result in a chronic reproductive infection.

If an egg or egg remnants happen to be left inside, they can form a partial blockage and that can affect the crop, causing it to be slow and yeast to colonize it.

Sorry to make it sound so complicated, but maybe we can figure out what's going on if we know what kind of eggs this hen has been laying. Then we can decide on the best way to treat her. It won't hurt to go ahead with the crop yeast med, and we might end up suggesting an antibiotic.

 

[JDGreene]

Maybe my experience here can help you.

Sour crop has a smell to the beak like something soured and impacted crop does not, I believe.

My rooster pooped out very green compacted grass. Yours looks like very green runny poo.

 

[bjm287]

You've provided very good information. Thank you. It makes helping you so much easier. One thing you didn't mention is the age of this hen and her egg laying history.

Older hens, but even some new layers, get into trouble when they release eggs too close together or they are having problems building adequate shells and instead, lay thin shell eggs or shell-less eggs. My question is has this hen had egg quality problems recently?

The yellow urates is a concern. It often indicates a reproductive infection. If your hen has ever laid a shell-less egg, these are difficult to pass, take longer to pass, and can be in the oviduct at the same time a new egg is coming down the chute. Sometimes one of the eggs will get stuck and break, releasing yolk which invites bacteria. If left untreated, this can result in a chronic reproductive infection.

If an egg or egg remnants happen to be left inside, they can form a partial blockage and that can affect the crop, causing it to be slow and yeast to colonize it.

Sorry to make it sound so complicated, but maybe we can figure out what's going on if we know what kind of eggs this hen has been laying. Then we can decide on the best way to treat her. It won't hurt to go ahead with the crop yeast med, and we might end up suggesting an antibiotic.

She is a young layer one of our first to lay that started around November 10th which would have been about 20 weeks old (came home June 15th). She is one of 3 white laying chickens and we haven't had any abnormalities all have had strong and consistent eggs, there was one that was large (for a new layer but still smaller than an xl store bought egg). We get around 1 egg a day from the whites so I assume she was laying approximately every third day? We now get 2 eggs than miss a day than get 2 more.
I read someplace the yellow urate could be caused by yeast infection in the crop? I should note the green portion of the poop is solid not runny at all.

 

[azygous]

The green solids in the poop is bile and indicates she isn't eating much. That's all. Reproductive infections can be caused by bacteria working its way up from the cloaca for any reason, but we can focus on the crop issue for now, and see if she recovers. If she doesn't, then we need to consider an infection.

Are you in the US? If not, what country? This can determine how much access you have to antibiotics, and it can also tell us about your climate and season and if parasites may be clogging the intestines or worse.

Early stage yeast infection has no odor, by the way. Impacted crop can quickly develop a very sickening odor, and often yeast will contribute to it. Yeast infections can be triggered by other health issues, as well. We can clear up a yeast infection but still face trying to figure out what triggered it.

 

[JDGreene]

Yes that poop looks different and he had white urates from what I encountered, so I would presume it is bile and the chicken hasn't been eating. Searching... that does seem to point to an infection of some sort.

 

[bjm287]

The green solids in the poop is bile and indicates she isn't eating much. That's all. Reproductive infections can be caused by bacteria working its way up from the cloaca for any reason, but we can focus on the crop issue for now, and see if she recovers. If she doesn't, then we need to consider an infection.

Are you in the US? If not, what country? This can determine how much access you have to antibiotics, and it can also tell us about your climate and season and if parasites may be clogging the intestines or worse.

Early stage yeast infection has no odor, by the way. Impacted crop can quickly develop a very sickening odor, and often yeast will contribute to it. Yeast infections can be triggered by other health issues, as well. We can clear up a yeast infection but still face trying to figure out what triggered it.

I live in northern Vermont in the US in zone 4a so at this point we have had multiple days of freezing cold has been a little warmer here than the usual. But the ground has frozen a few times. Every other bird in the flock looks healthy so far and I've been checking crops and combs every morning in case

 

[azygous]

Great! You can rule out parasites pretty much. I hope she responds to the yeast med and starts improving.

 

[bjm287]

Great! You can rule out parasites pretty much. I hope she responds to the yeast med and starts improving.

This morning she had an almost empty crop but what was there was kind of stiff and felt maybe like some of the scratch grains she had been getting prior to falling ill. Her urates were also white this morning not yellow.
Much more lively she tried to fly off her treatment chair when I walked away from her for a moment. Hoping she continues to improve. The second stool picture i posted looks like the rest but maybe some Cecil involved.
Should I maybe give her some olive oil with the massage and see if that helps to get her to pass the rest?