Sour crop help, please

[chickenmad222]

I am in need of some advice. I have read up on ways in which to cure sour crop but what I need to know is do I need to take all food and drink away from her for the first 24 hours to let the crop go down or not?

Any advice great fully appreciated ty

 

[Shan30]

I'm sorry to hear about your chicken.

Unfortunately I have no first hand experience with this.
Personally, I wouldn't withhold water at all. I would isolate
and try yoghurt(active culture plain) to start.

I hope someone with some experience with this chimes
in for you.

Good luck!

 

[pwand]

I'm probably dealing with this myself. Take the food away for 24hrs and see if her crop goes down by the morning. If it is mushy and not flat, your most likely dealing with sour crop. Sometimes you can smell it at her beak. Give her water, I put apple cider vinegar in the water which is unfiltered and unpasteurized. You get it from the organic section in the store. Put 1 tbsp to 4 litters of water or 1 gallon. Have that available at all times. Make sure as well she has been dewormed. I did mine yesturday a she passed small 1/2 inch worms. Today she seems to be going down hill. She also has bad diarrhrea. I can't get her to eat and not drinking much. Massage her crop as well. There is great info on this forum. I search it and found lots of good info.

 

[Keggen]

I need help with this right now, too. I have been reading about sour crop and impacted crop but there is so much advice I just feel overwhelmed.

I went to close up the coop yesterday and saw my hen laying uncomfortably on the ground, vomiting. I brought her in and put her in a kennel with just a bowl of water with a tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar. She drank the first bowl within a couple hours. I replaced it with another bowl and left it overnight. This morning I checked on her and there was vomit in the water. I cleaned out the bowl and put another fresh one with just a tiny bit of ACV.

Now I don't know what to do. I don't think she has an impacted crop, from the way she was vomiting I would guess sour crop. Im going to get her yogurt today. What else should I do? Do I need to get a medication or can we try the yogurt for a while? I do not want to vomit her. She is doing a lot of that on her own and I am afraid I would make things worse.

 

[pwand]

Did you check her in the morning to see if her crop was somewhat full this morning?

She is feeling bad with the sour stuff in her crop. I know its a chance making them vomit. I found a good you tube video on how to do it online. He was a farmer with lots of chickens.

I held food back for 24 hrs, just water and apple cider, she was starving. Give her yogurt first along with the water and apple cider. I also gave her olive oil. Massaged her crop. If you feel there is improvements I also gave my hen a hard boiled egg yoke. I have read some people give them scrambled eggs with olive oil I would assume if they will eat it on their own. She may be still have something stuck in her crop, its rotting. Is she pooping?

Have you dewormed her as well?

No medication if its sour crop, that would kill of the good bacteria.

Here is a good link as well with ideas.
http://www.raising-chickens.org/sick-chicken-with-sour-crop-.html

Its a wait and see approch. Very hard to watch and hope for improvements. I haven't slept well for three nights, I'm worried and I feel its not working. I get up and hope she has a normal poop. Its diarrhea. Hang in there, many people have success with this.

 

[chickenmad222]

Thanks so much for your responses.

I know it is not an impacted crop - one of my buff orps had this in the summer. That was a like hard solid tennis ball like mass,but this feels like chopped up jelly!!

I had been giving her cider vinegar in water then I read somewhere that this would be detrimental so I stopped that, now after reading this I am tempted to restart - there is so much conflicting info on the web!!!

All I have given her to eat is plain mashed potato which she has pecked at.

Yesterday she was drinking non stop but it all kept coming back when she bent her head to drink.

I have just checked on het and she seems brighter than yesterday so I will see how she is in the morning. I am thinking of offering further mashed potato if her crop feels small. Her crop has definitely gotten smaller over the past two days which I assume is a good thing in these circumstances!?!

I really dont want to go down the induced vomitting line if I can help it, just in case of aspiration - i really do not want this chicken to die!

 

[pwand]

I read that as well about the vinegar, I decided to start back up again. Try the yogurt. They say buttermilk has good bacteria as well. My hen is fluffed up. I'm not sure if she will make it.

 

[Keggen]

Mine is fluffed up as well, even though she is in a warm bathroom. She seems to be better than she was yesterday, she was lethargic and just not moving at all yesterday. Today she is alert again and not vomiting. Seems to be moving her head around in a very strange way though, like maybe she is trying to work on what is in her crop?

I think I will keep her in one more night and give her some cooked egg tonight. Unfortunately I do not have any yogurt on hand and can't get any until at least tomorrow.

Question: If it is sour crop will she infect the other chickens if I put her back in the coop tomorrow? Is it contagious?

 

[pwand]

Sour crop isn't contagious. The moving her next around is her working her crop. Mine was doing that as well. I think initially she had hay stuck in there. I had used that for bedding which I never had done before. Always straw. I did a video of her doing that. I will post the link in the next message. Retrieve it from one of my older posts.

 

[pwand]

Here it is.
http://s863.beta.photobucket.com/user/epwand/media/New Hens/DSCN2765_zpsb34d4973.mp4.html