sour crop(?) - needing info

[thebritt]

Last night my seven year old SLW "Poxy" vomitted up copious amounts of gray foul-smelling liquid (no food). She had been slowing down the previous couple days so I wasn't surprised when she didn't perch at bedtime. Well, of course I brought her inside to our rehab room (spare bathroom), washed her poopy butt, put her with a heating pad, and gave her Ornalyte with electrolytes. Also 500mg Amoxi last nite and this AM. She was REALLY thirsty. This AM she seemed pretty perky and her vent area still clean. Some watery poop but not foul smelling (uric acid present, so kidneys may be ok). She had an appetite and ate some organic crumbles and scratch. Now I'm thinking I shouldn't have fed her yet. One suggestion I got was to feed yogurt and apple cider vinegar. I plan to try this. Any other info to share? What causes this malady? Thanks.

 

[gallo34]

I would worm...

 

[mountaintopchicken]

I would worm...

Why? The OP's description doesn't make me think immediately of worm trouble. Also, be careful, worming a sick bird is often too hard on the bird and can weaken them.

Is her crop actually emptying? You can tell by feeling it - withdraw food at night and feel to see if it is empty before feeding her again in the morning. If it isn't emptying, then it is impacted, which is a different scenario than sour crop (although they can both be going on at the same time, as well).

Sometimes a sour crop will also build up gas inside of it, which you can feel - it feels like a balloon with some air in it.

Amoxi - is that amoxicillin, an antibiotic? If it is sour crop, it could be bacterial or it could be fungal. If it is fungal, then giving an antibiotic will kill the good bacteria in the crop as well, leaving less beneficial microorganisms in the crop to compete with the fungus, so it can make things worse. Of course, if the sour crop is caused by bacteria, an antibiotic should help... but it's hard to know exactly what's going on inside that crop.

That's why probiotics, yogurt, and acv are often reccomended. They are all given to help restore balance to all of the microorganisms in the crop. I would hold off on the crumbles, and definitely hold off - WAY off - on the scratch. If she's having crop problems, they may be too much for her right now. After you're sure her crop situation is beginning to mend, you can move on onto soaking the crumbles in yogurt, and feeding that.

Just make sure she is digesting enough food to keep her strength up. I may have made the mistake, when I was fighting sour crop with my favorite rooster, of thinking he was eating and digesting more than he actually was. Sadly, he eventually died, after more than a week of intense nursing. I'll never know exactly why, but if I ever have to fight this again I am going to be really diligent about trying to make sure enough food is actually passing through that troubled crop.

Oh - and be careful about the 'vomiting'. Chickens can't actually vomit like we can, we can vomit and control whether we breath the vomit into our lungs, but if food backs up out of a chicken's crop, they have no way of closing off their airway and preventing themselves from aspirating it, which could lead to respiratory infection. So when you handle her, be careful about how you press on the crop...​

 

[gallo34]

I had a silkie that had the same probrem a few years a ago. I wormed via injection...that smell is almost as bad as a rotten egg...am I wrong? If I am, just trying to help out via past experience...she also hid and we couldn't find her...she was weak and she's still alive...

-mountaintopchicken-

I know what is meant by Amoxi (not stupid!)...put some pressure on that crop...she will empty it...read about Worms, the body is in rejection...for all we know, she might have eaten an earthworm...

and

read the whole thread...."Some watery poop ..." - thebritt

 

[mountaintopchicken]

I know what is meant by Amoxi (not stupid!)..

?????????????????????????

That question was directed towards the OP because I wanted be sure I was understanding him/her correctly. It did not occur to me to think in any way that you were stupid, I was not thinking of you at all.

I am getting very sick of putting a lot of time and energy into doing my utmost to answer a question to the best of my ability (such as it is) only to be met with hostility. It took a good bit of time to write the reply that I wrote, and it was written with the best intentions. I was motivated to answer this question because I had a horrible time fighting sour crop with my favorite bird, and I wanted to do my best to help someone else who might be in a similar situation with what I learned from that bad experience.

I truly did not know why you suggested worming... I truly was concerned because sometimes worming an already sick bird can backfire. I don't think that my wording was hostile of offensive.

I do think I may quit internet forums entirely if I keep having exchanges like this. Not worth it.​

 

[Renee]

Sounds like sour crop to me too.

If the crop is not empty in the morning, or the chicken has sour breath, you should withhold all scratch and give the chicken only water with ACV or if she gets dehydrated, 50/50 water and Pedialyte.

Some people have success with massaging the crop a little and keeping the chicken off food for a day or two, some, like me, eventually lose their chicken to starvation.

Before worming your chickens, especially when they are ill, you may want to get a fecal sample tested to see if there are worms. Wormers can kill sick birds.

Antibiotics often cause more problems than they cure, since so many chicken problems are fungal, and antibiotics give a big boost to fungal infections. You should complete the week's medication if you have started, but in the future, I would reserve any antibiotics as a last resort, unless you take the chicken to a vet and get a positive diagnosis of bacterial infection.