Sour crop or impacted?

[Cluck_That]

Hi everyone, I have 7 hens that are right around 6 months old and a couple days ago I noticed my biggest girl had a huge hard lump on her chest. It scared the crap out of me, I thought she had breast cancer. ‍ Anyway, after hours of googling and figuring out how to get chicken health articles instead of chicken RECIPES! I figured she had an impacted crop or she ate a lot.‍

I took away the food last night from everyone. This morning when I got home from work at 9:30AM I went to check on the girls. I was able to catch a different chicken and feel for her crop, felt absolutely nothing and figured they should all be empty. Caught Olive (I’ve named them all) and she was still FULL. I sat with her massaged her crop and really started feeling around for something that would cause a blockage. Again nothing. Used a dropper to give her water with ACV, some mineral oil (she took the mineral oil like a champ) massaged the crop more water more oil. Tried to get everything softened up and throw it up by tilting her upside down. I never got much of anything to come out, just a teaspoon worth of gritty tan liquid. I did this for a good hour and 20 min. Finally, I was exhausted and I’m sure she was too. I put a dog cage next to the chicken run so she could still see the other girls but couldn’t eat any more feed. I gave her water and shade and left her alone to rest.



The crop feels like a balloon filled with water and sand. I don’t feel any hard parts in there today where yesterday I thought I felt the whole crop was much harder. The crop bulges out of her chest and feels like it’s the size of a tennis ball. I can literally cup it in my hand. I’m worried that I noticed this to late by the size of it. She keeps wanting to eat but I’m worried she’s going to hurt herself by constantly eating and the crop not emptying. She’s been in the dog cage about 4.5 hours and I just checked on her. Shes pooped dark green paste like poop. Only 3 little poos in there.



Am I over reacting? Am I doing something wrong? Am I to late and she’s dying slowly? Could this be sour crop? I don’t know what I’m doing

 

[Kdlevesque]

I am battling sour crop at the moment and my affected hen Wasn’t acting right yesterday. When I picked her up, she immediately started puking A nasty brown, yellow liquid. I did massage her crop after she started to help it get emptied. The advice I was given on here, said that was a classic sign of sour crop So we have started with an anti-fungal.With yours being hard, I’m not sure but that one sounds more like impacted crop. Hopefully someone with more experience will be able to help you out.

 

[RustiK]

Hey Cluck, I am going the exact same thing with one of my older hens. I’ve taken her food away and her crop is the size of tennis ball. Tried everything you have and she’s by herself pretty much starring at me for separating her.

After reading up on here I used coconut oil and massaged the crop. It definitely goes down but fills back up when she drinks. I’ve started her on antifungul cream for yeast. She gets scrambled eggs and a massage after which she falls to. I’ll try that for the seven days and see how I go. . Let me know what you decide to do because if my idea doesn’t work I’ll follow you

 

[RustiK]

How’s she going??

 

[Eggcessive]

I would take up all of the food tonight until you examine her crop in the early morning. But if you cannot get to them in early morning, just separate her tonight with water in a dog crate until you can examine it in morning. She may have an impacted crop, but she alao may have pendulous crop. Pendulous crop is when the crop has been overstretched by constant overeating, and the crop can lose it’s eleasticity.

What do you feed, do you have feed available at all times, and do you put out granite poultry grit for them to eatas needed?

 

[Cluck_That]

How’s she going??

So it’s been a month, I tried separating her in a dog crate from the others but had to abandon that idea the same day because rain and wind storms. Then took food away for the night. Everyone was empty and she was still bulging out gave her mineral oil and water mix, fed her Greek yogurt. Then I ended up making a big batch of Greek yogurt and the chicken feed so alll the hens could eat it instead of force feeding her. I massaged her crop.. that poor girl was my experimental patient for 2 days and was sick of me messing with her. Finally I left her alone and she’s still alive... It seems to not bother her so I haven’t done anything else to her other than periodically give all of them a treat of yogurt. I give them watermelon peels too to make sure they take in more water... another weird thing that’s happening now is I’m pretty sure a couple hens are laying 2 eggs a day. There are only 6 hens, 1 rooster, today I collected 10 eggs today.

 

[Eggcessive]

Are you collecting eggs from your nests, and do you get them each day?

 

[Cluck_That]

Are you collecting eggs from your nests, and do you get them each day?

I do! We collect them in the mornings (yesterday there were 6 eggs) then check on them in the evening at their bedtime and there were (4) more eggs!