Sour Crop? Please Help

[mrskenmore]

My 2.5 year old Barred Rock, Madame Curie is having trouble digesting/emptying her crop:

1.14.17 She started doing this neck movement/ crop adjustment all day- brought her in to massage her crop, gave her water with apple cider vinegar should she have a blockage, thought the water might help it through

1.15.17 monitored her as in the morning after 12+ hours no food/no water her crop did not fully empty over night. It was the size of a golf ball or a plum and was the consistency of a water balloon. Fed her yogurt, massaged her crop off and on all day, she stopped doing the neck movement/ crop adjustment

1.16.17 woke up early to check her crop and it still has not emptied and same size as yesterday, golf ball or a plum. Took her inside for another massage and was able to feel the crop expand and contract which caused her to gag and look like she would vomit, she did not vomit. While I was doing this there was also a lot of gurgling coming from her crop. After an hour of massage I fed her yogurt with additional probiotics sprinkled on it and put probiotics in her water, which she drank a little of. She finished up all of the plain yogurt and I gave her another massage to her crop so that the probiotics were well mixed in there should it be sour crop.

She is eating, drinking normally

She is pooping normally (consistency, amount and on a normal basis timewise)

She is acting, running, roosting normally

Eyes, face, nostrils are all clear and normal

Her breathing is normal

There is no sour or bad smell or liquids coming out of her beak

The only sign I had that something was off was when she was adjusting her crop on Saturday during the day every 3-4 minutes. Which is when I realized her crop was not emptying. She is no longer adjusting her crop.

Please let me know what you think is the problem so I can better treat it. This is my first crop issue I have experienced and there is a lot of information out there and I want to heal her not harm her. I do not want to induce vomiting as I am not confident to do that correctly without causing further harm, and I am not comfortable sticking a syringe down her throat for fear of not doing it correctly.

Any solutions to what can make her better would be greatly appreciated as she is a very dear pet and wouldn't want anything to happen to her.

I currently have her by herself in the coop sectioned off with access to water with diluted probiotics in it.

PLEASE HELP!

 

[redsoxs]

In case you haven't visited yet, here's a great article from the Learning Center that talks about treating sour crop. Hope you find some helpful information. Good luck to you! https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/impacted-slow-and-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments

 

[mrskenmore]

Thank you redsoxs

There is a lot of great information in that article, from what I have learned it sounds like she is experiencing a slow crop right now. (I can only assume she ate something too fast or too large in the past 3 days or so) I have her on water with probiotics and just brought her in for another crop massage. Her crop was now the size of a small walnut, so it was considerably smaller from this morning. (which is a good sign since she hasn't eaten anything but yogurt early this morning and water with probiotics) While inside she had a large poop filled with water and interesting smells- I am assuming that was what was in her crop yesterday and this morning. (since she didn't vomit it- she pooped?

) I fed her some plain yogurt with a little oregano oil and olive oil and some more water. I put her back out side in a pen without food, just water and she is dustbathing with another hen.

So I am hopefully she is on the mend. I will do one more crop massage today and then put her in for the night in a few hours and keep my fingers crossed that all is empty tomorrow morning.

Any other thoughts or comments are more than welcome

THANKS!

 

[mrskenmore]

1.17.17 UPDATE

So my hen's crop seemed to finally empty last night and was a little tender this morning, but around the size of an almond/small grape. She hasn't eaten any solids in 36 hours, so I am giving her access to water with probiotics and chicken feed to see if everything is back to normal today. I will feel her crop tonight and then again in the morning before I can figure out what exactly was wrong. It seems as if she either gorged on something and it took several days to digest, or she ate something she shouldn't have and it took several days to pass. The only other symptom that has me a bit concerned is that even though she is pooping (quite normal looking too) about every 3-4 poop is explosive and projectile our her back end. I am wondering if she is having digestion problems further on in her digestive track. I will continue to keep a close eye on her and update, but any thoughts or recommendations are appreciated!

Thanks everyone!

 

[mrskenmore]

1.18.17 UPDATE

Last night I checked on Madame Curie to see how she was doing, her crop was full and about the size of a golf ball after eating layer food and having water all day. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. This morning when I went to check on her the crop was still full. So now I am unsure as to what the problem is.

Symptoms:

Acting, roosting, preening, dust bathing normally
Eyes, face, nostrils are all clear and normal
Her breathing is normal
There is no sour or bad smell or liquids coming out of her beak
Eating and drinking normally layer wood and water with probiotics
Pooping at a regular frequency during the day and in the overnight decent consistency, but every 3-4 poop is projectile watery poop
crop is slow to digest when she eats layer food and water
crop empties completely if she is on a yogurt, probiotics water diet

Any help would be greatly appreciated- Thank you

 

[mrskenmore]

1.23.17 UPDATE

Just wanted to update you all of the status of my hen should it help you in the future.

1.19.17- She went up to roost with a full crop after eating layer pellets and water

1.20.17- Woke up with a smaller crop, but not fully empty (size of a golf ball) Withheld food from her (for a total of 36 hours) and just had a lot of access to fresh, clean water

1.21.17- Woke up with an even smaller crop, but not fully empty (size of a walnut) Brought her inside for the day and crated her. Gave her crop massages every other hour and start a dulcolax treatment by squeezing two 100 ML gel caps liquid mixed in with half a hard boiled egg, provided plenty of fresh clean water which she drank.

Worked on massaging her after she ate to make sure the dulcolax and egg would move past her crop and through her system. At this point she had no other alarming symptoms, she was even still pooping, but it was mostly liquid at this point as she hadn't eaten. Crated her inside so I could continue to monitor her.

Four hours later I gave her an epsom salt bath in a quiet dark room. She stayed in the warm water willingly for about 30 minutes. Afterwards I towel dryed her and dried her completely with a hair dryer. Afterwards gave her another hard boiled egg with another dulcolax treatment followed by a crop massage.

Later in the afternoon I gave her a tablespoon of layer feed softened and mashed up followed by a tablespoon of plain yogurt with probiotics mixed in.

She was showing signs of improvement so at 3 pm I moved her out to the coop back with her sisters to elleviate any additional stress with access to water only.

At 5 pm they went up to roost and I closed them in for the night- I noticed that she laid an egg in the nesting box!! (that epsom salt bath really works!- was she egg bound??)

1.22.17- Woke up and checked her crop and it was empty! Fed her mashed up layer feed and water with probiotics. She spent the day in the coop with her sisters happy as could be. Checked her crop at night and it was completely full.

1.23.17- Woke up and checked her crop and it was empty! She had solid poop in the overnight (and lots of it lol!) Keeping her in the coop today with her sisters with clean fresh water, and a water filled with electrolytes and her layer feed with a little water added to it to make it soft so it is easier to digest.

Hopefully she continues to be able to digest her food - in the meantime I am going to order a fecal test kit for her to see if there are any underlying issues there for why this happened- or did she just gorge on some food last weekend without me knowing..

 

[aart]

Great update...both the news and the documentation.

Hard to say if she was actually egg bound or she just did not release an ova due to the stress from her entire system being compromised.
Not sure exactly what an epsom salt bath does.

All you did got her thru the impacted/sour crop issue, glad she's well and back in business!

 

[mrskenmore]

Thanks aart!

The epsom salt when taken in bath form (just like for us humans) is a natural muscle relaxer that is very effective when absorbed through the skin. I had read great things on the internet about it this past week and decided to give it a try- it couldn't hurt right? Below is a link to the article

https://hencam.com/faq/the-spa-treatment/

It worked wonders and sure proved to move things along. It has been proven to move impactions, eggs and overall nurse a chicken back to health. I highly recommend it!

 

[mrskenmore]

Just wanted to close out this post and say that all is well with my barred rock hen Madame Curie - she even tested negative for worms! I have learned from this experience several things:

Do not over disperse treats and not give them as often.
Regular crop checks at night and at morning can be a helpful indicator of health.
You can learn a lot from chicken poop!

Thanks Everyone!