Sour crop question

[cruisnmoma]

I am now pretty sure our girl has sour crop. Just checking on something. From everything I have been reading there should be a bad smell, or brown gunk coming out of her mouth. If I caught it fast enough would that still be the case?

We thought she had something else going on, but I picked her up this morning and her crop was still big, and when we held her to try and feed her, the pressure we put on her crop holding her made her "cough" up water.

Nothing brown or smelly. I am sure I picked up on her being sick as soon as it happen.

 

[sumi]

Here's a very good read on crop ailments and treatments: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/impacted-slow-and-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments

Good luck with her!

 

[TwoCrows]

Sounds like she has a slow crop. If a crop gets slow enough, it developes a yeast infection and is considered sour.

A crop should empty out completely by morning. If it still has food in it, something is amiss.

Check her crop first thing in the morning. If it is still soft and squishy, you will need to get that gunk out of there. It is becoming toxic. Take her outside, hold her in one arm like a football, beak forward. Support her at the crop with the other hand. You are going to lean her straight down and gently squeeze her crop. The MOMENT the gunk starts to come up, count to 2 and stand her back up. Don't hang her down longer than 2 seconds so she does not aspirate on this gunk. Keep leaning her forward until you get as much as you can out. You will never get it all.

Keep her on a water soluble diet only. I like to feed them only damp layer feed. No free ranging or any hard grains or foods that require the use of her gizzard. You want food to move as fast as possible through he system.

Put probiotics in her water or feed her a couple of tablespoons of yogurt each day. You will want to keep up this entire program of morning vomits, soft foods and probiotics for about one week. Definitely read my article for more infomation and to also help you determine why she has a slow crop. This could be a simple case of slow crop, she could have an overload of worms, egg bound or some other ailment to which this crop issue is a symptom of.

Keep us posted

 

[cruisnmoma]

I have been reading about the making her vomit on other threads, and I am not sure I want to try that. Too many people killed their chickens doing this.
After i realized there was something going on with her crop. I was working it and some stuff came up and out. nothing gross, just water and a few peices of corn.

Now she is weezy, sound like she is snoring when she is breathing. I am worried some of what came up, when down to her lungs.

Is there ANYTHING i should be giving her that I can pick up at the feed store or am I just at the point I need to go to the vet?

 

[TwoCrows]

Has she been wormed recently? The reason I ask is because a worm impaction in the intestines can cause a crop to slow down. If you haven't wormed in the past year, I would pick up some wormer from the feed store. You can worm her once you get this issue under control.

Sometimes vomiting can go wrong if you hold them down too long. All you can do at this point is keep her on a soft diet and get lots of probiotics, (good bacteria) into her. These will help control yeasts from growing.

If she does develop a sour crop, the vet can subscribe Nystatin for the yeast infection. You will still need to keep her on an easy diet.

 

[cruisnmoma]

They will all need to be wormed, but should I wait till the crop is better or do it now. What would be best to use?

 

[TwoCrows]

Once you get the crop moving a bit better, I would get all your birds wormed. Either use Safeguard Liquid Goat wormer or Safeguard Equnie paste.

 

[cruisnmoma]

So the last 2 days I did make her vomit. I was so worried i was going to kill her but I did not. Stuff came out, not a lot, but she is not eating much, just drinking a lot of water.

I did it on Tues and also gave her some red wine. I was able to push a lot of gas out of her, and she was feeling a lot better after that. She ate some good yogurt. She is drinking a LOT of water. We have some coconut oil and ACV in the water. I did not have to make her vomit the rest of the day, she seemed to be doing really good.

Wed morning she still did not swell up and felt really empty, there just was nothing there to make her vomit, so I did not. Later in the day she did swell up and feel bloated, so I did it again and gave her more of the wine. she again was doing better, not interested in eating, but she was up and checking things out. After dinner I gave her a small amount of cooked rice and she ate it. We gave her more wine before bed, and she again woke up today without being bloated, but it feels like she has a small amount of food in there still. Not sure if I should make her vomit again.

She is still drinking a lot of water. We are going to get the worming meds today since she over all is perky, I was worried about doing it if she was not.
Not really sure what else to do other then just keep doing this. It has been almost a week. How much longer should I do this or is it just time to get her to the vet?

 

[TwoCrows]

So the last 2 days I did make her vomit. I was so worried i was going to kill her but I did not. Stuff came out, not a lot, but she is not eating much, just drinking a lot of water.

I did it on Tues and also gave her some red wine. I was able to push a lot of gas out of her, and she was feeling a lot better after that. She ate some good yogurt. She is drinking a LOT of water. We have some coconut oil and ACV in the water. I did not have to make her vomit the rest of the day, she seemed to be doing really good.

Wed morning she still did not swell up and felt really empty, there just was nothing there to make her vomit, so I did not. Later in the day she did swell up and feel bloated, so I did it again and gave her more of the wine. she again was doing better, not interested in eating, but she was up and checking things out. After dinner I gave her a small amount of cooked rice and she ate it. We gave her more wine before bed, and she again woke up today without being bloated, but it feels like she has a small amount of food in there still. Not sure if I should make her vomit again.

She is still drinking a lot of water. We are going to get the worming meds today since she over all is perky, I was worried about doing it if she was not.
Not really sure what else to do other then just keep doing this. It has been almost a week. How much longer should I do this or is it just time to get her to the vet?

If she is able to empty her crop over night or most of it, you are on the right track. It is very normal for them to have a full crop during the day. Crops can feel funky all day long. So never vomit them in the day. What ever they have eaten or drank, needs to be absorbed. But the gunk that is still in the crop in the morning is starting to grow bacteria and yeast, and needs to come out of there. If nothing comes out, or little is in there, don't worry about it.

Sounds like you are doing things right. Get her wormed as soon as possible just in case this slow crop is due to an over load of worms, in which case, this crop issue will clear up soon.

Keep us posted on the worming and afterwards as to what is going on with her crop.

 

[cruisnmoma]

She starts off the morning with her crop mostly empty, but as the day goes on it is not getting full from food, she is hardly eating, but she is drinking a LOT of water. She is still filling up with gas through out the day. I keep burping her to get it out. Sometimes when is pick her up there is so much pressure water comes out of her mouth. Otherwise is is alert and interested in what is going on.

I did get the wazine to start her on first. From what I have been reading this will kill off the big stuff first and not tax her system to much. After I give her this and I dont see any change I will give her one of the others too. If that doesnt work, i guess I need to go to the vet. Not sure what else I can do.