Sour Crop Recovery Complications

[John Ruf]

One of our hens became lethargic last week, then showed signs of gaping and head shaking. When I checked her out her crop was full of liquid. She was drinking non-stop. I cleared her crop by inverting her, it was sour smelling liquid that came out. We gave her some oil with a syringe and massaged the crop with no impaction felt.

We brought her in to let her recover, keeping her crated and warm. She is lethargic, wheezing nad not eating or drinking on her own. We have been keeping her hydrated with electrolytes orally with a syringe.

After 24 hours with no improvement I intend to start her on Noromycin orally (100mg/day) thinking she may be fighting an infection. I intend to keep her on that for a week.

Ideas?

Thanks,

John Ruf
Culpeper, VA

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Is it possible she got some liquid in her lungs when you vomited her? pneumonia?

How does her crop look now?

 

[John Ruf]

Yes; I am worried that we may have gotten liquid in her lungs; either when clearing her crop, or when giving her electrolytes.

Her crop seems normal, as are her bowel movements.

Thanks,

John

 

[chickenzoo]

Listen to her lungs under her wing. If she aspirated fluid you may her liquid crackles in her lung. Sounds like you need a strong antibiotic like Baytril. If you can get it from a vet it would be faster...but you can get it on line for parrots.
Never force liquid down a bird that won't drink. It is best to tube feed them liquid, inject in under loose skin or drip their beak in a bowl.....

 

[John Ruf]

No crackling in the lungs--listened on both sides; just a gurgling from the throat.

I'll look into finding some Baytril locally.

Thanks,

John

 

[chickenzoo]

Also keep her on very soft easily digested food for awhile after crop issues. I like to use baby parrot hand feeding formula. It is ground very fine and can be mixed with water....best wishes

 

[John Ruf]

Well, she made it through the night. She's a real fighter. She hasn't eaten anything since we noticed she was sick. She got very little liquid yesterday so I'm wondering if I should try to give her a little bit with the syringe. That's how we're giving her the antibiotic we got yesterday and she has no trouble swallowing--we can see her tongue moving. She is very, very weak, though. We just want to do whatever we can to give her the best shot of survival so we really appreciate any more advice. Thanks so much for all the help already.

 

[chickenzoo]

Do you have her on a poultry vitamin?

 

[John Ruf]

We don't really have her on anything right now other than her medication. For the last 18 hours she has mostly "slept." She's breathing with her beak open and her eyes closed. She hasn't had anything to eat or drink other than what we put in the syringe with her antibiotics. We were worried about giving her fluids and aspirating her. But I'm beginning to think that if we don't give her some liquid/nutrition, we may not be giving her enough energy to keep fighting. When we first "fixed" the problem with the crop, which was almost 48 hours ago, we used a water/oil mix to loosen things, then followed up with some electrolytes, all via a very small syringe--total of maybe 2 ounces. AFTER that we read all about how many people won't use syringes for fear of aspirating their lungs. So we stopped, other than what's in her meds. So, she's not alert enough/ strong enough to eat/drink anything on her own. But her little body is obviously fighting hard to stay alive.

These are the first chickens we've ever raised so we have no experience and are just trying to do our best by following advice on here.

Should I start using the syringe to give her nutrition? I've had no problem getting her to open her beak and swallow whatever I put in there. The syringe is very small so I have very good control over delivering just a small amount of liquid.

Help!

And thanks to everyone who's replied so far.

 

[Doctor Pammie]

Thank you to everyone who tried to help. We lost our most beautiful and most personable chicken. She died last night. We are taking her today to have her necropsied. We are pretty sure that whatever was wrong has not affected the other 5, who have been fine since we separated the sick one Sunday noon. Thank you all for taking the time to try to help.