Sour crop support needed

[Pampered Hen]

Just thought to put a face to the name. Here is a link to a pic of Thyme as a house chicken: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ZW1mhNzMVq1N_kNVSUuMXQ?feat=directlink

 

[ipana]

Thyme looks like a star! Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Quillgirl]

Awww. I hope she gets better soon!

 

[upthecreek]

She's beautiful !!!! Do you have a bunch of these ? i would be interested in eggs/chicks/started young

best of luck with her ,
Shannon

 

[Pampered Hen]

Thanks for the compliments on Thyme!
This crop thing is persistent and I hope we can get it sorted out. She did the chest bobbing this morning and I decided to made her puke again. I couldn't believe my eyes; she vomited up straw that must have been in her crop since at least Wednesday! She has been on newspaper since Wednesday afternon and I don't let her eat anything but soft foods. The chest bobs stopped afterwards and her appetite is ok. She is a really good patient and that helps.
She has company now: yesterday afternoon, just before dusk, I averted a hawk attack. I literally had to fling the hawk of my Golden Campine pullet. Cooper's hawk I think - he had killed a hen at new year's eve... different story . My girl survived but has a nasty gash just over her tail. Now, Nigella, the Campine is all bandaged up in the dog crate, and Thyme is back in the cat carrier...

Shannon - Sorry, I don't breed my chickens. I don't even have a rooster. Thyme is a Speckled Sussex from Meyer Hatchery.
I believe that Sandhill Preservation and Ideal carry this breed also.

 

[ipana]

OK, kids, let me tell you what I know. My Black Australorp, Naomi, had a recurrence of sour crop. Her first experience was on Jan 9. She returned to her "home" on Jan 14, so it has been about 10 days. I brought her inside last night and by this morning, her crop was still quite squishy and about the size of a tennis ball. I had tried to vomit her when I brought her inside but to no avail. Even though we have good info on this board, I decided to take her to a local vet who has a specialty in poultry. Since she just had a round of this, I apparently wasn't doing something right. Naturally, by the time for her appt. came around, I could tell that she was beginning to be better. Her crop was smaller and she was pooping. I decided to take her anyway just so I would know.

He did an aspirate of her crop and identified some yeast there but not as large as I had expected. He comfirmed that giving her soft foods and ACV vinegar (16ml/Liter) is the right thing to do. He recommended doing this for 3 weeks to give the crop a chance to heal itself. It is a smooth muscle and if it gets a "pocket" in it due to being enlarged, then that would not be good. I will need to keep her separate from the others so that she can have the soft foods and ACV. He didn't recommend giving all birds the ACV because it could change their pH.

He tends to think that the pine shavings that I use for bedding may be the culprit for her problem since I haven't changed her feed or made any other changes. I am going to remove those tomorrow and put in sand. He said that sawdust would be an alternative since it has smaller pieces but I don't know where to get any of that and I have sand down at the creek.

When the crop is squishy as opposed to being hard, do not give any oil since oil and water won't mix so it won't do any good. If the crop is hard, then oil may be effective.

I got a catheter and syringe from him to draw out any liquid should the problem recur.

I don't know if this info is helpful to anyone here but I wanted to post what I had learned. I don't know if I would've come up with the pine shavings as being a problem so I'm glad I went.

 

[Quillgirl]

Good info from your vet.

About the straw: sounds like an impaction! I hope that cleared the problem and she'll make good progress now.

 

[cnj-tx50]

Thanks Ipana - after much thought I have decided to follow the three week plan and see what happens. Are you just going to feed the crumbles wet or are you going to be adding yogurt or anything to it?

 

[ipana]

I am adding warm water to moisten it, making sure it is not wet wet, so to speak. After eating soft stuff, the crop does feel a little spongy, but I'm sure it's just the soft food. We'll see how it goes. And hopefully, it will be well.

 

[cnj-tx50]

Well day two of lock up again and this morning her crop is semi large and soft but not squishy. So I am going to continue with the mash. I am adding some apple sauce and yogurt to the mix to give her something else. Although she is very hungry. This time I think I will try to keep her locked up for at least two weeks.