Sour crop treatment

[Danielmc]

So I have our sick chicken with apple cider vinegar in the water, and yogurt in the water. Not sure how much she is eating and drinking but I'm trying to force some into her with a syringe.

All the vets around here don't seem to have any anti-fungals at all. So I am wondering if there are any human ones I could pick up (in the uk) over the counter and administer to the chicken? The vet recommended against this as if we then eat her eggs we may develop a resistance to the medicine or something like that...

Also - before I separated her, several times she vomited and the other chickens helped themselves to it! Hopefully it'll be alright but I am giving them some yogurt and apple cider vinegar in their water as well to make sure.

Her crop still feels huge but I can't get her to vomit out any more no matter how much I massage.

Is there anything else I can do?

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

I wouldn't feed her anymore, you don't want to make it worse. Make sure she drinks the apple cider vinegar and eats some yogurt. You can massage the impaction out but I'm not sure how. Do some research here and you can find lots of info.

I had about 10 chickens get impacted all at once (ate grass whole) and the vinegar cleared them right up.


Hope she gets better!

 

[Danielmc]

Thanks! So should I have her on yogurt and nothing else, food-wise? How long should I keep that up for?

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

I would keep her away from real food until the impaction is gone. Which hopefully, is only a day.

 

[Danielmc]

Is it sour crop and not impacted crop as far as I can tell - does that make a difference? Her crop is purely liquid just now it seems, nothing else.

No improvements yet. I found an oral medicine that I am trying to give her but am struggling to get her to drink it. Still also trying to get her to drink vinegar water and eat some yogurt. (I've been just kind of putting it on the side/top of her beak and usually she eats/drinks a little bit then.)

She's separated but doesn't touch her water or yogurt bowl. When she's in with the other girls (I remove the food while she is in with them), she is pretty lethargic but at least then she drinks some from the big bowl. So I have a couple questions:

-Is it ok to let her eat the transition pellets we have for all of them? She's pretty much not had anything at all to eat since yesterday morning, other than a tiny bit of yogurt.

-Is it ok to give all of the chickens the apple cider vinegar water, so I can put it in the main container that she feels comfortable drinking from?

Thanks

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

If it is sour crop her crop will feel like a water balloon and you will smell something sour from her mouth. If it is impacted you will not get the sour smell.

I wouldn't give her any food, that will just make it worse.

Go ahead and put ACV in the big water. A lot of people use it as a natural wormer for their chickens, and it will improve their overall health anyways.

Something I do when they won't drink out of the container given to them (assuming you use one of those white jugs with the red bottom): Mine think that water is red because that is how it shows up through the waterer. So, I either put a drop or two of red food coloring in the water, or tape a piece of red cardstock to the bottom. That usually helps.

Also, some of the links mention epson salts. Some people put her in a bath and others put a little in water and give it to her, that will flush out her system.

Here are some links for you:

Massaging out sour crop: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/692018/sour-crop

Some more links and info: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/687963/sour-crop

Successfully treated sour crop: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/667101/sour-crop

Crop impaction: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/675115/sour-crop

Just search for "Sour Crop" or "Squishy Crop" or "Impacted Crop" and you'll get a ton of info.

Hope she gets better!

 

[Danielmc]

Thanks! I was quite certain it was sour crop, not impacted, because it does indeed feel like a big ball of water, all squishy and all. But I've not smelled anything sour. Would impacted crops not feel a bit hard?

How long can she go without eating? She's not had anything since yesterday morning, beyond the bit of yogurt I've gotten her to eat. Wssn't aware I shouldn't even have started yogurt yet so I will avoid any more until tomorrow. Annoyingly she also managed a bit of grass when I had her outside of the run to try to give her water (she's not free range yet, still young).

Thanks again, going to have a look through the links.

 

[MsBagawkbagawk]

Impacted looks and feels like sour crop but without the sour smell. Usually, you can just treat it like sour crop. If it is impacted you definitely don't want to feed her anything solid, although you can give her some feed that has been soaked in water or some oatmeal. As long as it is soft enough that it can go right through her crop and not hold up in the gizzard you should be good. You might have to force feed her the ACV if she won't drink it, but most of my chickens love the taste once they try it. I put about a cup in their five gallon waterer, but more or less won't hurt them.

 

[speckledhen]

Impacted crop would feel hard as a baseball, yes. It's nothing like sour crop, though if the contents are stuck in there long enough, they will begin to ferment and the bird will starve to death.

 

[Danielmc]

So today is day three. I kept her off food for pretty much all of yesterday, though on day 1 I do think she ate solids in the morning (and I tried a bit of yogurt in the evening). I did force vomit most of it out, though. Gave her egg this morning which she ate, but now she's doing the head bobbing thing again. She's been drinking the heavily-vinegar-ed water just fine. The crop felt smaller this morning but squishier. Was it a mistake to give her some soft food today? Since she's gone a while without food I was hoping it'd make her a bit stronger. Though day 1 wasn't a full day, this pretty much classes day three I suppose.

Also trying to give her some anti fungal medicine I got, started it yesterday, two doses a day. So she's had three so far. Not sure how much of it she actually is taking, but certainly is some at least.