Sour crop

[TwoCrows]

Hello all! She is looking MUCH better today and has had two very normal bowel movements earlier. Massaging her crop also seems to help a lot. She is OVER eating hard boiled eggs and wants the grower pellets her fellow sick hen is getting. :-D Her crop isnt squishy, but isn't nearly as hard as it was yesterday. It actually would feel like a normal crop if not for the size, which is still medium-large.

As far as the antibiotics feeding the yeast infection-- I know they do, but the vet recommended both at once, and it seems to be working! I think perhaps there's just no one perfect way to medicate in this situation.

Excellent news! The Nystatin is obviously keeping the yeast under control using the antibiotics.

Keep up the program and keep us posted!

 

[rebrascora]

Good to hear that she is making progress with her crop at last. I'm a firm believer in regular massage to help break things up and get them moving. A solidified sediment can build up in the bottom of the crop that takes some breaking down, especially if the bird has been eating fibrous material. If you are going to start letting her eat layer pellets, I would soak them in warm water to make a mash rather than feed them dry just at the moment, until that crop is emptying properly overnight. How is her respiratory issue? I had a pullet aspirate during crop surgery. She rattled and wheezed for a few days but came right without any medication.

Finger crossed your girl continues to improve.

Regards

Barbara

 

[JacksonPearce]

She is continuing to look better! Holding herself far more upright now. I did have quite the non-sour-crop setback tonight. My girl with sour crop is in my "sick bay" with a hen who I just haven't been able to put weight on, and who has a URI right now. Tonight I went to rinse off her vent area...and holy cow, mites! They were everywhere, scattering from the water. I checked my sour crop girl and saw signs of them under her feathers too. Ugh!

I'd looked before when the one hen wasn't gaining weight and have no idea how I missed them— I’m so upset with myself. I didn't see any on my other girls outside, but I treated them anyhow just in case. Hopefully everyone will heal faster (and put on weight) now that they’ve been treated. I just can’t believe I missed such a bad case. My coops are clean and I look over my chickens every day— not hands on, but a visual once-over. Grrrrr.

Changing out chicken bedding at 11pm...whew!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Oh no! Mites are a bane. Probably no fault to your own as mites will find any sick bird and take advantage.

 

[TwoCrows]

Mites happen in the cleanest of coops. Its not a sign of poor up keep, mites are everywhere. I have found Ivermectin Pour On, behind the chickens neck, works really well for mites. And strip everything down and replace all bedding. A good poultry spray works on roost bars and nest boxes. Make sure to get underneath the roost bar where mites like to hide.

 

[JacksonPearce]

Mites happen in the cleanest of coops. Its not a sign of poor up keep, mites are everywhere. I have found Ivermectin Pour On, behind the chickens neck, works really well for mites. And strip everything down and replace all bedding. A good poultry spray works on roost bars and nest boxes. Make sure to get underneath the roost bar where mites like to hide.

Thank you! It looks like they’re actually poultry lice, which explains a little how they escaped my notice— apparently those buggers are super fast.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Likely it is both. When I’ve had my outbreaks the birds have got both.
I too like the cattle pour on. 5 drops for standard birds . 2-3 for bantam. On one of those drops I do like two crows behind the neck then saddle area and at the abdomen near the vent.( Favorite hiding spot)

 

[JacksonPearce]

Continuing to look better and act like she feels better. She has started snaking her neck back and forth a bit, like she's trying to move things along? It's new, and I don't know that it's necessarily better or worse. Her crop is more or less the same size.

In further chicken news, though, the hen I had housed with her-- the one who wouldn't gain weight, had a URI, and had a surprise lice infestation, had a heart attack (I think) and died in my arms tonight while I was trying to put a little VetRX on her beak to help her breathe. It was a rather awful thing to witness, though it was fast, at least. I'm getting a necropsy done by the state poultry lab since her health problems were very odd; she was a new addition (within the last month) and was never really right, pretty as she was-- none of her health problems were obvious, or I'd have never brought her home! Just sharing, here-- I want this thread to be helpful to other chicken owners with sour crop and don't want to get too far off topic, but whew, what a month for chickens in my house.

 

[TwoCrows]

Continuing to look better and act like she feels better. She has started snaking her neck back and forth a bit, like she's trying to move things along? It's new, and I don't know that it's necessarily better or worse. Her crop is more or less the same size.

In further chicken news, though, the hen I had housed with her-- the one who wouldn't gain weight, had a URI, and had a surprise lice infestation, had a heart attack (I think) and died in my arms tonight while I was trying to put a little VetRX on her beak to help her breathe. It was a rather awful thing to witness, though it was fast, at least. I'm getting a necropsy done by the state poultry lab since her health problems were very odd; she was a new addition (within the last month) and was never really right, pretty as she was-- none of her health problems were obvious, or I'd have never brought her home! Just sharing, here-- I want this thread to be helpful to other chicken owners with sour crop and don't want to get too far off topic, but whew, what a month for chickens in my house.

Oh I am sorry you lost one last night. She was in the comfort of your arms and knew you loved her.

As for the squiggly neck dance on the sour crop hen, this is typical of a sour crop. They do this when the yeast are blooming in hyper mode. The crop can itch and feel achy. Keep using the Nystatin and vomit her in the morning before any drug doses. An empty crop helps relieve this itchy crawly feel in the crop.

 

[rebrascora]

I'm so sorry you lost the other one, but it's good you are getting a necropsy done. Unfortunately her symptoms suggest to me that she may have been suffering from Marek's Disease and you may find that there were tumours from it on her heart and lungs. The time scale of you getting her a month ago, then her losing weight and having the respiratory problems and then apparent heart attack, point in that direction to me, but I will be very interested to hear the result of the necropsy if you would be kind enough to post it.

I'm wondering if it might be time to consider surgery with your crop problem hen if her crop is still large. If it is not going down overnight, my thought would be that there is a mass of fibrous material in there that is not going to break down and move through her system and may need to be physically removed. Does her breath still smell bad? Surgery is not something I suggest lightly, but you might want to do some research on it and see if you feel it may be appropriate. There are some good You Tube videos which document the surgery and the material removed, which may help you to assess whether this might be her problem. I have done it a couple of times myself and can give you a few tips from my experience if you feel it may be the next step, assuming a few more days of the medicines you are using don't improve things further.

Regards

Barbara