Sour crop?

[chicknmania]

This is something I have never had personal experience with, but have read about. What our hen has doesn't seem to fit any of the really classic symptoms, but I think sour crop is what she has. She is a 4 1/2 year old Speckled Sussex, and she weighs about four pounds.

She has seemed fine, but we had a severe cold snap starting yesterday, and yesterday afternoon I found her lying in the barn, it seemed like she was dying. I brougnt her in the house, and did nothing except put her in pen with extra heat. This morning she was on her feet, so good sign. But she had a watery cough, and wouldn't eat. I figured she had a respiratory issue, so I laced some bread crumbs with Oxytet and left them with her for a while. This afternoon, she'd eaten half the Oxytet laced crumbs, and seemed much better, and brighter. I decided to give her the rest of the Oxytet that she should have eaten and didn't, by mixing it in
a slurry and syringing it into her. When I picked her up, I noticed that her crop was spongy and enlarged. It should not have been full from the little bit that she'd eaten. I didn't notice it being that way when I brought her in last night.
I gave her about 2 CC's of the slurry, then decided I should stop since I was worried about her crop. As soon as I set her down, she pooped, like what I had syringed into her ran right through her. So I'm assuming that her crop can't be impacted, since stuff is going through her digestve system. As of right now, her breath doesn't smell like anything.
So not sure if I should try her with syringing some oil and massage her crop, or giving her water and no food? Should I try ACV or probiotics? Stop the antibiotics?
I figured that for today at least, I should just give her just water, then see if her crop is empty tomorrow, or what it feels like.
She also has lost some weight.

 

[azygous]

Here's my concise crop tutorial. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

It's much easier to take this in logical steps as I think you already are inclined to do. Let her have food and water as she normally does. Then this evening, take up the food and water and check her crop in the morning. This will give you a more accurate assessment of what sort of crop issue she has.

 

[chicknmania]

Here's my concise crop tutorial. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

It's much easier to take this in logical steps as I think you already are inclined to do. Let her have food and water as she normally does. Then this evening, take up the food and water and check her crop in the morning. This will give you a more accurate assessment of what sort of crop issue she has.

Ok I will and thank you. She's really not eating much

 

[chicknmania]

It was the watery cough she has that was confusing me and, as you know, it could still be two separate issues! Gaah. Poultry can be so confusing!

 

[chicknmania]

OK, so this is so confusing. This morning her crop had mostly emptied, but not entirely, there was still some fullness/ squishiness. She acts much better. She was on her feet. She still has the rattly cough but no odor at all to her breath. Her droppings are mostly liquid from overnight, because she drank a lot of water, but hadn't had any food except the slurry I gave her with her antibiotic. So today I gave her 1/2 tsp of Medistatin, then offered her chopped HB egg and fresh water. She is eating the egg now. Dang it, I feel like an idiot,but which way should I continue with this? Treat her for crop issue or respiratory infection? I know I can't give her the antibiotic and Medistatin....

 

[azygous]

If her crop was more solid than liquid this morning when you checked it, you may be dealing with a minor impaction, not sour crop. Try coconut oil and a little massage over the next several hours. You can go ahead and treat with the Medistatin for the next few days and see how it goes. Any error in judgement in this case wouldn't turn out to be life threatening.

 

[chicknmania]

If her crop was more solid than liquid this morning when you checked it, you may be dealing with a minor impaction, not sour crop. Try coconut oil and a little massage over the next several hours. You can go ahead and treat with the Medistatin for the next few days and see how it goes. Any error in judgement in this case wouldn't turn out to be life threatening.

It was liquid not solid at all just not completely empty. Her cough is worse. I did massage her crop this morning. Could it just be slow because she's been sick and not eating? Her cough is concerning because I think she does have A respiratory issue too.

 

[azygous]

A crop can be slow for any number of reasons. It may not be a yeast infection. A respiratory infection doesn't always need to be treated as many chickens can recover all right on their own.

One thing you can try before you decide to do the antibiotic is mullein. It's an herb that does a pretty good job of controlling mucous. You can get mullein capsules off Amazon. Give her one a day or maybe another late in the day and see if that helps. This will let you continue to treat the crop issue and buy some time to see which way this thing needs to go.

 

[chicknmania]

I finally read that you CAN treat with antibiotics and antifungals at the same time, and actually that is a good thing to do as it can help prevent yeast infections. So, that's what I started doing. I dropper fed her the Oxytet in a slurry, then added ACV with the Mother in it to her drinking water. It wasn't long before she was on her feet and talking, then eating. Since then I've been gradually increasing her food and keeping it soft food or moist crumbles, including yogurt or buttermilk soaked bread crumbs, and continuing with antibiotics. She still has a little cough but it is slowly going away. Her crop is back to being almost completely normal and emptying quite well. I also allowed her out on our tile floors to get some exercise because I figured moving around would help with her crop restoring itself to normal, as well as help with her breathing, and it does seem to help, plus, she's enjoying getting out a bit and exploring her strange new world! I'm always careful not to get too excited until they're completely well, but it seems like she's on her way. It's too cold for her to go back to the barn yet, but I'm sure she'll be headed that way in a week or so.

Thanks for the advice! I didn't get the Mullein but I'll keep that in mind for future needs.

 

[chicknmania]

So she is declining again. No cough, but her crop is very slow. She started drinking a lot of water a few days ago and not eating; acting lethargic. I added the ACV to her water and she did improve a bit, started eating, and still is eating a little. But her crop is slow and she's only pooping water and bits of solid poop. This started three or four days after she was off the antibiotic. She was doing so well and acting completely normal when I took her off the antibiotics! So I'm suspecting perhaps a systemic infection? Just not sure what to do. She's back in her pen in the house now due to the cold this weekend. I have some old Medistatin which still looks ok. So I'm thinking of trying that, and some coconut oil and maybe a crop massage, but I don't want her to vomit, because I think maybe that's how she got the cough, accidentally inhaling fluid from her crop. But should I withhold food? Anything else to try? Should I try antibiotics again?