Sour crop?

[smopey]

Hello..
I have a hen with what I think is sour crop. This is my first time dealing with a crop issue so I’m not 100% if that’s what it is. I brought her to a vet yesterday but they were really unhelpful. He emptied her crop, did an X-ray to make sure there wasn’t a blockage, and gave me a prescription for fluconazole which I haven’t given to her just yet.

Her symptoms:
Lethargic, no interest in food, not laying, and obviously her crop isn’t emptying. Yesterday, before the vet emptied her crop, she had a bunch of brownish liquid coming out of her nose every time she bent down for water. It/she smelled like a mixture of fish and poop. I don’t notice the smell this morning and her crop doesn’t seem to be emptying.

I gave her some water with epsom salt this morning but not sure what else I should be doing. Should I give her the fluconazole? Monistat? Tomato juice? Withhold water and food? I read many different remedies online so I’m just not sure the best way to attack this. TIA!

 

[AidKD]

Isolate her and don't give her any food or water for the first 12 hours. Start by massaging her crop, which will need to be from top to bottom. Do this for 5-10 minutes every couple of hours. After the 12 hours she can have plain water to drink, but no food. The resting period should help her digestive area to clear up. After the fasting period, if her crop is flat and empty, then you can start giving her things like plain yogurt mixed with her pellets and scrambled eggs. But make sure you don't overfeed her for the first day or 2. A few small meals throughout the day should be good. This is what I've always heard helps so hopefully it helps your bird, too!

 

[smopey]

Isolate her and don't give her any food or water for the first 12 hours. Start by massaging her crop, which will need to be from top to bottom. Do this for 5-10 minutes every couple of hours. After the 12 hours she can have plain water to drink, but no food. The resting period should help her digestive area to clear up. After the fasting period, if her crop is flat and empty, then you can start giving her things like plain yogurt mixed with her pellets and scrambled eggs. But make sure you don't overfeed her for the first day or 2. A few small meals throughout the day should be good. This is what I've always heard helps so hopefully it helps your bird, too!

Thanks! No grit or oyster shells either? Do you think I should give her the fluconazole?

 

[AidKD]

Thanks! No grit or oyster shells either? Do you think I should give her the fluconazole?

It's better to be safe than sorry! But I would wait till after the 12 hours, personally. Your bird has to have things that are easily digestable, so I would stick with the soft food.

 

[smopey]

It's better to be safe than sorry! But I would wait till after the 12 hours, personally. Your bird has to have things that are easily digestable, so I would stick with the soft food.

Thank you!

 

[ReelFaster]

Keep us posted, I am not that experienced but I have had a few hens have sour crop.

Crop very squishy kind of doughy. Often times can hear it swishing around if you hold her and massage her crop. Smell is a dead give away, if possible get your nose around her mouth. It smells very sour and distinct, nothing like poo IMO, maybe fish but everyone smells are a little different.

I've never had anything come out of the nose nor it ever being brown. I've induced a few hens to throw up and it's usually oatmealish looking with that kind of color.

As mentioned isolate her and allow her crop to empty and start introducing small amounts of soft foods, as mentioned scrambled egg is good, then her feed watered down nice and soft. If you can def confirm sour crop I used monistat in the past with good success. 2x daily about inch worth for about 7 days.

I have a hen on the rebound from sour crop right now. Good luck!

 

[smopey]

Keep us posted, I am not that experienced but I have had a few hens have sour crop.

Crop very squishy kind of doughy. Often times can hear it swishing around if you hold her and massage her crop. Smell is a dead give away, if possible get your nose around her mouth. It smells very sour and distinct, nothing like poo IMO, maybe fish but everyone smells are a little different.

I've never had anything come out of the nose nor it ever being brown. I've induced a few hens to throw up and it's usually oatmealish looking with that kind of color.

As mentioned isolate her and allow her crop to empty and start introducing small amounts of soft foods, as mentioned scrambled egg is good, then her feed watered down nice and soft. If you can def confirm sour crop I used monistat in the past with good success. 2x daily about inch worth for about 7 days.

I have a hen on the rebound from sour crop right now. Good luck!

Thank you!! So I ended up bringing her to two different vets. The first vet admittedly didn’t know much about chickens at all. But he did empty her crop and take X-rays to make sure there wasn’t a blockage. When he emptied her crop, the entire office smelled like sewage. It wasn’t oatmeal like - more so brownish/pinkish water. The second vet I took her to said it likely wasn’t sour crop and that it’s not as common as people make it out to be. She said crop issues are usually an underlying issue to something else. She said she didn’t see anything obviously wrong with her but prescribed Metoclopramide to help get her digestive system moving. When I got her home, she pooped out what I think was intestinal lining.. it looked like a huge earthworm but was the consistency of a blood clot. After that, she started to eat more and her crop was emptying, but slowly. I kept her inside for a few days and fed her little bits of food like cucumber, tomato, chick peas, and her feed mixed with water. She still hasn’t laid an egg but she’s doing 100x better. Eating, pooping, and acting normally.

I really don’t know what caused her to be sick.. I don’t believe she had sour crop because she only smelled until the first vet emptied it for her. Maybe she had some sort of blockage but I do think the crop massages helped tremendously.

 

[ReelFaster]

Glad she is feeling and doing much better. I am not sure what causes these things. I've only had chickens a few years and I've had my share of issues with them. Wry neck, impacted crop, sour crop, leg mites, etc... While they are pretty easy to maintain I didn't realize how prone they are to illnesses. My Easter egger never had a problem once, she's been a hardy girl, not sure if its a breed thing or what. The rest all have had intermittent issues.