Sour Crop?

[Farmgirl1878]

My five year old blue Cochin, Blue, has been coughing for a month or more. She loves to dust bathe in the coop (all sand and zeolite) when I have the door open and the sun is shining in. She stirs up a LOT of dust. While she’s dust bathing, she coughs, throws her head back, opens her beak, shakes her head, and coughs some more. Now she’s started to do the same when she lies down on the sand or sits on the roost (5” boards). Her crop has always been soft and squishy and she does NOT like to be touched, so it’s tough to know if it consistently empties overnight. When she drinks more than what I’m guessing is a tablespoon or more, she sometimes has water drip out when she leans her head down. (In fact, several other girls do that too now.). There is no foul odor to her breath.

Her poop is normal and she does eat and drink. She’s the low gal in the pecking order, so she doesn’t always get enough evening chow unless I’m there to make sure she gets some. She has lost weight (she likes to hop up on my lap as long as I don’t tough her). I have monistat 7 to treat her, but just wanted to get some input before I try anything new. The girls all eat a mix of Nutrena brand layer and high-protein pellets and have access to fresh water all day. They get some treats (BOSS, bird seed, mealworms, or peanut butter suet balls) when they come in to the run after free ranging twice a day. (We are in the middle of a 160-acre hardwood tree farm, so they only go outside the run with me.) No one gets more than a tablespoon of treats a day. I don’t add anything to the water or chow (like ACV).

So, to recap:
Normal poop
Weigh loss
Squishy crop
Normal eating and drinking
Coughing
Head shaking with coughing
Rasping breaths
Head back, beak open
No abnormal smell
Normal activity level

Should I treat her with the monistat 7? There are no avian vets anywhere near, so that’s out. @azygous @Wyorp Rock any ideas?

 

[azygous]

The key words I see are weight loss and lowest in the pecking order. I would address that first. But you need to reconcile yourself to handling this hen. Without hands-on, you cannot treat her.

If this stems from being bellied away from food, she needs a safe enclosure during the day where she won't be bullied away from food. Lack of adequate food results in low energy and the inability to defend her right to the feeder. So she needs to be fed and brought back to normal energy levels. (Glucose) This can be accelerated by putting a little sugar in her water along with a squirt of Poultry Nutri-drench.

You will need to check her crop in the morning to be certain if you're dealing with a crop issue. You may need to get up before light and grab her off her perch to do the crop check.

While some chickens lack the capacity to bond with a human, thus making handling easier, a recalcitrant chicken can be brought to the point of being able to be handling by, guess what, frequent gentle handling while you speak calmly and quietly to her.

 

[Farmgirl1878]

The key words I see are weight loss and lowest in the pecking order. I would address that first. But you need to reconcile yourself to handling this hen. Without hands-on, you cannot treat her.

If this stems from being bellied away from food, she needs a safe enclosure during the day where she won't be bullied away from food. Lack of adequate food results in low energy and the inability to defend her right to the feeder. So she needs to be fed and brought back to normal energy levels. (Glucose) This can be accelerated by putting a little sugar in her water along with a squirt of Poultry Nutri-drench.

You will need to check her crop in the morning to be certain if you're dealing with a crop issue. You may need to get up before light and grab her off her perch to do the crop check.

While some chickens lack the capacity to bond with a human, thus making handling easier, a recalcitrant chicken can be brought to the point of being able to be handling by, guess what, frequent gentle handling while you speak calmly and quietly to her.

Thanks @azygous! She’s not recalcitrant, just very shy. I was two minutes too late this morning to feel her up, but will get out there tomorrow plenty early. The weight loss is a recent thing. Tho she’s not aggressive, she’s always been at a normal weight before, so I think it has more to do with the coughing. I’ll letcha know more in the morning. Thanks for the quick response!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Good advice, as always from @azygous.

 

[Farmgirl1878]

Whew! Blue’s crop is empty this morning! Unfortunately, my other (Partridge) Cochin’s is not! While I was out there, I figured I’d check them all. Shirley Partridge (the other Cochin) dribbles sometimes when she drinks a lot of water, but no other symptoms from her. Shirley is fourteen months old and, being a Cochin, is lower on the pecking order, but she eats like a champ when no one is watching.

So, I’ll check crops again tomorrow morning and see what’s happening. In the meantime, I’ll try to keep Bluebird from dust bathing inside the coop and keep her on wet chow (regular chicken food with water) in case it’s a throat irritation from the dusty sand. She and Shirley will get some scrambled eggs this morning too!