Sour crop

[kpenn26]

A happy update on Mrs. Weasley:
This morning she still had a full crop. I called a local vet who will see chickens and asked if they would do surgery to clean out her crop. They said yes, and were able to get us in today. She had surgery around 330pm and the vet said she had an ENORMOUS ball of wound up grass and pebbles surrounded by fluid in her crop. She said no amount of massage/medications would've helped. Mrs. Weasley is home with us, and she is spending the night inside to recover. She has already had some scrambled egg and ate it eagerly. She received pain medication and antibiotics during the surgery, and we will continue oral medications for several days.

Thank you to all who contributed and offered advice. I will post again when she is back to normal, hopefully in a week or two. So glad to have my big girl back, and so good to see her hungry again!

 

[Doriss]

My 3 year old Buff Brahma, Mrs. Weasley, has sour crop. I noticed yesterday that she did not want the black soldier fly larvae I tossed to the flock, which was odd. I picked her up and immediately felt the water balloon crop. It wasn’t obvious to the eye because my Buff Brahmas’ crops always look enormous at the end of the day—such big, hardy girls. This particular hen is our flock leader, and a good one. She has never had a health issue in the past. Last night I immediately began crop massage and gave her coconut oil, which she loved. I let her sleep with the flock but isolated her this morning so that she can fast today. She has access to fresh water with apple cider vinegar. I’ve already given her more coconut oil this morning and massaged her several times. I can hear a little bit of gurgling as I massage, but nothing comes out of her mouth. I cannot feel any lumps and hardness, just feels like a water balloon. The crop didn’t empty at all overnight. At this point she’s been fasting from food for 14 hours.

I’ve ordered Monistat and plan to administer it as soon as it arrives today. And I will continue coconut oil and crop massage. Any other advice would be appreciated.

I lost a hen to this a little over a year ago. She was our flock leader at the time, and a lovely girl. We were on vacation and had a family member here caring for the animals. She said she found said hen collapsed on the porch the second night we were gone and had to carry her to the coop. She did not call me “because she didn’t want to worry me”—maddening. By the time we got home 4 days later, the hen was collapsed in the coop. I did not know she was even ill, so I was shocked and jumped into action. I picked her up and water streamed from her mouth. I had read about sour crop, so I did the best I could. She was at deaths door at this point so I purged her (I know there is controversy over this) and it immediately all came up, including a rock hard blueberry that seemed to be the cause of the trouble. Unfortunately she was too far gone and I lost her that night.

I’ve caught this one much earlier, as Mrs Weasley is still up and about. I have not purged her, and would only try that as a last resort.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I assume you turned her upside down for a few seconds while massaging? (Not enough to suffocate...)

 

[Debra Loves Salukis]

My 3 year old Buff Brahma, Mrs. Weasley, has sour crop. I noticed yesterday that she did not want the black soldier fly larvae I tossed to the flock, which was odd. I picked her up and immediately felt the water balloon crop. It wasn’t obvious to the eye because my Buff Brahmas’ crops always look enormous at the end of the day—such big, hardy girls. This particular hen is our flock leader, and a good one. She has never had a health issue in the past. Last night I immediately began crop massage and gave her coconut oil, which she loved. I let her sleep with the flock but isolated her this morning so that she can fast today. She has access to fresh water with apple cider vinegar. I’ve already given her more coconut oil this morning and massaged her several times. I can hear a little bit of gurgling as I massage, but nothing comes out of her mouth. I cannot feel any lumps and hardness, just feels like a water balloon. The crop didn’t empty at all overnight. At this point she’s been fasting from food for 14 hours.

I’ve ordered Monistat and plan to administer it as soon as it arrives today. And I will continue coconut oil and crop massage. Any other advice would be appreciated.

I lost a hen to this a little over a year ago. She was our flock leader at the time, and a lovely girl. We were on vacation and had a family member here caring for the animals. She said she found said hen collapsed on the porch the second night we were gone and had to carry her to the coop. She did not call me “because she didn’t want to worry me”—maddening. By the time we got home 4 days later, the hen was collapsed in the coop. I did not know she was even ill, so I was shocked and jumped into action. I picked her up and water streamed from her mouth. I had read about sour crop, so I did the best I could. She was at deaths door at this point so I purged her (I know there is controversy over this) and it immediately all came up, including a rock hard blueberry that seemed to be the cause of the trouble. Unfortunately she was too far gone and I lost her that night.

I’ve caught this one much earlier, as Mrs Weasley is still up and about. I have not purged her, and would only try that as a last resort.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I am so grateful you posted this as we lost a Lavender Orpington last month with this, although she was almost 11 years old also........so I love your information you are sharing and will be watching for what others post. We name and love ours also