Sour crop

[shell3]

well bombie seems brighter now she slept a while and then had a little watery mash and a good drink of water . ive had to take the bra off thou!! she cant walk with it on!! she was going baxkwards sidewards any where but where she wanted to go! she was bouncing round the cage like a crazy drunk at a disco!!lol ill try and readjust it better tomorrow but think shes been pulled about enough today. crop feels small and tight im so relieved just feeding small ammounts every two hours. weird i can feel a lump in it thou! i know he def emptied it ..... cant have a good feel as think shes sore and dont want to cause her discomfort. hope im wrong but will check in morning. could be as vet said.bits might unplug from lower down in the stomach and appear in the crop,but that fast??! idk! all i know is its feeling better than it has in ages tomorrow new coops getting finished and ive swept (yes swept!!!) with dustpan and brush! the outside run for any bit of stones,plant bits,old bedding ect that look beak sized!! she'll be back ouside once ive emptied old run out of any wood chip and had one last floor sweep. i think im gonna be very obsessed with watching for any bullying from the others since she has been absent a whole day and night! ill get her out asap but might doa day in mini run for her just to reaquaint. hopefully they will be sleeping all together tom night in their new coop on their new roosts.(18' from the floor bogtown thanks for messurement. makes my job easier! )
btw vet said her weight has stayed on well, he said he's amazed i managed to massaged food through the blockage by squeezing the mass to the top of the crop and manouvering food down but although thats good i may have
caused the lower blockage too by forcing food down! dont know wether to feel proud or dumb??? lol
edit to add- bit of watery poops and some quite whiteish but with some brown quitr normal looking ones. also some tummy gurgles. but she has been hung upside down for a good long time today so guess shes had a good mix around in there!

 

[Sunflowergirl]

Whew! I know it has been a long day for y'all!!! Wishing all a good night's, healing rest!!!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Sleep well shell and bombie. Sweet dreams. Looking forward to up and up reports and maybe pics of new coop and run.

 

[pwand]

A new day is upon you, how is Bombie?

 

[chickiemomy]

Yes I suppose, I guess I didn't really think about the fermenting and sour crop. When I ferment mine this past fall I used Apple Cider vinegar with a "good" bacteria in it. So I don't think it's yeasty fermentation...per se? Hmmm. I don't know for sure, now...LOL. Better just ignore this one. haha. I'll search it out more when I get a chance and see if it would be a benefit to her or one of those things that's a "no-no" with sour crop. Have you heard anything more from ipana? Are you following a regimen that she recommends?

was reading thru this thread for my brother who may have a chick with sour crop --

at any rate w/respect to the fermented feed -- the ferment thread advocates using ACV with mother in it to get your feed bubbling. The mother is the live ferment microbes, as in, it has not been pasteurized, so the ferment 'juice' if you will is still alive & active. The fermentation process, think dill pickles and sauerkraut also, creates lactic acid. No yeast is added, no alcohol is created - the lactic acid fermentation is a natural preservative and is an aid in digestion, for people as well. I use MISO, unpasteurized to start my people ferments. You can also use whey, strained from 'live' yogurt to kick start a ferment. The ACV with mother is another starter. But things will ferment naturally, without the starters. Some foods are more conducive than others, and warmer temperature speeds the process.

Point is - the fermentation kind of does a pre-digestion of the food and is very helpful for complete digestion of nutrients in the gut of animals, including us. Think probiotic friendly. Not sure how it coiuld be bad for sour crip - but I am not a chicken expert, don't understand exactly how the crop works. I just read thru a lot of these threads looking for more natural ways to raise chicks consistent with my own philosophy - not a fanatic - just prefer to avoid issues by using as much common sense as possible & leaving meds for last - just me...

A good basic book is 'wild fermentation' written by Sandor Kats. Also look at 'Nourishing Traditions' by Sally Fallon -- both for people food, not chickens, but gives you an idea of the process & the theory of fermentation for food preservation.

 

[chickiemomy]

Thanks for the link bogtown, ill check it out in a bit. ipana pm'd me last night she also suggested the wine thing so not a bad suggestion i dont think, however it still makes me nervous. i will try it if i have no luck today.
last night the crop seemed emptyish... i think it was empty but just saggy?! anyway she wanted food so i gave her a scrambled egg, just the one, and this morning after a bit of massage it emptied completely. im gonna give her another egg now and see if that passes through. i did a silly thing though... as im vegan i give all my eggs away and i gave loads away a couple days ago!! arhh!! should have kept hold of some, too late now so i have only one egg! girls havnt laid yet today but ive had a chat with them and their gonna try and lay me some later lol i hope! if not i might try some apple sauce or baby food but she didnt like the baby food, i dont know if shop bought apple sauce is ok? ive bought some apples and plan on googling how to make it! cant be hard surely?!
anyway shes bright and has an appitite so thats good. vet said to keep heron antibiotics but shes been on the for so long already that im doubting this advice. i read in my new book,chicken health handbook, that antibiotics can interfere with their natural microflora.idk!
though i have to think that a vet knows better than i so...
hoping for a better day

im off to check how rogers toe is now

re antibiotics & yeast infections -- if it is sour crop, and if sour crop is a yeast infection -- I would not think antibiotics are good... Here's why - when I am given antibiotics, I always get a yeast infection - 100% of the time - antibiotics kill off all the good bacteria, as well as the bad - leaving you with the little yeasties to take their place.

I do not know how this applies to chickens -- but I am certain that is what happens in people - antibiotics are to kill off bacteria, they do not impact viruses, nor do they kill off yeast infections. Now if your bird does not have sour crop - or if sour crop is not a yeast infection -- then this does not apply. FWIW

 

[chickiemomy]

ahh - finally got to the end, so far! - of this thread. So it ended up being a blocked, or partly blocked crop -- poor girl - so glad the vet got all that stuff out. Hope it all resolves well for both of you with sick chickies.

Also just want to make sure you know my previous posts are not intended to be judgmental in any way. Sometimes it's hard to make tone communicated on email, and I want you to know my intention is only to share. I read back through my posts, and was not sure I was clear enough of that --

again - glad bombie is on the mend - couldn't quit reading until I found out how she was doing now!

 

[shell3]

hi guys thank you all well bombie had a quite unrestful night. slept on my chest most of it! she would be asleep then suddenly jump bolt upright and start neck bobbing also very gurgly inside. i managed to get bra back on thou still not convinced its right. just doing her some breky and will report later once ive checked her over and fed her xx

chickiemomy- thank you for your input and i didnt sense any tone in your post at all just good opinions.so dont worry all advice and opinions are very welcome here
fermenting- i guess what your saying is the food ferments anyway so if that parts already done the food moves thru faster? yes i can see the benefit in that but just wasnt sure about adding fermented food to an already fermentdd crop thought it would give the meds a harder 'kill zone' but idk enough on that at all.
antibiotics- i do agree with you here i always get thrush from them and that was my thinking too. not to mention they kill good flora in the gut and can cause loss of appitite. however all i can say is the vet wanted her to have them and i felt his advice was better informed than my own! i didnt actually give her the last two prescriptions thou ss i couldnt see why she needed them. no bacterial inf.
you did well reading all this ! lol it has been a very lengthy process! thank you for joining in and for your well wishes for my bombie xxx

 

[shell3]

shes back outside. looking for any bits i missed! girls arnt bullying her so far so thats good. shes still shaky and stretching her neck a lot. one of my others threw a fit coz alm the woodchips gone! never heard such noise! but i got a blanket in there and she went in laid an egg and shut up! lol hubbys out finishing the coop but he has 'man flu' so im staying out of his way!lol. took bra off again cos shes falling all over the place! so strange! very disapointing

 

[pwand]

Sounds like Bombies adjusting her cop. Mine does that as well. What about getting a light weight material and remaking another bra. Did you feel her crop to see how it's feeling? Did the vet get shaving out of her cop as well?