Sour crop

[shell3]

this was bombie this morning with her new accessory! not impressed i dont think.
btw bogtown i like the tshirt idea a lot and im looking into it. think she'd be more comfy. also think the crop bra might cover up a fair bit but its stil not arrived!

 

[pwand]

My chicken was still bloated this morning. I decided to make her vomit. I really didn't want to do that. She poops very small amounts of poo. Only maybe three times in 24 hr period. Would this mean no blockage at this point, but sour crop and that her crop is starting to work to some degree. Should I give her grit?

When we built our coop. We put patio stones 2ft by 2ft down. What I did was take a 4" by 4" post and put the stones on top of them. We had to raise our coop to do this, it was a pain, however, it's worth it. Easy to hose out. . I got rid of all bedding and its down to the concrete floor. If you would like a drawing, i could do that for you to see how its done. My hen is a ready to lay pullet was eating the bedding and seemed to eat a lot if grit and oyster shells. Had them for two weeksI realize i screwed up this time with my birds. We had gotten three of them. I had layed lime on the ground and turned it and wanted to wait a month before letting them out.

How's that collar working. I'm sure she will adjust, when she eats, take it off just for a break and than back on when she's done. She looks just like my hen, "Bovian Brown", I'm sure that's spelt wrong. Nice birds. Are you getting much sleep? Don't forget to take care of yourself. How often do you feed her? I'm afraid to over due it and cause more bloat.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Morning/evening to your Shell. Well already you've had a busy day of Vet, new gear for Bombie and now Dear Husband with plans for coop improvements. Wow!

I wish there was a simple solution for you. This is certainly a trying case. I'm almost wonering about impacted crop too. And I wonder if a bit of expense to get this cleared would be worth it. Save you alot of head ache and heart ache down the line. Is your Vet fairly priced or not? did you get to talk to him about the Alka selzer bit or was it just mainly dealing with her bloated crop at hand. I know the visits can be brief and things don't always get brought up due to lack of time. To be honest I'm not sure if I would be tough as you through this whole bit. There are videos on clearing impacted crop on your own. I'm pretty gutsy with things, but I'm not sure I could go that far. IDK what desperation would bring out in me...Lol.

Thank you for the picture of Bombie. It's nice to see her and to see what you are contending with. I'll do some searches in my spare time for you, as always. Enjoy the weekend with your dear husband and kiddos and sweet chooks.

 

[shell3]

thanks guys xx
pwand- about the grit, id be really careful, if shes eating only mush and soft food she wont need grit and thats the mistake i made! when they are on limited food they will eat things that are availible to excess.that causes mayjor problems! bombie ate loads of grit and i had to get it all out. it was hard work! i dont want you to have the same issue so if shes on soft foods id say no grit if shes having pellets then put a tiny bit of grit sprinkled in the run.if she needs it she'll find it but dont put a bowl of grit out for her as she may do a bombie on you and eat the lot!!
bogtown-im considering the surgery if i cant get it empty in the next couple of days. vets are expensive here and appointments are brief. total £200 so far and surgery probly £300 at a guess but we dont care we just love her so much. the vet receptionist calls her the most expensive chicken shes met!lol anyway the point is if i opt for surgery amd she eats something else the next day im back to squareone so i want the improvements on the run first.
shes doing ok with the collar really but dont know about staying with the others tonight as they are trying to peck at it thriugh the mesh!! idk!! lol xx

 

[pwand]

Thanks Shell. That helps, I'm feeding her laying crumbled soften with water. Today she seems less interested it.

 

[shell3]

what came out when you vomited her,did it smell sour, any bits in it? what colour? what thinkness? also is she on nystatin?

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Vets are pricey there too, huh? ugh. We have a new vet in the area: his dad was a Vet and not completely insane and it seems he is reasonable too. although he's got a young family, so not sure if he'll stay reasonable. I might ask him if he'd consider chickens in case I need him. anyhow...

At any rate: I found another link for you to look through if you have the strength to add yet to the stockpile of information overload you have. My goodness. But what did catch my eye is how to make your own crop bra/pattern. It's pretty basic and simple it looks. They suggest using stretch fabric bandaging I suppose like an ACE wrap. http://www.avianweb.com/slowcrop.html.

 

[pwand]

Hi Shell: it did smell a bit sour. She vommitted Basically her food, didnt see anthing diffent in it and a bit slimmy. Definetly not like the other day she passed like a big bloob of goop and grit looking. Thats when she started pooping small normal poops. I put her back out with the other two hens, it perked her up. She wasn't hardly touching her food. She's eating with the girls.

 

[shell3]

pwand - i found the same bombie wouldnt eat much when seperate but dis when let out with the others, sometimes i think they are better off with the flock and just checked on throughout the day,then just removed for what needs doing. after you emptied the crop how did it feel? was it empty completely and nice and flat or still some liquid? i found the nystatin got rid of the infection as long as i kept emptying it before each dose. then small frequent meals of soft almost watery mash every two hours. if you dont have nystatin i also used canesten to clear the infection and it worked well, in US you have monistat , its the same thing as far as i can tell. i got the pesery tablets ,3 in a box, split each tablet into 3 pieces and gave one piece morning and one afternoon til all gone , i disolved in water and dripped into beak. unfortunatly in my experience, if you dont empty the crop out of soured stuff then the infection dosnt seem to go. i hate making them vomit but i think it does help a lot.

bogtown- thanks for the link ill check it out, i can always use more info and appreciate you looking it up for me, im thamkful for the support more than you know xx
vets arnt cheap where ever you are it seems! i wish id have been one! its pretty hard going today and worst of all i brought her in an hour ago and fed her lots of warm water to loosen up the crop then managed to get some out but just food(not sour) however i can now feel masses of feathers in there and mighty big buggers they are too!! seems shes been getting wing feathers down!!!
i cant get that lot out, theres just no way, i spoke to vet and he is happy to opperate tomorrow to remove the blockage so thats proberly what im going to do. ill feel it in the morning but unless they pass over night which i just cant see then surgery may be the only option.
i am refining my run tomorrow, removing flooring and anything i think she may eat that shes not meant to. also she has the collar now but i think ill try to make a t shirt , maybe loose fit to cover wings too, we'll see. very exhausted but not giving up!! lol

 

[pwand]

Her crop isn't completely flat after I empty it. It's a bit mushy feeling,lose, feeling of grit too. I am on day three with the nystatin. I try to empty her crop as well and give her the nystatin and make her wait a bit before feeding her.

What about doing a flush with her first to see if you can get the feathers out.