- Thread starter
- #361
OK heres a summary of my experience:
I first noticed my hen was moving slowly and not eating she sat around a lot and didnt jump out of the coop with the others, when i checked her over i noticed her crop was big and felt like a big water balloon. i smelt her mouth but could not smell anything. i brought her inside and made her favourite food to encourage her to eat, it was only when, tempted by the food, she leaned down to eat and liquid spilt from her mouth, then i could smell the very strong sour smell. the liquid was a greyish colour.i couldnt feel any hard masses inside the crop so ruled out impacted crop and treated for sour crop.thou if you feel a hard mass you may be dealing with impaction, the advice ive read suggests giving veg oil and massaging the crop to loosen the mass.at times my hen had her beak open and her body shivered.
I recently descovered my hen has a diverticulum, an extra pouch along side the crop, this pouch should not be there, its a defect, therefore curing sour crop in this hen was complicated and it reoccured several times, i belive this is the reason it reoccured but this is just my best guess, im not an expert. due to it reoccuring i used a couple of treatments which were effective.
Treatments: Canesten thrush pesseries, i found a thread about monistat (you can put curing sour crop with monistat in the search bar) here in the uk we dont have monistat but i think canesten seems to be the same thing. i got a pack of 3 canesten pesseries and split each tablet into 3 pieces, i gave 1 piece morning and 1 piece evening until all tablets were finished. i crushed them in a tiny amount of water and used a syringe to drip it onto the side of her mouth.
Nystatin, this was prescribed by the vet and i gave 4.5ml every 12 hours. its liquid and i syringed it onto the side of her mouth. the vet also precribed antibiotics, though wether these helped get rid of the sour crop or were just a 'cover all basis' approach im not sure.
Emptying the crop, i found that emptying the crop helped for a couple of reasons, firstly if done before medication is given i think it gives the meds an easier environment to treat and secondly it makes the chicken feel better, it stopped her from shivering and she could breathe more easily and so closed her beak. it also made her want to eat again.
i'd never done this before and found it really scary, i read up online about how to do it and made a decision, please anyone reading this,do the same, look it up and make your own decision. it is a risky thing to do as the chicken can aspirate fluid into the lungs and that can kill them. the way i do it is to wrap her in a towel leaving hust her head and crop area uncovered then tuck her under my arm like a football with my hand against her crop, then i tip her forwards(over a toilet or bowl) so shes almost upside down and use my other hand to gently straighten her neck by pushing her head down gently. ive found that if the crop is really full of fluid the angle is enough to empty the crop, it just poors out, but sometimes,especially if the contents is think and gloopy or has bits of hay ect in it it dosnt empty so easily and in that case i massaged the crop gently to help bring it out. once the liquid starts to come out i always lifted her back upright after about 5-6 seconds to let her breathe and get her bearings before trying again and i normally only had two attempts at a time to reduce how stressed she got because i feared she would more easily choke the more stressed she became. Note: if using the canesten treatment, dont empty the crop until the next meds are due as it froths in the crop and i had a very frightening experience when the froth emptied out and came out of her eyes and nose!!
Flushes: some people have had good results using flushes of epsom salts and water or baking soda, you can use a tube with a syringe attached (needle removed!) to suck the fluid out of the crop and then flush with the solution. i never did this so cant give much advice other than to say you need to avoid the trachea (to the lungs) when inserting a tube. and my vet gave a tube that was too large to fit in the trachea. i used liquid parafin or oil to lubricate the tube so it slides down easier. once in you should be able to feel the end of the tube in the crop and if using a wide tube you should see it in the neck, the trachea is at the back. if you search this site for crop flushes you will find advice and solution amounts.
Ive found that curing sour crop can be a long and frustrating process and often a couple of courses of treatment are needed to get rid of it completely. when the crop starts to be empty in the mornings again i would advise carrying on with meds for another 5 or so days to make sure its really gone, this is just my opinion of course.
Preventing reoccurance: copper sulphate can be added to the drinking water, this is meant to help prevent the sour crop from returning thou im yet to try it.
Apple cider vinegar in the water, i do use this but when she actually had sour crop i stopped using it as a vet told me it was not helpful to the crop while it was infected as its too acidic, so i only use as a preventitive.
Spice mix: ive started adding ginger cinnamon and garlic to their mash and above in a previous post is the link i used to make up the mix. this smells great and they love the taste and its a very natural preventative. ive only recently started doing it so cant coment on its effectivness.
sour crop is caused in some cases by food sitting too long in the crop, things like hay and long grass cause some chickens problems. a lovely person on here who gave me good advice had this issue and everytime her hen had grass she got sour crop, her hen no longer gets access to grass and is thriving.
She also advised soft food, which helped me a lot, i fed pellets mashed in water to form a paste like food. mine love it , they think its a treat and it gives the crop an easier job until its had time to heal. then just thicken it slowly back to normal.
i managed to get her to eat by mashing the food and i added chicken health supplements to the mash, food supplements and chicken vet amino + for times of moult or stress, i believe these helped her to keep some weight on, thou she still has a lot to gain back.
My hen 'Bombie' is doing ok, she has other complacations which will mean only time will tell how well she will do but she has not had the sour crop back yet.
I think ive managed to cover most of my long experience in a quite short post, if i missed anything or anyone wants to ask any questions please do, ill say again , i am not a chicken expert!! this was my first experience with a poorly chicken but i think ive looked up most the advice and info availible on this subject! lol
shell xxx
I first noticed my hen was moving slowly and not eating she sat around a lot and didnt jump out of the coop with the others, when i checked her over i noticed her crop was big and felt like a big water balloon. i smelt her mouth but could not smell anything. i brought her inside and made her favourite food to encourage her to eat, it was only when, tempted by the food, she leaned down to eat and liquid spilt from her mouth, then i could smell the very strong sour smell. the liquid was a greyish colour.i couldnt feel any hard masses inside the crop so ruled out impacted crop and treated for sour crop.thou if you feel a hard mass you may be dealing with impaction, the advice ive read suggests giving veg oil and massaging the crop to loosen the mass.at times my hen had her beak open and her body shivered.
I recently descovered my hen has a diverticulum, an extra pouch along side the crop, this pouch should not be there, its a defect, therefore curing sour crop in this hen was complicated and it reoccured several times, i belive this is the reason it reoccured but this is just my best guess, im not an expert. due to it reoccuring i used a couple of treatments which were effective.
Treatments: Canesten thrush pesseries, i found a thread about monistat (you can put curing sour crop with monistat in the search bar) here in the uk we dont have monistat but i think canesten seems to be the same thing. i got a pack of 3 canesten pesseries and split each tablet into 3 pieces, i gave 1 piece morning and 1 piece evening until all tablets were finished. i crushed them in a tiny amount of water and used a syringe to drip it onto the side of her mouth.
Nystatin, this was prescribed by the vet and i gave 4.5ml every 12 hours. its liquid and i syringed it onto the side of her mouth. the vet also precribed antibiotics, though wether these helped get rid of the sour crop or were just a 'cover all basis' approach im not sure.
Emptying the crop, i found that emptying the crop helped for a couple of reasons, firstly if done before medication is given i think it gives the meds an easier environment to treat and secondly it makes the chicken feel better, it stopped her from shivering and she could breathe more easily and so closed her beak. it also made her want to eat again.
i'd never done this before and found it really scary, i read up online about how to do it and made a decision, please anyone reading this,do the same, look it up and make your own decision. it is a risky thing to do as the chicken can aspirate fluid into the lungs and that can kill them. the way i do it is to wrap her in a towel leaving hust her head and crop area uncovered then tuck her under my arm like a football with my hand against her crop, then i tip her forwards(over a toilet or bowl) so shes almost upside down and use my other hand to gently straighten her neck by pushing her head down gently. ive found that if the crop is really full of fluid the angle is enough to empty the crop, it just poors out, but sometimes,especially if the contents is think and gloopy or has bits of hay ect in it it dosnt empty so easily and in that case i massaged the crop gently to help bring it out. once the liquid starts to come out i always lifted her back upright after about 5-6 seconds to let her breathe and get her bearings before trying again and i normally only had two attempts at a time to reduce how stressed she got because i feared she would more easily choke the more stressed she became. Note: if using the canesten treatment, dont empty the crop until the next meds are due as it froths in the crop and i had a very frightening experience when the froth emptied out and came out of her eyes and nose!!
Flushes: some people have had good results using flushes of epsom salts and water or baking soda, you can use a tube with a syringe attached (needle removed!) to suck the fluid out of the crop and then flush with the solution. i never did this so cant give much advice other than to say you need to avoid the trachea (to the lungs) when inserting a tube. and my vet gave a tube that was too large to fit in the trachea. i used liquid parafin or oil to lubricate the tube so it slides down easier. once in you should be able to feel the end of the tube in the crop and if using a wide tube you should see it in the neck, the trachea is at the back. if you search this site for crop flushes you will find advice and solution amounts.
Ive found that curing sour crop can be a long and frustrating process and often a couple of courses of treatment are needed to get rid of it completely. when the crop starts to be empty in the mornings again i would advise carrying on with meds for another 5 or so days to make sure its really gone, this is just my opinion of course.
Preventing reoccurance: copper sulphate can be added to the drinking water, this is meant to help prevent the sour crop from returning thou im yet to try it.
Apple cider vinegar in the water, i do use this but when she actually had sour crop i stopped using it as a vet told me it was not helpful to the crop while it was infected as its too acidic, so i only use as a preventitive.
Spice mix: ive started adding ginger cinnamon and garlic to their mash and above in a previous post is the link i used to make up the mix. this smells great and they love the taste and its a very natural preventative. ive only recently started doing it so cant coment on its effectivness.
sour crop is caused in some cases by food sitting too long in the crop, things like hay and long grass cause some chickens problems. a lovely person on here who gave me good advice had this issue and everytime her hen had grass she got sour crop, her hen no longer gets access to grass and is thriving.
She also advised soft food, which helped me a lot, i fed pellets mashed in water to form a paste like food. mine love it , they think its a treat and it gives the crop an easier job until its had time to heal. then just thicken it slowly back to normal.
i managed to get her to eat by mashing the food and i added chicken health supplements to the mash, food supplements and chicken vet amino + for times of moult or stress, i believe these helped her to keep some weight on, thou she still has a lot to gain back.
My hen 'Bombie' is doing ok, she has other complacations which will mean only time will tell how well she will do but she has not had the sour crop back yet.
I think ive managed to cover most of my long experience in a quite short post, if i missed anything or anyone wants to ask any questions please do, ill say again , i am not a chicken expert!! this was my first experience with a poorly chicken but i think ive looked up most the advice and info availible on this subject! lol
shell xxx
i think its nice for people to see how well shes recovered and hopefully these posts will take some of the anxiety away for anyone else dealing with simular issues. when i first got chickens lots of people told me they were such fragile creatures and will keel over and die at the first sign of illness! but my bombie and others chickens on here including bogtowns 'roger' have taught me that, that is complete nonsense! these birds are fighters and strong in body and mind 
