There is a lot of good info here on Sour crop / impacted crop but I wanted to mention what happened to my FBCM hen recently.
First my oldest Marans hens stopped laying. I struggled to figure out why for a week or so until after the 3rd examination of one of the hens I found her crop was very full it had been the other 2 times but I had just fed them so did not take notice.
Once I realized something was wrong I immediately brought her to an open space where I held her up close to my body (while she faced forward) and bent myself over in turn bending her with me so that she tilted forward so that the liquid building up in her would come out. I would tip over and she would vomit and then I would stand upright and give her a few moments while I massaged her crop and then repeated. Once I got the liquid out and some bits of feed her crop still has something in it but was much smaller.
I then read up here on BYC and contacted DR brown. I had 2 choices, cull or try to fix, well I figured death was inevitable so I opted for fixing.
I acquired and per instructions some Acidified Copper Sulfate and put it in her water and made up a mash of the following
1 hard boiled egg, shredded apple, yogurt, starter feed, a little olive oil, squirt of poly-vi-sol, and some warm water medicated with the Acidified Copper Sulfate medicine 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of water. I blended it all together till it was an easy moving liquid that I could fill a large needless syringe with that I then attached tubing to.
I measured the distance from the crop to the tip of her beak on the tube marking it with a sharpie marker, and cut a little bit longer so that I could handle the feeding syringe easily and would know when I was in far enough.
Opening her mouth (I had PC helping me) and using a flashlight I avoided the breathing tube that is right behind their tongue and tube fed her until her crop was full.
The medicine would not break up what was inside but rather it would change the ph balance so that it would not be sour and so that bad bacteria could not grow inside.
I continued this treatment with regular times each morning where I would make her throw up again since nothing seemed to be passing the crop and then refill with a new batch of the food mix I made each day so that it would be fresh.
I was never able to get whatever it was to pass the crop though, and each day she declined I worked at it for a week. I started thinking of doing a crop surgery myself the next day , or to cull her but she passed that night.
I needed to see what on earth had gone wrong so I did a necropsy.
She was filled with straw, I had a month earlier gotten some by mistake instead of hay for their nest boxes and like others at BYC have warned she ate it. Short of surgery she never would have made it as nothing was able to pass the huge wad of straw inside her.
Another medication that I did not try but is similar to the copper sulfate is Nystain (sp?) which I believe does similar things with the PH in the crop and tries to help move things along. I also tried wine the first night hearing it helps pass everything through (just a little bit 8-10 drops).
below are pics of it.
her crop
her gizzard as you can see is just grit and green stuff the styraw from her crop pictured avove right side.
I would love it if anyone has something to add or a different treatment that they add it here there is great info on this particular problem but the threads have become quiet long and I though it would be nice to have a shortened version of it with just treatments and info.
I also have to add it is always the best birds that die too soon. This particular hen and her sister (who is still not laying but in molt and not ill) lay my darkest eggs some seen in the pic I use for my auctions. She was a very sweet hen and very nice but I know I did my best I will never allow straw near anything again as I interchange the word straw and hay often but am much more conscious of the repercussions to making such a mistake.
First my oldest Marans hens stopped laying. I struggled to figure out why for a week or so until after the 3rd examination of one of the hens I found her crop was very full it had been the other 2 times but I had just fed them so did not take notice.
Once I realized something was wrong I immediately brought her to an open space where I held her up close to my body (while she faced forward) and bent myself over in turn bending her with me so that she tilted forward so that the liquid building up in her would come out. I would tip over and she would vomit and then I would stand upright and give her a few moments while I massaged her crop and then repeated. Once I got the liquid out and some bits of feed her crop still has something in it but was much smaller.
I then read up here on BYC and contacted DR brown. I had 2 choices, cull or try to fix, well I figured death was inevitable so I opted for fixing.
I acquired and per instructions some Acidified Copper Sulfate and put it in her water and made up a mash of the following
1 hard boiled egg, shredded apple, yogurt, starter feed, a little olive oil, squirt of poly-vi-sol, and some warm water medicated with the Acidified Copper Sulfate medicine 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of water. I blended it all together till it was an easy moving liquid that I could fill a large needless syringe with that I then attached tubing to.
I measured the distance from the crop to the tip of her beak on the tube marking it with a sharpie marker, and cut a little bit longer so that I could handle the feeding syringe easily and would know when I was in far enough.
Opening her mouth (I had PC helping me) and using a flashlight I avoided the breathing tube that is right behind their tongue and tube fed her until her crop was full.
The medicine would not break up what was inside but rather it would change the ph balance so that it would not be sour and so that bad bacteria could not grow inside.
I continued this treatment with regular times each morning where I would make her throw up again since nothing seemed to be passing the crop and then refill with a new batch of the food mix I made each day so that it would be fresh.
I was never able to get whatever it was to pass the crop though, and each day she declined I worked at it for a week. I started thinking of doing a crop surgery myself the next day , or to cull her but she passed that night.
I needed to see what on earth had gone wrong so I did a necropsy.
She was filled with straw, I had a month earlier gotten some by mistake instead of hay for their nest boxes and like others at BYC have warned she ate it. Short of surgery she never would have made it as nothing was able to pass the huge wad of straw inside her.
Another medication that I did not try but is similar to the copper sulfate is Nystain (sp?) which I believe does similar things with the PH in the crop and tries to help move things along. I also tried wine the first night hearing it helps pass everything through (just a little bit 8-10 drops).
below are pics of it.
her crop
her gizzard as you can see is just grit and green stuff the styraw from her crop pictured avove right side.
I would love it if anyone has something to add or a different treatment that they add it here there is great info on this particular problem but the threads have become quiet long and I though it would be nice to have a shortened version of it with just treatments and info.
I also have to add it is always the best birds that die too soon. This particular hen and her sister (who is still not laying but in molt and not ill) lay my darkest eggs some seen in the pic I use for my auctions. She was a very sweet hen and very nice but I know I did my best I will never allow straw near anything again as I interchange the word straw and hay often but am much more conscious of the repercussions to making such a mistake.
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