Sunflower Seeds

[lauranickerson]

I just rushed my Leghorn to a vet for the first time because she was having what looked to be respiratory distress. The vet picked her up and immediately said "Well, she's under weight, and has an impacted crop."

I told her I feed the flock layer pellets, cracked corn, and sunflower seeds. She said I should stop feeding sunflower seeds because it almost always leads to impacted crop.

I felt the Leghorn's crop. Yeah, it was kind of full and hard, but that's because I took her to the vet within 30 minutes of her eating her breakfast, and didn't have a chance to drink water yet. And ALL of my chickens feel the same way, every day. I feed them once, then they free range the rest of the day, and seem to always have a full crop, except for early in the morning before I let them out for breakfast again.

Are sunflower seeds bad? EVERYWHERE I've read on here says they are beneficial.

She also looked at me weird when I said I use pine needles as bedding, which has proven to be one of the best things I've tried so far, and has also been said on here to be a good bedding material.

Any ideas? Is this lady just a quack or should I take her advice?

 

[Angiebubs]

Keep in mind this is just my opinion, but most vets are clueless when it comes to chickens or birds over all for that matter. (I used to have a business raising parrots and only found one qualified vet in CA where I was living at the time) Where I live now, I have taken chickens in and while they do have good general information, they don't know much about specifics. ( I now use a state vet diagnostic lab-cheaper and much more knowledgable)

Regarding sunflower seeds, I often toss out handfuls of these as treats. And during the winter I sprout sunflower seeds for them. When you think of what they would eat in the wild, they are nothing! And very high in protein so great to give when chickens are moulting.

 

[lauranickerson]

That's what I thought! I feed them the seeds for the protein. It seems to help with feather pecking in my situation. She said save the seeds for the wild birds. In my head I said "What's the difference? They have the same anatomy, just on a bigger scale."

I asked Craigslist a few months back who around my area deals with chickens, and someone recommended her. I probably won't go back because it cost me $80 just for the exam and for her to inject some stuff in her crop to soften it up.

I also didn't keep her isolated. Her breathing was more or less back to normal, so I wasn't worried.

 

[Angiebubs]

I would look to see if there is a state vet diagnostic lab in your area. While you can't bring in live birds, you can send in fecal samples for testing and I want to say it cost like $20? for complete testing. I also had an autopsy done on a bird for around $70