Swollen crop? lethargic, won't eat, head tucked, standing alone *DIED*

[kikster]

I don't know what's wrong with my girl. She was a very energetic (actually quite flighty), pretty well laying, hen just a week ago. But in the past week, she has become more and more withdrawn. Sometimes she will not come down from the roost, and when she does, she just stands in a corner and tucks her head as if sleeping or trying to lay, however she is standing up. She assumes this position whether she is on a roost, on the ground, or standing on the poop board (something she just started doing, just standing on the poop board with her head tucked). Her upper body positioning is as if she's laying (body kinda puffed out, neck scrunched down, w/head resting on chest) but she is standing (almost squatting, a slight bend in the knee). She won't eat or drink that I've seen, and her comb and wattles are becoming very pale. Needless to say, she is not laying right now.

We did go through a food change recently. We ran out while waiting for our usual shipment of organic layer feed to come in (we order from Countryside), so we had to give them an alternate feed for a little over a week while we waited. We noticed a drop in egg production from all of the other ladies, and one went broody, which we understood could happen, but now the others are slowly getting used to the old food again (but she won't touch it). She started this about a week into the substitute feed, though, so I don't know if that's an issue.

This is my one hen that usually eats ANYTHING, so she's the last one I would think has issues with switching it out. She's really starting to scare me, though, because she looks so sick. I keep offering her other goodies that I know that she likes (eggshells, yogurt, bread, etc)., but she's not taking any of it. What can I do to help her? I'm scared she's dying!!

FYI: she's still under a year old, we got her and her sister from a fall festival (@cox farms, VA) in Nov last yr., who hatched her from McMurray's last summer.

 

[chickenzoo]

Have you wormed your chickens? worms can cause them to go down hill fast. Also check for egg binding incase an egg is stuck.

 

[kikster]

She doesn't seem to be egg bound, I don't know if it can be a swollen crop? It looks swollen because of how she sits, but when we get her to straighten her head/neck, it looks a little better. Since she's a (bantam) Cornish, and pretty meaty as is, I can't tell if it's just how she's built or if something is wrong with her crop. My son has her right now, (a)on a heating pad in his lap- in case she's egg bound, and (b) massaging her crop, in case it's impacted. She's enjoying all the lovin, but I don't know if it's helping her at all. He's so worried that she's gonna die...

Here's some pics my son got of her:

I don't know why her feet were doing that while he had her in the house, she kept acting like something was wrong with her legs, but after a while she was walking on them fine. ...???

And here's her sister (how she would usually look)

 

[LindsayB]

her crop looks very large in the photos. you can try mixing one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a gallon water and see if she will drink that. I know its supposed to help with sour crop and just very good for them anyways. My pullets have it in their water everyday. It also discourages bacteria growth in their water and their crop I believe. I know I was reading on here that if you give them olive oil it helps out with impacted crop. They said to soak some bread crumbs in it. I'm not an expert, I'm just going off what I read on here! lol Hopefully someone else can help you out more. It does look like its her crop though. are you providing grit?

 

[kikster]

Yes, she has access to grit, and they get ACV in their water. I will try to give her some to help, though. I'm wondering if castor oil would help vs. olive oil, or is olive oil best? My son has been massaging her crop and she is starting to make choking type sounds (or as if she's trying to throw up, but can't)

 

[LindsayB]

hm.. the trying to throw up sounds like it could be sour crop, if i remember correctly. I thought castor oil makes you go to the bathroom?? Am I wrong? lol..... If it does I would just worry about it giving her diarrhea and then making her dehydrated. Look up some posts on here about impacted and sour crop and see if anything matches what symptoms she has.

 

[kikster]

We came home today, after administering oil treatments and giving acv (through dropper), and massaging, twice a day for the last few days, and our Snow White was gone. It was very hard for my son to see (he ran to check on her to see if she was able to pass any of the blockage in her crop, but found her on her side)...

My son begged DH to do the surgery today, he knew her time was getting shorter....I wish he'd listened.

This was our first flock death, we love our little girls, so this is hard for us.....

I pray that anyone else that goes through this will take action as soon as possible, to save their girl from such an untimely death....

 

[LindsayB]

I am so sorry for your loss. I have been waiting for an update on her and did not expect to see this posted. You did everything that you could do for her though. If she was already that weak then the surgery would of probably been too much for her body to handle. I hope your son is doing okay after finding her like that. That must been very hard for him. One afternoon last spring I went to go collect eggs from our coop and found my EE hen laying there on the ground. It was very hard. We still have no idea what happened to her. She was perfectly fine that morning. I've always felt guilty about it bc I think if I would of just walked outside earlier that day I would have been able to help her. But you did everything that you could and definitley alot more than most people would. I'm really sorry to hear about this, just be grateful that the rest of your girls are healthy and happy.

 

[chickenzoo]

So sorry................

It's so very hard to lose one so sweet.