Sarahh_Janeyy
Songster
Our problem chicken Chipmunk, a speckled sussex, who survived wry neck and feathering issues due to insufficient vitamins and good gut bacteria as a 3 month old, is a year and a half old now and is having issues with sour crop. Here's her backstory:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/feathering-in-speckled-sussex.1368639/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ex-need-advice-on-care-not-treatment.1379931/
On Friday afternoon we noticed she was starting to fall asleep standing up and was off on her own, and I noticed her crop looked enlarged. When I went to go see what might be the matter with her, she regurgitated some liquid that did not smell good.. Of course, this happened on a Friday afternoon, after 5pm, which means she had to see the emergency exotic vet. $$$
They removed 150ml of foul smelling liquid and held it for cytology. They ultrasounded her and did some blood work- everything looked good, no lead toxicity. But that's all they could do after hours, as the clinical pathologist wasn't there. We brought her home and withheld food for the night. The next day, her crop was full again (she was guzzling water and I imagine the yeast was doing its thing..) We brought her back and they removed another 120ml of liquid, did a saline crop wash, and cytology confirmed yeast infection so they started her on Nystatin. The Dr. explained to us that the sour crop was a secondary condition and that it would come back if they didn't find what the primary issue was.. We gave her her medicine Saturday night with some scrambled egg (she was ravenous). Sunday morning, her crop was still distended. We brought her back. They removed more liquid and gave her more medication. They told us to bring her back Monday morning for x-rays to see if there was any impaction/what was going on. At this point they said that her white cell count was normal, but they were going to have a clinical pathologist look at them more closely to see if there were any changes to the morphology of the white blood cells.
We brought her back this morning, she had her x-rays, and the Dr. just called us. She said there wasn't anything really abnormal besides some gas in her GI tract and other than that there was about the normal amount of grit and food materials there. They looked at the white cells and said their morphology did look different so they felt it indicated some sort of bacterial infection. They wanted to keep her over night, hospitalized, and give her the medications and fluids there, as well as give her formula and see if they could get some nutrition in her and get her GI tract moving again.
All of this is $$$$. Like holy crap, this chicken is only a year and a half old and she's cost us a couple thousand already. And looking around this forum, I know that's a bit unusual, but we are really attached to her. I've been having a lot of trouble because I search for all these issues she has, and what I read online honestly really conflicts with what the poultry vets tell me. And I wonder, how qualified are the people who are making these videos and blog posts about how to treat your backyard chickens? Up until now, I just thought sour crop happened sometimes and you do x, y, z to deal with it. But the vet is telling me it happens because the yeast is opportunistic, and there is probably something else going on. In Chip's case, she has crop stasis for some unknown reason.
Every time I think I know something, I bring this chicken to the vet and the vet gives me a whole lesson on how wrong stuff on the internet is :/ And I hate to say it, but if I had listened to the stuff I read here and elsewhere, she'd be dead 3 or 4 times over by now. I hope if someone comes searching for crop issues and finds this post- if you can afford the vet, do it. I'm not sure if she'll pull through or not but if we hadn't brought her, I'm pretty sure she'd be dead already.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/feathering-in-speckled-sussex.1368639/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ex-need-advice-on-care-not-treatment.1379931/
On Friday afternoon we noticed she was starting to fall asleep standing up and was off on her own, and I noticed her crop looked enlarged. When I went to go see what might be the matter with her, she regurgitated some liquid that did not smell good.. Of course, this happened on a Friday afternoon, after 5pm, which means she had to see the emergency exotic vet. $$$
They removed 150ml of foul smelling liquid and held it for cytology. They ultrasounded her and did some blood work- everything looked good, no lead toxicity. But that's all they could do after hours, as the clinical pathologist wasn't there. We brought her home and withheld food for the night. The next day, her crop was full again (she was guzzling water and I imagine the yeast was doing its thing..) We brought her back and they removed another 120ml of liquid, did a saline crop wash, and cytology confirmed yeast infection so they started her on Nystatin. The Dr. explained to us that the sour crop was a secondary condition and that it would come back if they didn't find what the primary issue was.. We gave her her medicine Saturday night with some scrambled egg (she was ravenous). Sunday morning, her crop was still distended. We brought her back. They removed more liquid and gave her more medication. They told us to bring her back Monday morning for x-rays to see if there was any impaction/what was going on. At this point they said that her white cell count was normal, but they were going to have a clinical pathologist look at them more closely to see if there were any changes to the morphology of the white blood cells.
We brought her back this morning, she had her x-rays, and the Dr. just called us. She said there wasn't anything really abnormal besides some gas in her GI tract and other than that there was about the normal amount of grit and food materials there. They looked at the white cells and said their morphology did look different so they felt it indicated some sort of bacterial infection. They wanted to keep her over night, hospitalized, and give her the medications and fluids there, as well as give her formula and see if they could get some nutrition in her and get her GI tract moving again.
All of this is $$$$. Like holy crap, this chicken is only a year and a half old and she's cost us a couple thousand already. And looking around this forum, I know that's a bit unusual, but we are really attached to her. I've been having a lot of trouble because I search for all these issues she has, and what I read online honestly really conflicts with what the poultry vets tell me. And I wonder, how qualified are the people who are making these videos and blog posts about how to treat your backyard chickens? Up until now, I just thought sour crop happened sometimes and you do x, y, z to deal with it. But the vet is telling me it happens because the yeast is opportunistic, and there is probably something else going on. In Chip's case, she has crop stasis for some unknown reason.
Every time I think I know something, I bring this chicken to the vet and the vet gives me a whole lesson on how wrong stuff on the internet is :/ And I hate to say it, but if I had listened to the stuff I read here and elsewhere, she'd be dead 3 or 4 times over by now. I hope if someone comes searching for crop issues and finds this post- if you can afford the vet, do it. I'm not sure if she'll pull through or not but if we hadn't brought her, I'm pretty sure she'd be dead already.
There's just so much that can cause all these issues. We've been to the vet over and over again and still- they called Chip a "medical mystery". /sigh
Yet you come back for advice.
On the off chance someone says something that helps, or this helps someone else.. It's Saturday night so I can't bring her to the vet right now.
