Treating for Sour crop: she’s getting worse

[Nanadd]

Update: She’s gotten worse overnight. She can’t keep her head up at all. She is still breathing but can barely open her eyes. I don’t know what to do. Could she be allergic to the micaazole? Possible underlying condition? I feel awful syringe feeding her another dose as today is day 4 and she has only gone downhill from when I started. Not sure what to do.
I have a 3yo Speckled Sussex who has sour crop. I’ve been treating her with 2% micanazole twice a day for 3 days. Her crop now feels like it’s full of gas. Like a balloon. When she does poop it is very dark black and sticks to her vent feathers. Her crop is falling over and purple. When I gave her her dose this morning she was standing up and able to mover herself around. Fast forward to now and she cannot get up on her own. She is trying to drink but little drops of opaque lights come out of her beak after she takes a drink. She took a bite of mash and it looked like that for “spit up” also. I am not sure what to do at this point. Do I stop with the micanazole? She seems to want to move around and get a drink and eat but she cannot walk now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Fast her until her crop empties as long as it's not longer than 24 hours. Limit her water supply, as she'll drink too much. Once her crop is empty, have her wear a crop bra until her week-long treatment is done.

Are you giving the micanazole to her in a syringe? Melt some coconut oil in the palm of your hand and suck it into a syringe and give it to her with at least one micanazole dose each day. (If you haven't been using a syringe on her, be careful not to give her too much before she's able to swallow it.) The micanazole helps with the sour crop and the coconut oil will help with stopping it from getting impacted. I've had to do this same treatment a few times with my SS, and whenever I didn't do the coconut oil with the micanazole, she had issues.

 

[Tookie]

So sorry she's not doing well.
Keep up the miconazole, for it to work best you must do the full length of treatment.
For more severe cases of sour crop, you can use Copper Sulfate. So you may want to look into that.
She's spitting up because her crop is completely full, chickens don't vomit so the crop contents will flow out of their mouth. Now, people do empty the crop by flipping the chicken over and massaging, but its risky and can cause aspiration, I don't recommend. I haven't completely flipped over a chicken that has a full crop, but I have tilted their head down enough and crop contents will come out, while keeping them standing up on the ground. All I do is tilt the head forward and liquid will come out, but that will only work for a crop more on the full side. So if you do that at some point you won't be able to get more out. I think that its different and safer than the other method. I have done it several times without any issue. But, do what you are comfortable with.
I would also limit water and food intake for a bit so her crop can get at least somewhat empty.
What is everything you are feeding her?
That's too bad she can't walk, I've found with movement crop function is better. So if she gets the strength to walk I would encourage it.

 

[Nanadd]

Fast her until her crop empties as long as it's not longer than 24 hours. Limit her water supply, as she'll drink too much. Once her crop is empty, have her wear a crop bra until her week-long treatment is done.

Are you giving the micanazole to her in a syringe? Melt some coconut oil in the palm of your hand and suck it into a syringe and give it to her with at least one micanazole dose each day. (If you haven't been using a syringe on her, be careful not to give her too much before she's able to swallow it.) The micanazole helps with the sour crop and the coconut oil will help with stopping it from getting impacted. I've had to do this same treatment a few times with my SS, and whenever I didn't do the coconut oil with the micanazole, she had issues.

Thank you so much for the advice. I am using a syringe for the micanazole. I will add in the coconut oil with her next dose. She did have an issue with impacted crop about a month ago and I when did use coconut oil it helped but I fear I did not use it long enough and we’ve snowballed to where we are today. Again thank you.

 

[Nanadd]

So sorry she's not doing well.
Keep up the miconazole, for it to work best you must do the full length of treatment.
For more severe cases of sour crop, you can use Copper Sulfate. So you may want to look into that.
She's spitting up because her crop is completely full, chickens don't vomit so the crop contents will flow out of their mouth. Now, people do empty the crop by flipping the chicken over and massaging, but its risky and can cause aspiration, I don't recommend. I haven't completely flipped over a chicken that has a full crop, but I have tilted their head down enough and crop contents will come out, while keeping them standing up on the ground. All I do is tilt the head forward and liquid will come out, but that will only work for a crop more on the full side. So if you do that at some point you won't be able to get more out. I think that its different and safer than the other method. I have done it several times without any issue. But, do what you are comfortable with.
I would also limit water and food intake for a bit so her crop can get at least somewhat empty.
What is everything you are feeding her?
That's too bad she can't walk, I've found with movement crop function is better. So if she gets the strength to walk I would encourage it.

Firstly thank you for replying so quickly! I really appreciate the help. I have been feeding her layer crumble with a little plain Greek yogurt and water as a mash. Also she seems to perk up when I add a meal worm or two in her dish. I have read about emptying the crop by flipping the hen but I am afraid with all the contents in her crop that she might aspirate it and I don’t want to chance it. She is my favorite bird of course. If it comes to it and she is able to stand somewhat on her own I might try tilting her head like you described. I also have given her some nutri drench because she is getting very thin. I’m gonna keep my fingers crossed and hope she pulls through.
Again Thank you.

 

[ChicNmom]

Her sour crop may be caused by a blockage further down her system.
Until you get that moving there may not be any progress.

I recently had a similar problem with a hen. I also don't usually recommend vomiting a chicken because if you do it wrong they can aspirate on the fluids. However, I'm going to tell you how I did it in case you really feel it's necessary. My hen already had fluid backing up in her throat so I had nothing to lose.

Hug the chicken's back into your chest. You may want a loose hand over it's neck as it will try to keep it's neck/head level.

Then you and the chicken bend forward leaning to your right side for 2 seconds. My hen needed another half second. Don't lean to your left as their airway is on the left side.

To clear the impaction in my hen I first tried a stool softener
(docusate sodium) 1 capsule. That got some things moving. After a day her crop was a little better but still very full. So I did a version of a molasses flush to clear her gizzard. Normally 1 tsp molasses in 1/4 cup of warm water.

Since my hens crop was full of water anyway I just gave her 1/2 tsp molasses. Over the next 24 hours her digestion cleared which took care of the watery crop.

 

[Nanadd]

Her sour crop may be caused by a blockage further down her system.
Until you get that moving there may not be any progress.

I recently had a similar problem with a hen. I also don't usually recommend vomiting a chicken because if you do it wrong they can aspirate on the fluids. However, I'm going to tell you how I did it in case you really feel it's necessary. My hen already had fluid backing up in her throat so I had nothing to lose.

Hug the chicken's back into your chest. You may want a loose hand over it's neck as it will try to keep it's neck/head level.

Then you and the chicken bend forward leaning to your right side for 2 seconds. My hen needed another half second. Don't lean to your left as their airway is on the left side.

To clear the impaction in my hen I first tried a stool softener
(docusate sodium) 1 capsule. That got some things moving. After a day her crop was a little better but still very full. So I did a version of a molasses flush to clear her gizzard. Normally 1 tsp molasses in 1/4 cup of warm water.

Since my hens crop was full of water anyway I just gave her 1/2 tsp molasses. Over the next 24 hours her digestion cleared which took care of the watery

I don’t know what else to do at this point. She has gotten worse overnight. She can no longer hold her head up and I can tell it is an effort for her to open her eyes.( She did once when I lifted her head up ) She is still breathing deep breathes I can see as she lays there. I am afraid to give her the micanazole dose because she has only gone downhill since I started that. We started that because of sour crop and her crop seems a little more empty today but she looks lifeless. If you didn’t observe her breathing you wouldn’t know she was alive.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I don’t know what else to do at this point. She has gotten worse overnight. She can no longer hold her head up and I can tell it is an effort for her to open her eyes.( She did once when I lifted her head up ) She is still breathing deep breathes I can see as she lays there. I am afraid to give her the micanazole dose because she has only gone downhill since I started that. We started that because of sour crop and her crop seems a little more empty today but she looks lifeless. If you didn’t observe her breathing you wouldn’t know she was alive.

Have you fasted her to empty her crop at all? Have you started giving her the coconut oil yet? Have you tried making her vomit yet? Stop the micanazole treatment and give her a sugar water mix of molasses and water. (This is for if she has blockage, plus it should give her a strength boost. ) The micanazole is dangerous to consume (as it will say on the package), but so far it has been fine for everyone's chickens in treating the crop. Hopefully this isn't a bad reaction to it.

Could you post a picture of the micanazole that you're giving her, specifically of the label? What's the expiration date on it? Did you just buy this and start giving to her after you opened it, or has it been opened for awhile?

 

[Nanadd]

Thank you.
I’m heading to the store now to buy some molasses. The micanazole I bought this past Sunday. It is the Walmart brand 7 day 2% percent cream. I’ll take a pic of the label and expiration date when I get home. I opened the package Monday morning right before I gave it to her. I fasted her to empty her crop. I started giving her coconut oil yesterday. Should I try dropper feeding her the molasses or probably should syringe feed as she can’t keep her head up by herself?

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Thank you.
I’m heading to the store now to buy some molasses. The micanazole I bought this past Sunday. It is the Walmart brand 7 day 2% percent cream. I’ll take a pic of the label and expiration date when I get home. I opened the package Monday morning right before I gave it to her. I fasted her to empty her crop. I started giving her coconut oil yesterday. Should I try dropper feeding her the molasses or probably should syringe feed as she can’t keep her head up by herself?

Try getting her to drink it herself by dipping her beak in the water a few times. If she doesn't drink it on her own, carefully give it to her in a syringe by putting it on her tongue and try getting her to drink it that way.