Vet put my hen with sour crop on antibiotics… should I/can I also give her monistat?

[ChickInnMama]

You can tell if a chicken's crop is bothering them. Your hen will extend her neck and swivel it like a cobra. You can help the crop by massaging it. Cuddle her on your lap and gently massage the hard lump with your finger tips until you feel it break up and leave the crop.

This should correct within a week. If the crop appears to be filling up again instead, then we will do an Epsom salt flush. You will need to tube it. Have you ever tubed a chicken? You will need a small animal tube feeding kit you can get from a vet or from Amazon. It would be best to get this if you haven't already got it, to be prepared.

I haven’t tubed a chicken before, no. But I’ll go on Amazon now and find a small animals tube feeding kit so I have it just in case. I’m learning so much through all this!

 

[azygous]

Tubing is very easy. I'll walk you through it.

 

[ChickInnMama]

Tubing is very easy. I'll walk you through it.

@azygous I just gave her the 2nd (and last) dose of Valbazen this morning but her crop just never empties. Sometimes it’s down more than other times but it’s always pretty full still. It really hasn’t improved. She isn’t pooping a ton and some of her poop (maybe most of it but at least half) is still just watery diarrhea looking stuff. Should I do the Epsom salt flush? I did get a tubing kit thank you for all your help! We bought her a crop bra but it’s to loose so I just ordered a different one. We do think that seems to help a little bit anyway (we made a temporary one out of the sports tape that sticks to itself).

 

[azygous]

Tube feeding a chicken is about the safest most fool-proof things a chicken keeper can do. There is pretty nearly nothing that can go wrong. Even a child can do it, and this past spring, two kids on this forum successfully saved the lives of several hens in their flock by tubing this life-saving solution over three days.

You've got your feeding kit. Good. Cut the bottom of the tubing off at around nine or ten inches to make it easier to manage. Hold it up to the hen with the bottom of the tube at the bottom of the crop. Make a mark at the spot close to her beak. This will make it easy to judge when the tube is far enough into the crop.

You will prepare a solution of one-half cup warm water with one teaspoon Epsom salts. This will be tubed into the hens' crop in its entirety. You will do it two times a day for three consecutive days. Do it when the crop is at its emptiest. In fact, massage any crop contents so they leave the crop so there's plenty of room for all of the solution.

Now, what most people fear most - the part where you insert the tube. But this is very easy as the chicken has a direct channel going from the right side of the throat right into their crop, by-passing the airway so there is zero chance of aspiration.

After wrapping my chicken securely in a towel to confine wings, I hold my chicken on a work bench with my weak arm. With that hand I pry open the beak holding it open, and with my strong hand, I insert the tube in her right side of the beak, going slightly under the right side of the tongue. This channels the tube right into the esophagus which goes directly into the crop. You can see this in the photo below, only it will be the tube and not the syringe.

The first time if you hit the wrong hole your chicken will start to cough. It's okay, no harm, just back out and try again. Once the tube is in, the chicken will be calm and comfortable. Then you can begin feeding the solution. It feels pleasant to the chicken, and most are very cooperative throughout the process.

If the chicken struggles and bucks all of a sudden, it's not because of anything you did. They get bored and tired of the process like a toddler would. Pause until the chicken settles down again and finish. The whole process takes no more than five minutes. Each time you do it, it gets easier and quicker.

In between flushes, let her have her regular feed and plenty of fresh water. It may seem that this might stress a chicken, but most will tolerate it well, and even appear to be energized by it.

 

[ChickInnMama]

Tube feeding a chicken is about the safest most fool-proof things a chicken keeper can do. There is pretty nearly nothing that can go wrong. Even a child can do it, and this past spring, two kids on this forum successfully saved the lives of several hens in their flock by tubing this life-saving solution over three days.

You've got your feeding kit. Good. Cut the bottom of the tubing off at around nine or ten inches to make it easier to manage. Hold it up to the hen with the bottom of the tube at the bottom of the crop. Make a mark at the spot close to her beak. This will make it easy to judge when the tube is far enough into the crop.

You will prepare a solution of one-half cup warm water with one teaspoon Epsom salts. This will be tubed into the hens' crop in its entirety. You will do it two times a day for three consecutive days. Do it when the crop is at its emptiest. In fact, massage any crop contents so they leave the crop so there's plenty of room for all of the solution.

Now, what most people fear most - the part where you insert the tube. But this is very easy as the chicken has a direct channel going from the right side of the throat right into their crop, by-passing the airway so there is zero chance of aspiration.

After wrapping my chicken securely in a towel to confine wings, I hold my chicken on a work bench with my weak arm. With that hand I pry open the beak holding it open, and with my strong hand, I insert the tube in her right side of the beak, going slightly under the right side of the tongue. This channels the tube right into the esophagus which goes directly into the crop. You can see this in the photo below, only it will be the tube and not the syringe.

The first time if you hit the wrong hole your chicken will start to cough. It's okay, no harm, just back out and try again. Once the tube is in, the chicken will be calm and comfortable. Then you can begin feeding the solution. It feels pleasant to the chicken, and most are very cooperative throughout the process.

If the chicken struggles and bucks all of a sudden, it's not because of anything you did. They get bored and tired of the process like a toddler would. Pause until the chicken settles down again and finish. The whole process takes no more than five minutes. Each time you do it, it gets easier and quicker.

In between flushes, let her have her regular feed and plenty of fresh water. It may seem that this might stress a chicken, but most will tolerate it well, and even appear to be energized by it.View attachment 3986806

Wow! Thank you!! I’ll start today, thank you for the very detailed instructions!

 

[FAVEROLLES LOVER]

Yes, go ahead and worm the chickens. Not only will worms cause nutritional deficits but it can also cause blockages.

Worming is safe. It won't interfere with the antibiotic. Wormers mainly sedate the worms so they stop feeding in the intestines and then they are generally absorbed as "protein". However, with this hen, I suggest some precautions.

The day before you begin worming her, give her an electrolyte solution instead of plain water. One cup water with one teaspoon sugar and a pinch of salt and baking soda. This will stabilize her in the event she has a heavy worm load, which I suspect, and this will prevent her going into shock. Continue the electrolyte solution until you're finished worming her.

If there is a heavy worm load, she may need a heavy duty flush when worming is completed to flush the dead worms out so they don't form a blockage. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Please stick to this thread and don't go starting a new one. I'llfermented feed can potentially help prevent and alleviate sour crop in chickens because the fermentation process introduces beneficial probiotics, which help balance the bacteria in the crop and combat the yeast overgrowth that causes sour crop; essentially acting as a preventative measure against this condition by promoting a healthy gut microbiome. never find you to help you complete this treatment.

I have found that fermented feed can potentially help prevent and alleviate sour crop in chickens because the fermentation process introduces beneficial probiotics, which help balance the bacteria in the crop and combat the yeast overgrowth that causes sour crop; essentially acting as a preventative measure against this condition by promoting a healthy gut microbiome.

 

[ChickInnMama]

I have found that fermented feed can potentially help prevent and alleviate sour crop in chickens because the fermentation process introduces beneficial probiotics, which help balance the bacteria in the crop and combat the yeast overgrowth that causes sour crop; essentially acting as a preventative measure against this condition by promoting a healthy gut microbiome.

Thank you! I’ve done that in the past and I even tried it when my first hen was sick but I think she was too far gone at that point. I’ll try it again soon… do you use your regular feed? We give our girls crumbles, they won’t eat pellets for some reason. And when I ferment feed I use an organic scratch mix that I get from the feed store. Is that what you use for fermentation? Scratch? Thanks so much!!

 

[ChickInnMama]

Wow! Thank you!! I’ll start today, thank you for the very detailed instructions!

We did it for the first time this morning! I got her crop as empty as I could before we did it, thankfully my teen helped me because I couldn’t seem to get the tube to go down all the way into her crop and he did it the first try it was super full afterwards and she seemed to be kinda leaning to the right side so we put the crop bra back on her that we made to help hold it up. She seems to be doing okay so we put her back in the run with her little coop mate Josephine I’m so thankful for your detailed instructions and what to expect, it made it super easy (once my son got the tube in lol)!! So thank you again!!

 

[ChickInnMama]

@azygous I’m sorry to bother you again… I just had a quick question and I wanted to ask before it becomes and issue (if it even does). What do I do if her crop doesn’t empty after the first flush? It’s been 3 hours and I just went out to check on her and when I picked her up and felt her crop it was so full that it was coming up in her beak and smelled like poop. I thought it would be smaller not bigger? So if I go to do it later today and it’s still full do I skip it or do it anyway? I feel like if I put more in and it hasn’t emptied that it’s just going to overflow and choke her? Thanks so much!

 

[azygous]

No, you must never try to stuff more into a full crop.

It's a bad sign that the solution isn't emptying from her crop. It means she has a solid blockage in her track somewhere. The Epsom salt solution should gently stimulate the intestines to move any contents through, and the liquid follows to flush it completely down and out.

When the crop won't even drain liquid, it's a big problem. I'm going to have you do something that we don't usually recommend because it's risky. But the liquid in her crop is more of a danger for aspiration if it overflows in her airway.

Follow my instructions carefully.

1. Place the hen on the ground in between your feet while you are squatting.
2. Hold her by the shoulders and tilt her forward at a 45 degree angle. Do not squeeze the crop. This will allow gravity to pull some of the solution out of her crop.

This is for all who read this. Under no circumstances should you ever hold a chicken upside down to empty their crop.

Stop the Epsom salt flush for now. Let's see if the remaining solution in the crop can somehow go down enough to do some good.