AChickenBoi
Songster
- Oct 13, 2019
- 123
- 137
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Ever since my roo, Blue, got what I believe to be sour crop, he’s stopped eating and drinking by himself, and will usually stay hunched up and watching the girls. He is painfully thin, his keel bone sticks out to where I can’t feel anything but bone, and I can’t feel any muscle on him, just feathers and bones. I’m getting increasingly stressed out because he was perfectly fine a few weeks ago, before I found that his crop wasn’t emptying overnight, and he always was thin, but this is terrible and I feel horrible that nothing I’m feeding him or trying to get rid of is working as well as I thought it would.
Quick overview of his symptoms and situation:
1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.) Blue is a 2-3 year old Silkie, with blue coloration, hence his name. I do not have an exact weight on him, but just by holding him, he feels like he weighs a pound or less, which, according to most sources, is terribly underweight since the average Silkie rooster weighs 4 pounds, or 1.8 kg. I will post an update on his weight in the comments once I find the friggin scale somewhere in the house.
2) What is the behavior, exactly?
Blue has stopped eating or drinking most things. The only thing that catches his attention is mealworms, his favorite treat. He refuses to drink from the fountain, probably because he’s too weak to step onto the stone and bend down to drink. He stays hunched up either near the jasmine in the yard, or somewhere near the flock, so I know he still sticks near them. I need to syringe feed him food and water to make sure he is getting the bare minimum. It’s at it’s worst on colder days, but thankfully it’s warming up some.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? For 1 week and a couple days, he has had sour crop, or at least something that causes his crop to not empty all the way.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No.
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. He’s a fast eater, and it was about a month ago that he caught wet fowl pox, so eating a lot and trying to regain weight he lost during that time could have caused sour crop.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Until recently, he has only had water with either garlic or apple cider vinegar, or plain yogurt. I gave in yesterday and broke my own rule of “don’t give him any solids until his crop emptied” by letting him fill on mealworms since that’s the only thing he’s ever happy to eat anymore. I have an entire diet planned out for when he gets better for him to eat so he hopefully gains weight, but his current situation is making me scared that he won’t survive through what he has.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. it’s very watery, where there are undigested bits of mealworms from yesterday and scratch/grain from weeks ago slowly pushing through his tract. It has a greenish look to it.
9) What has been the treatment you administered so far? Syringe feeding him yogurt, garlic water, and diluted apple cider vinegar. He had a small dose of monistat cream for his sour crop every morning and evening, but it didn’t seem to do anything, and my parents decided to not have me use anymore on him. I plan to get a crop bra for him, as it may help support his crop and help things go along.
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I don’t think I’ll be able to afford a vet’s appointment, I hardly afforded the vet’s appointment for his wet pox, so I assume it’s safe to say I don’t have an option whether he can go to the vet.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. (Bottom of page)
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use. He sleeps in a large dog kennel every night, with the bottom being newspaper that is changed every night. He sleeps in our garage where it is usually a moderate-warm temperature.
The question is: what can I feed Blue that is safe for his very delicate crop? Since sour crop is a yeast infection, I read that carbs and all flock feed are a complete no-no. I also realized that since any watery feeding before bed goes through his system overnight fine, semi-solid food or liquids that can go through a needle-less syringe are possibly the most helpful. Please help me out here, my options are limited, my parents patience with Blue and I are limited, and I was lucky to be able to convince them to let me buy a crop bra for him. (Please do not bring up the idea to kill him. He’s not at the end of the road yet, and I’m not going to give up when there is still something to be done)
Pics:
Quick overview of his symptoms and situation:
1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.) Blue is a 2-3 year old Silkie, with blue coloration, hence his name. I do not have an exact weight on him, but just by holding him, he feels like he weighs a pound or less, which, according to most sources, is terribly underweight since the average Silkie rooster weighs 4 pounds, or 1.8 kg. I will post an update on his weight in the comments once I find the friggin scale somewhere in the house.
2) What is the behavior, exactly?
Blue has stopped eating or drinking most things. The only thing that catches his attention is mealworms, his favorite treat. He refuses to drink from the fountain, probably because he’s too weak to step onto the stone and bend down to drink. He stays hunched up either near the jasmine in the yard, or somewhere near the flock, so I know he still sticks near them. I need to syringe feed him food and water to make sure he is getting the bare minimum. It’s at it’s worst on colder days, but thankfully it’s warming up some.
3) How long has the bird been exhibiting symptoms? For 1 week and a couple days, he has had sour crop, or at least something that causes his crop to not empty all the way.
4) Are other birds exhibiting the same symptoms? No.
5) Is there any bleeding, injury, broken bones or other sign of trauma. No
6) What happened, if anything that you know of, that may have caused the situation. He’s a fast eater, and it was about a month ago that he caught wet fowl pox, so eating a lot and trying to regain weight he lost during that time could have caused sour crop.
7) What has the bird been eating and drinking, if at all.
Until recently, he has only had water with either garlic or apple cider vinegar, or plain yogurt. I gave in yesterday and broke my own rule of “don’t give him any solids until his crop emptied” by letting him fill on mealworms since that’s the only thing he’s ever happy to eat anymore. I have an entire diet planned out for when he gets better for him to eat so he hopefully gains weight, but his current situation is making me scared that he won’t survive through what he has.
8) How does the poop look? Normal? Bloody? Runny? etc. it’s very watery, where there are undigested bits of mealworms from yesterday and scratch/grain from weeks ago slowly pushing through his tract. It has a greenish look to it.
9) What has been the treatment you administered so far? Syringe feeding him yogurt, garlic water, and diluted apple cider vinegar. He had a small dose of monistat cream for his sour crop every morning and evening, but it didn’t seem to do anything, and my parents decided to not have me use anymore on him. I plan to get a crop bra for him, as it may help support his crop and help things go along.
10 ) What is your intent as far as treatment? For example, do you want to treat completely yourself, or do you need help in stabilizing the bird til you can get to a vet? I don’t think I’ll be able to afford a vet’s appointment, I hardly afforded the vet’s appointment for his wet pox, so I assume it’s safe to say I don’t have an option whether he can go to the vet.
11) If you have a picture of the wound or condition, please post it. It may help. (Bottom of page)
12) Describe the housing/bedding in use. He sleeps in a large dog kennel every night, with the bottom being newspaper that is changed every night. He sleeps in our garage where it is usually a moderate-warm temperature.
The question is: what can I feed Blue that is safe for his very delicate crop? Since sour crop is a yeast infection, I read that carbs and all flock feed are a complete no-no. I also realized that since any watery feeding before bed goes through his system overnight fine, semi-solid food or liquids that can go through a needle-less syringe are possibly the most helpful. Please help me out here, my options are limited, my parents patience with Blue and I are limited, and I was lucky to be able to convince them to let me buy a crop bra for him. (Please do not bring up the idea to kill him. He’s not at the end of the road yet, and I’m not going to give up when there is still something to be done)
Pics:
. I think it was 5 drops or 1 milliliter in the morning and night. I think it was from those little tubes, and we did it for 2-3 days before my parents didn’t think it would work. He’s got a vet appointment scheduled, so hopefully he will get something that is sure to work. He’s had access to grit before, but he hardly ever eats it, and I have to give it manually sometimes to make sure he has something in his gizzard. He has had wet feed before, but he doesn’t care for it. I don’t want him to eat his regular feed because that’s what the yeast is feeding off of, and I want to starve the yeast to death without starving him to death, which is what a few people recommended. Thank you though, I was on the fence about raw eggs before, but I’ll be sure to try it when I get the chance ^^
