Recurring Sour Crop / Possible Food Allergy?????

[blucherb]

I have a 3 year old California White chicken that has always been healthy up to this point. I found her hunched in the corner of the coop a month ago and with past experiences, I knew right away something was wrong. I brought her into the basement to isolate her and could feel immediately that she had sour crop. I was able to purge the contents out by dipping her head down and gently massaging her crop while holding her over the sink. I have had good success with this in the past with other chickens. I hold food and water for 24hrs until I am certain her crop is empty. Then start introducing small amounts of scrambled eggs with meal worms twice a day along with providing water with either apple cider vinegar have even tried water with copper sulfate. Each time I am able to get her back to health within a few days on that diet. I then slowly start introducing her normal food into the eggs and mealworms and have no issues until she starts getting 100% normal food. Then the sour crop immediately comes back. It will not come back with any ratio of eggs or meal worms in the mix, its only when she is on 100% normal food. I've even tried switching food with no avail. This has been going on for over a month now. I am now wondering at this point if she has developed some kind of food allergy? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[BirdWrangler]

I’ve had a few chickens with sour crop. Most seemed to be caused by long pieces of grass getting balled up and clogging the crop. Acv and oil of oregano helped quite a bit

 

[BirdWrangler]

@Wyorp Rock

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Welcome To BYC

You don't mention if she's still laying eggs or not.

Usually a crop problem is just a symptom of something else going on. Often it can be a reproductive disorder. Worms, Coccidiosis and infection are commonly seen with crop symptoms as well.

I'd consider getting a fecal float to rule out worms. Feel her abdomen for bloat or fluid which can usually point to a reproductive problem.

The article below is the method of treatment(s) I use when treating symptoms.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[blucherb]

Thank you for the reply, she has not laid an egg for over a month now. I did deworm her as a precaution a few weeks ago. I’m still curious because she is happy as can be and acting like a completely healthy chicken while on the scrambled eggs and meal worm diet and even when I feed her 1/3 egg, 1/3 meal worm and 1/3 normal feed. The sour crop only returns when I give her 100% her normal feed.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

What did you deworm with?

Is the egg you are feeding cooked or raw?
Perhaps she's not drinking enough to properly digest the normal feed.

 

[blucherb]

Safe guard. They are cooked scrambled eggs. I spend quite a bit of time with her in the basement and she is drinking plenty of water. Thoughts on deworming her again to rule out worms?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

What dose and duration of the Safeguard did you give?

Likely she has something reproductive going on if she's not been laying eggs.

Not sure what's going on with the crop symptoms coming on if she only eats pellets. If she were allergic, then she'd probably still have the same reaction with you diluting/giving less.

You could try switching feeds.