Has anyone ever taken their hen to the Vet for sour crop?

[hayley3]

I'm taking mine today. Not sure if they can help. It says the Vet can flush out the crop...I wonder how they would do that. My vet is happy to see chickens, I feel very lucky. They have a rotating staff of vets, I think. But if they can flush the crop, I wonder if we could.

 

[nuthatched]

Most people treat it at home, though it's best to let the flush ir out so you don't aspirate your hen.

 

[hayley3]

Most people treat it at home, though it's best to let the flush ir out so you don't aspirate your hen.

I did have a hen years ago that had sour crop. She was old but I killed her doing that.
The last few days I've read, massage the crop, don't massage the crop, try to get them to vomit, don't try to get them to vomit...I'm giving the yeast cream twice a day but hers is not receding at all, even after not eating for 24 hours. I can barely tell she has sour crop, the smell is not bad but she has lost a LOT of weight. She has always been a sickly chicken and she's 5 years old.

 

[aart]

Is the vet an avian vet, with experience with chickens?
I hope they know what they're doing.
Let us know how it works out.

 

[nuthatched]

I did have a hen years ago that had sour crop. She was old but I killed her doing that.
The last few days I've read, massage the crop, don't massage the crop, try to get them to vomit, don't try to get them to vomit...I'm giving the yeast cream twice a day but hers is not receding at all, even after not eating for 24 hours. I can barely tell she has sour crop, the smell is not bad but she has lost a LOT of weight. She has always been a sickly chicken and she's 5 years old.

It could be a pendlous or slow crop, does it seem to hang lower than normal?

 

[hayley3]

Is the vet an avian vet, with experience with chickens?
I hope they know what they're doing.
Let us know how it works out.

Yes she is the Avian vet. So this is what she said. She said it was not sour crop even though it smelled when I massaged her crop. She said if there's no liquid coming out, then it's crop stasis which leads to sour crop. Evidently we were not there yet. I see a lot of people say they get nothing out, well that is why, I guess. I'm very glad I went, even though she is eating, she is very skinny.
She said to remove what's in the crop she would have to excise it, via surgery.

She gave me Diflucan (antifungal), Tribissen (antimicrobial), Reglan which is a motility drug she said although google says it's for heartburn, Benebac progiotic gel, which is also an OTC product.

They tube fed her 3 huge syringes of food and gave her a B12 shot.
Cost me $109 total.

She's gonna call me in 48 hours to see how she's doing and a followup appt in a week. I have to watch her poop so I can describe it to her, so I have to put her on newspaper.

This is my special needs chicken. She was a stargazer when young but grew out of it. And she's always been thinner than everyone else. She's a 5 year old Buff Orpington.

 

[hayley3]

It could be a pendlous or slow crop, does it seem to hang lower than normal?

I would say slow crop. I don't really know if it hangs lower than normal. I think she's had it a while and has managed to live with it.

 

[SkyAJK]

I would say slow crop. I don't really know if it hangs lower than normal. I think she's had it a while and has managed to live with it.

Please update how she is doing.

 

[hayley3]

Please update how she is doing.

She was eating some scratch grains but as the days go by, I'll be updating her progress.

 

[hayley3]

Her crop is still hard and now she is doing a gaping behavior. They wanted me to bring her back in so they could feed her, so I did. They won't do surgery, even though I feel she is strong enough for it. They would prefer to let her die than take the risk she might die during surgery, which makes no sense to me whatsoever.