Has impaction turned sour crop but is still hungry and energetic?

[alinas2010]

Thank you. Her crop was actually smaller this morning so I was quite happy but saw her throw up a little this evening so I'm thinking it probably wasnt progress this morning. Seeing how she looks in the morning.
If she passes away from sour crop, how do they usually die? Is it long, drawn out, painful? I'm just scared of what's to come.

Smaller is good, could be the antibiotics taking care of something down the line, too, and maybe that is giving way for the crop to empty a bit.

Someone with more experience may have a better answer for you, but when I had hen who had a sour crop, she had it because of a reproductive issue. I think it was a reproductive infection which seemed to kind of back everything up and her crop just became overwhelmed and stopped draining. So it was more than just a sour crop. I think this was said before, but it usually is more than just a sour crop if it is going to kill them.

She was active the night before she passed, but not super lively, did eat a little bit here and there. At the time she was living inside because I knew her time was coming and it was too cold for a sick hen outside. I remember letting her walk around the house the night before she passed. I had hope because she was walking around, but I did notice it wasn’t as much as usual. I remember holding her for a few minutes and petting her and she let me that night, I thought she must be bonding with us more being inside because she usually doesn’t. Now I know it was probably just bc she wasn’t feeling up to fighting. Her crop hadn’t drained for about a week or so at this point.

The day she passed though, she did not want to come out of her kennel that morning and she just laid down. I don’t think she had gone up on her little roost the night before. She would not get up the rest of the day. She sat with her eyes closed and didn’t respond to my touch.

I tried to arrange for someone to put her down, but she passed away a few hours later before i could get it worked out. I can’t say if it was peaceful or not, bc I did not see it, but I came in and she was on her back stretched out. Looking back, I do wish I had done it sooner, but it’s always hard when they’re still active and alive.

 

[Cheshire Chickens]

Hi @Ccort so sorry she’s not any better. I’ve never lost a hen with sour crop so can’t give a view. Just wanted to say though it’s obvious how much you love her, and are committed to her wellbeing
I’m in the UK and out of sync with the response times, so hope she’s still with you this morning.
I’ve had chickens go really off their food and out of sorts during moult and come back strong, so you never know, don’t give up hope.

 

[Dionne Farmer]

My 3.5ish year old hen had a somewhat hard and very full crop this morning. I gave her some veg oil this morning and massages the crop. I also put probiotics and electrolytes in her water and took away her food.

Note-shes been going through a rather long and tedious molt

This afternoon, the crop feels like it's becoming sour crop. There is no noticable lump inside, but now a large, squishy crop. I gave her yeast infection cream and olive oil, continued the probiotic/electrolyte water and have been off and on massaging her crop. So far, it hasn't changed shape.

However, what's throwing me off from my normal experiences with sour crop/impaction is that she's still hungry and not at all lethargic. She just wants to go on her merry way like nothing is wrong! She seems quite hungry so I did give her one raw egg but do not plan to allow any more food today/tonight.

Could I be looking at something other than sour crop? Her stool is a green color, although she isn't passing any now because she didn't have an food most of the day. It also had some fibrous material/grass so maybe that's why it's green.

Sorry to hear about your bird. I thought you might like to see this video from an avian vet about crop stasis.

He says in there that 99 percent of the time the cause is not fungal. The fungal issue is caused through the fermentation of the food in the crop. There is another thread on this forum but I can't find it now. It helped me to move a very doughy crop on one of my australorps. I will give the recipe below (what I used) but I also used this in conjunction with acidified copper sulfate (there is a good thread about ACS in here as well). I always worm my birds first when there are signs of sour crop to rule out parasites. I like to use fenbendazole off label. About 1ml for an average sized hen. 1 dose then another in 10 days. The fungus bomb is done at least twice a day and can take up to 2 weeks I've found. During that time I only give the ACS for up to 10 days and fennel tea (fennel gets the digestive system moving). Only food I give when the crop is doughy is watered down yoghurt and spirulina mixed with it. Once the doughy ball starts to shrink I'll incorporate leafy greens and dried meal worms. Anyway the fungal bomb recipe is as follows:
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/8 teaspoon ginger powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
optional and alternating: 1/8 chamomile powder or slippery elm (that's what I tried and it worked)
Syringe this gently into their mouth and after each syringe massage the dough ball. You'll find it starts to gas up and you'll be burping the chicken too. Do this until it's finished and do it twice per day. I had a hen with a gigantic dough ball so this took two weeks to shrink it away.
I haven't had experience using the fungal creams internally but I will often give Nilstat (nystatin) if no luck moving it. 1 drop twice daily. Best of luck!
Oh one other thing. I did have another young hen who had coccidiosis which caused salpingitis and she then got sour crop. I had to treat with amprolium and Baytril and the sour crop went after that.

 

[Ccort]

Hi @Ccort so sorry she’s not any better. I’ve never lost a hen with sour crop so can’t give a view. Just wanted to say though it’s obvious how much you love her, and are committed to her wellbeing
I’m in the UK and out of sync with the response times, so hope she’s still with you this morning.
I’ve had chickens go really off their food and out of sorts during moult and come back strong, so you never know, don’t give up hope.

Thank you. I do love her.
This morning it's about the same size and doughy feeling, which it's been that doughy feeling now since day one. I tried to tube feed her raw egg with acv but she fought and fought and I think I'll end up aspirating her if I keep trying that.

 

[Ccort]

Sorry to hear about your bird. I thought you might like to see this video from an avian vet about crop stasis.

He says in there that 99 percent of the time the cause is not fungal. The fungal issue is caused through the fermentation of the food in the crop. There is another thread on this forum but I can't find it now. It helped me to move a very doughy crop on one of my australorps. I will give the recipe below (what I used) but I also used this in conjunction with acidified copper sulfate (there is a good thread about ACS in here as well). I always worm my birds first when there are signs of sour crop to rule out parasites. I like to use fenbendazole off label. About 1ml for an average sized hen. 1 dose then another in 10 days. The fungus bomb is done at least twice a day and can take up to 2 weeks I've found. During that time I only give the ACS for up to 10 days and fennel tea (fennel gets the digestive system moving). Only food I give when the crop is doughy is watered down yoghurt and spirulina mixed with it. Once the doughy ball starts to shrink I'll incorporate leafy greens and dried meal worms. Anyway the fungal bomb recipe is as follows:
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/8 teaspoon ginger powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
optional and alternating: 1/8 chamomile powder or slippery elm (that's what I tried and it worked)
Syringe this gently into their mouth and after each syringe massage the dough ball. You'll find it starts to gas up and you'll be burping the chicken too. Do this until it's finished and do it twice per day. I had a hen with a gigantic dough ball so this took two weeks to shrink it away.
I haven't had experience using the fungal creams internally but I will often give Nilstat (nystatin) if no luck moving it. 1 drop twice daily. Best of luck!
Oh one other thing. I did have another young hen who had coccidiosis which caused salpingitis and she then got sour crop. I had to treat with amprolium and Baytril and the sour crop went after that.

I somehow missed your post completely! I am honestly shocked to hear that it's hardly ever from a yeast infection. I wonder if I should still try this?
THe fought ball is pretty small now...maybe the size of a quarter. I've been letting her free range (do you let them during this?) because it increases her mood and she seems to mostly eat bugs. Her weight has seemed to stabilize. I'm still giving her the meds from the vet but did not do acidified copper sulfate only because the vet said not too and said because she's already on a yeast treatment.

Would love to hear your thoughts. I'm writing her every other day and checking the crop in the morning. It's going down VERY slowly, but when this started, it was considerably larger.

 

[Dionne Farmer]

I somehow missed your post completely! I am honestly shocked to hear that it's hardly ever from a yeast infection. I wonder if I should still try this?
THe fought ball is pretty small now...maybe the size of a quarter. I've been letting her free range (do you let them during this?) because it increases her mood and she seems to mostly eat bugs. Her weight has seemed to stabilize. I'm still giving her the meds from the vet but did not do acidified copper sulfate only because the vet said not too and said because she's already on a yeast treatment.

Would love to hear your thoughts. I'm writing her every other day and checking the crop in the morning. It's going down VERY slowly, but when this started, it was considerably larger.

If the dough ball is shrinking and that's the only sign of her being unwell then I would continue with what you are doing. My belief is if something is working then don't change it. Just keep an eye on her poop and eating like you are doing. My hen with the sour crop from salpingitis seemed to be on the mend after the amprolium treatment but then she was laying lash eggs and pooping blood. I knocked that with Baytril for 5 days and now she appears finally well. I unfortunately got a bad batch of pullets from a breeder and it seems most of them have a weak immune system.

 

[Ccort]

UPDATE-all that is left in the crop in the morning is a tiny ball, about a centimeter in size, which is shrinking or breaking up each day, just a bit. When this started, it was literally big enough to fill my cupped hand.

She is now off of the monistat (had it for two weeks) and just on the two meds from the vet, plus some digestive enzymes. I am slowly weaning her off of the enzymes. She lost weight so am hoping her weight will go back up but she is eating, playing in the yard, and being herself again. I am SO grateful!

She does have what appears to be a small eye infection and am wondering if that's because her immune system was struggling but do have some leftover ointment that I am giving her for that.

Thank you all for your help.