I'm pretty sure my hen has sour crop, need advice

[Chicken15]

Should I get her to throw up throughout the day or only first thing in the morning?

I have just finished getting her to throw up a couple times, it's mostly brownish water with dark green chunks in it, mostly grass blades. I haven't noticed any odor from it though, after a few times of spitting back up, more chunks came out and less water. I have noticed she is maybe 1% better afterwards.

She made a poo out in the grass, and though it was small, it had less white in it this time, and seemed to have thick brownish green mixed in it.


(If I'm flooding the forums just say so)

 

[ten chicks]

Should I get her to throw up throughout the day or only first thing in the morning?

I have just finished getting her to throw up a couple times, it's mostly brownish water with dark green chunks in it, mostly grass blades. I haven't noticed any odor from it though, after a few times of spitting back up, more chunks came out and less water. I have noticed she is maybe 1% better afterwards.

She made a poo out in the grass, and though it was small, it had less white in it this time, and seemed to have thick brownish green mixed in it.


(If I'm flooding the forums just say so)

Several people on forums have used monistat(treats yeast infections in women) to treat sour crop(Candidiasis/yeast),all claim to have had success. Here is what they did,monistat comes with 3 tablets,cut each tablet into 1/3(you should have 9 total)give 1 cut tablet orally twice a day. Hope this helps. If you search forums for this,you can read how it helps in sour crop.

If she has impacted crop,this treatment will not help.

 

[TwoCrows]

Should I get her to throw up throughout the day or only first thing in the morning?

I have just finished getting her to throw up a couple times, it's mostly brownish water with dark green chunks in it, mostly grass blades. I haven't noticed any odor from it though, after a few times of spitting back up, more chunks came out and less water. I have noticed she is maybe 1% better afterwards.

She made a poo out in the grass, and though it was small, it had less white in it this time, and seemed to have thick brownish green mixed in it.


(If I'm flooding the forums just say so)

You really need to get her out from grass eating. Grass is very acidic and is not easily broken down by the gizzard.

A slow crop WILL become soured after a few days. The crop is a storage tank for food waiting to be processed by the gizzard. When the GI tract is slowed down from a yeast infection, grass only makes matters worse because it takes too long to process. Hence the food is sitting in the crop longer than it has to. And because the crop flora is off, bacteria starts to grow. And that is when it becomes sour. And when it does sour, it takes a lot longer to cure the bird, and the bird suffers more.

So....NO more free ranging till she is healed up. Keep her confined and eating ONLY dampened layer feed. NO seeds, treats of any kind. Dampened layer feed only.

If you keep her confined, you will only need to vomit her once a day first thing in the morning before she has eaten. You want the crop to keep some food in it during the day so it keeps it moving. With out food, and the crop wants to stop moving. And she needs to eat, even if things are moving slowly, at least she is getting some nutrients.

 

[Chicken15]

Oh okay that's a relief that I'll only have to vomit her once daily, I feel bad doing it more than a couple times per day. First thing tomorrow I will check her crop and try to get it all out.

I'm not sure where the grass came from, I only take her out to vomit her or feed her liquids, since she makes a mess.

What's her chance of surviving this? I'm doing what I can but I can't imagine finding her tomorrow morning, lifeless.

Thanks for the help, all of you. My hen thanks you too!

 

[TwoCrows]

The grass might be left over from having previously eaten it. That shows you how slow the crop can get. Imagine if you ate all day and it would not digest and leave the stomach. If you could not vomit it out, it would make you horribly ill and eventually would kill you. So it is very important that you vomit her.

And it sounds like you did a good job at the vomiting. Too many people are afraid to do it as it can be dangerous if not done right. Just remember not to hold her more than 5 or 6 seconds or so in that position. I know you don't like doing it, I don't either. (I have a hen that is prone to sour crop and has had many many episodes in the past 3 years. I finally figured out how to not only cure her but prevent episodes as well.) Anyway, vomiting will save their lives.

As for her survival, I doubt she will die anytime soon, as along as this crop issue is not stemming from some internal illness. Bloated crop can be a secondary issue to something else that is going on inside the body and doing these things will only help her suffer less. So if she has something else going on, then this won't cure her.

But if it is simple case of slow/sour crop, she will survive. When my hen had her first episode, I did not catch it right away. I didn't know she had any trouble until I picked her up one day and her crop poured out all over me. But by that time, it was sour and she was on her way to being pretty sick. Took me 2 full months to cure her. I went the route of a vet and she was prescribed Nystatin. It was useless and because I didn't know to stop her from eating things that was slowing the crop down more, and the Nystatin not working, she went down hill fast. She nearly starved to death from 2 months of constant vomiting and the crop barely delivering food to her system. She was so light and weak toward the end, I thought for sure she was going to die. However toward that end, I started using the vaginal cream on her. Monistat did nothing for her. But I found that Gyne-Lotrimin, (or any product with Clotrimazole in it) was what she needed. That stuff will kick the butt of a yeast infection, which is basically what a sour crop is....a yeast infection. Clotrimazole orally is used in thrush for babies and other applications. But this cream really coats the crop up well and in 3 days, you can knock out a sour crop, if caught early enough. Hence, my hen gets her crop fondled EVERY morning. LOL

Anyway, to make a long story short, LOL, your hen should be fine. But keep an eye on her. She may not eat much for a day or two, but as long as she at least nibbles on layer feed, she will survive. I will sometimes give my hen some soda crackers, (saltines) as a little treat so she doesn't feel left out of the treats the others are getting, but only once or twice a day. One cracker each time.

Keep me posted on how the vomiting is going. That tells a lot. Check her FIRST thing tomorrow morning. If there is any thing in the crop, vomit it out. If she feels empty, keep up with the damp layer feed only for a few days, checking the crop each morning. If she gets free ranged on a regular basis, she may be prone to crop issues. So not only check her crop every morning for a long time, and keep the free ranging down to a minimum. My girl is not allowed to free range. Her diet is strict, but she rarely gets crop issues anymore.

Keep me posted.

 

[TwoCrows]

Oh...and it wouldn't hurt to add some apple cider vinegar to the water to help alkaline up her body. It has wonderful qualities to it...increases appetite, contains probiotics, (which her crop needs badly), minerals, antibacterial and antifungal properties as well, among other things. If you don't have the raw stuff right now, that is ok. The raw stuff with the Mother in it, is best, but in a pinch, the regular will work too. (don't use white vinegar. Apple cider only)

Use 2 or 3 tablespoons ACV per one gallon of water. Make a fresh batch daily. Offer it to your other chickens as well, it will do them all good. The stuff is great for glossy feathers. Use this mix for one week during treatment, and then once or twice a week for maintenance. (You can lower it to 1 or 2 tablespoons for maintenance.) It will help prevent future crop issues as over time it turns the body alkaline, which is good. Acid bad. Alkaline good.

 

[TwoCrows]

Oh and another thing...LOL (sorry for all the posts here, but I keep thinking of things to tell you.

Stop with the oil. Oil is good to break down stuff in the crop that is blocking it...as if she had an impaction. But a squishy crop is not impacted and she is pooping. Oil will only slow the crop down even more and clog up the works. Hard to digest. So no more oil.

I surely hope she gets well soon. My "Miss Molly" knows exactly how your hen feels.

 

[Chicken15]

Thanks for the information, I'm glad to hear your hen is doing well. It's a huge relief to hear that she has a great chance of making this, I was starting to worry she'll only have a few more days left.

You have given me a great guide, ill keep referring to it whenever I'm ready to move onto the next step. I do have one question, though. The way our coop is setup, I'm not sure how I can keep the food separate, is it fine if I dampen the main feeder so all my hens can eat damp layer feed? She really likes to eat when everyone else is eating. She's a bird that normally LOVES to free range, on a normal week my hens free range 3-5 times a day, we have a run built specifically to give them a safe place to enjoy the outdoors. So I guess I should let the others out but keep her indoors? She may feel bad for a little while but if it helps then it's for the best.

 

[TwoCrows]

Yes, it is perfectly fine to dampen the layer feed for all the hens. Actually chickens love and prefer damp layer feed and will eat it more readily than dry. You know what happened to my flock? I was dampening the feed for my hen for the two months she had it bad, and of course kept up with it after this time period and the flock enjoyed it so much, to this day they will NOT eat dry feed anymore!! LOL They will if there is nothing else to eat, but for the last few years, I have to dampen the feed EVERY day. LOL They will even wait for me to re wet it if it got dried out and will all come running to get the damp feed. Spoiled rotten!! LOL Just add enough water to get it slightly damp, not sloppy or too wet. What this does is makes it break down faster in the GI tract, as you want things moving as fast as possible with a slow crop, AND it gets the hen to eat more food, which when they don't feel good, tend to eat less. When the crop gets slow, it needs to be retrained to keep moving. So you may need to re wet it during the day if it dries out.

Anyway, after this episode is over, don't continue dampening the feed unless you want to be a slave to wetting it for the rest of your hens days!! LOL Mine are too far gone, and spoiled.

Oh, and any damp feed will need to be pitched at the end of the day because it will spoil. So only put out what you think they will all eat. Make new stuff the next morning.

And yes, as much as she fusses, it is best to keep her confined from free ranging till she gets over this. Grass and stiff vegetation will make matters worse. Once all this clears up, you can let her back out with the others. However always be on the look out for crop issues with her and it wouldn't hurt to fondle everybody's crop each morning as well. All my girls get a crop feel each morning.

In the future, you can catch these things quick and prevent it from getting out of hand.

Keep me posted on her healing.

 

[Chicken15]

Haha yeah talk about spoiled. My hens are spoiled too, when I give them treats they only want to be hand fed, they refuse to eat it off the ground or from a feeder! I definitely won't become a slave to them lol. When I was reading your post all I could think was "what will I do if they become addicted to damp feed?". They get treated like royalty as it is.

Again, I appreciate all the help, I couldn't so this on my own. I'll update tomorrow how she's doing when I empty her crop and massage it.