Normal Hen Temperature

[Lady Peckerton Spokesman]

Hello everyone, I just had a brief question regarding my hens vet visit today. I brought her in for sour crop just to get pointed in the right direction since there's a million treatment options online and to help confirm my suspicion of sour crop. The vet temped her at 106.2°F and was deeply concerned about this fever. He prescribed her antibotics for a week and gave her, steroid shot, baytril shot, and fever reducer shot. I know antibotics are horrible for sour crop, but since he already started with the injection I'm going to run the course and add garlic water into my regime. My question is, what is the average body temp for a hen? I can googling it and says 105-109°F is average.... so 106 would not be a fever.... any advice? Thank you!

 

[tripletfeb]

The normal temp of a chicken is between 105 and 107° f. Where did he take the temp at? Into the vent is normal

 

[Lady Peckerton Spokesman]

The normal temp of a chicken is between 105 and 107° f. Where did he take the temp at? Into the vent is normal

Thanks for the quick response! I'm not sure, I'm assuming the vent. I'm going to call them tomorrow and let them know. This just sucks because now I have to continue the antibiotics, which is horrible for sour crop. Gunna hope the garlic water and eggs/yogurt mash will work a little at restoring the crop.

 

[tripletfeb]

@Wyorp Rock @azygous can you help here?

 

[Lady Peckerton Spokesman]

Update: I've decided not to give her the smz antibiotics since it was prescribed to her solemnly based on the 106 'fever'. She is acting pretty normal. I don't want to make the sour crop worse. I'm going to let the vet know in the morning.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Hello everyone, I just had a brief question regarding my hens vet visit today. I brought her in for sour crop just to get pointed in the right direction since there's a million treatment options online and to help confirm my suspicion of sour crop. The vet temped her at 106.2°F and was deeply concerned about this fever. He prescribed her antibotics for a week and gave her, steroid shot, baytril shot, and fever reducer shot. I know antibotics are horrible for sour crop, but since he already started with the injection I'm going to run the course and add garlic water into my regime. My question is, what is the average body temp for a hen? I can googling it and says 105-109°F is average.... so 106 would not be a fever.... any advice? Thank you!

@tripletfeb gave you the correct info. An adult hen's body temp ranges from 105-107F so I wouldn't necessarily declare 106F a fever.

How is your hen acting? Lethargic, not eating/drinking, hunching....?

How old is she?

Does she lay eggs?

Photos of her and her poop would be good.

You have determined her crop is sour correct? It's not emptying overnight or you are detecting a sour/stinky odor coming from her beak.

You are correct that giving antibiotics can make a sour crop worse and you are also correct that there's a LOT of treatment options and opinions online, it can become confusing about what to do.
It's up to you to determine what treatment options are best for your situation.

That said, I follow the treatments that Carol (Azygous) has outlined in her article linked below. I have personally used these methods to address crop symptoms in my own birds.
Keep in mind that often a crop that is slow and has turned sour may be a symptom of an underlying condition like reproductive problems, infection, worms, etc.
Being consistent with treatment and not stopping too early gives better results.

Hope this helps, keep us posted.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[azygous]

I go by behavior, not temperature to tell if a chicken has an infection. The comb may be bright cherry red as opposed to the normal dusky red when a chicken has an elevated body temp.

 

[Lady Peckerton Spokesman]

@tripletfeb gave you the correct info. An adult hen's body temp ranges from 105-107F so I wouldn't necessarily declare 106F a fever.

How is your hen acting? Lethargic, not eating/drinking, hunching....?

How old is she?

Does she lay eggs?

Photos of her and her poop would be good.

You have determined her crop is sour correct? It's not emptying overnight or you are detecting a sour/stinky odor coming from her beak.

You are correct that giving antibiotics can make a sour crop worse and you are also correct that there's a LOT of treatment options and opinions online, it can become confusing about what to do.
It's up to you to determine what treatment options are best for your situation.

That said, I follow the treatments that Carol (Azygous) has outlined in her article linked below. I have personally used these methods to address crop symptoms in my own birds.
Keep in mind that often a crop that is slow and has turned sour may be a symptom of an underlying condition like reproductive problems, infection, worms, etc.
Being consistent with treatment and not stopping too early gives better results.

Hope this helps, keep us posted.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

Thanks for the responses. To answer some of the questions above: Yesterday and today she seems to be acting normal. She eats and drinks fine, she is actively not happy about being isolated from her flock so that tells me her behavior is about normal.

She looked lethargic Sunday afternoon and a very liquidy squishy big crop, prior to she has been very normal and laying eggs. Every since Sunday afternoon I have her isolated from the flock, no food for 24 hrs, Monday evening I gave her yogurt and some eggs and garlic water. Today I am doing the same thing, just providing more meals. This morning her crop was almost empty which gave me hope. She does not have any foul smells coming from her beak (except for the garlic lol). She is about 2 years old, comb hasn't ventured far from the normal bright red it always has been, and she hasn't laid an egg since Sunday.

I'm pretty sure I know why she has sour crop, I accidently fed them moldy food (came moldy from the store) Wednesday or Thursday. I'm worried about my other girls (6). So I have everyone on garlic water and normal (not moldy) food and they free range all day on an acre of land. I'll go take a pic of her now, interestingly enough, I already have a pci of one of her poops on Sunday when I seen her lethargic under my deck. I'll include that as well. Thank you so much for the input!

 

[Lady Peckerton Spokesman]

 

[Lady Peckerton Spokesman]