Silkie Roo with squishy crop not emptying

[SilkieChickensLove]

Okay-thank you-will keep an eye on this thread and see what she suggests.

 

[azygous]

It can be confusing as to which crop issue you are treating. There are a couple of clues that the chicken's behavior provides, though. One is the excessive water intake. That usually points to an impaction of some kind. The water consumption is an attempt to flush the obstruction.

Another behavior is regurgitation of fluid from the crop which usually tells us the crop is growing yeast. Sometimes both disorders are going on at the same time. I usually treat the impaction first, then I finish with seven days of miconazole. If the crop issue persists after a week of miconazole, then I do a three-day Epsom salt flush which requires a feeding tube to tube it into the patient.

 

[SilkieChickensLove]

Thank you for the info! I am hoping we won't have to do that- I am definitely not feeling confident with how to put a feeding tube into his mouth without injuring him. He is outside wandering with his bachelor brothers again this morning, we did force feed him his morning dose of miconozale but he isn't interested in eating anything. We picked up some pumpkin to try to entice him and will try that. But in hopefully good news- my daughter in law found an exotic bird and chicken veterinarian that will see him about an hour from us. They said they treat sour crop and impacted crop all the time so we are keeping fingers crossed that they can more easily determine what is going on and how to help him. Will update here after we take him in. Thank you again for all your help!

It can be confusing as to which crop issue you are treating. There are a couple of clues that the chicken's behavior provides, though. One is the excessive water intake. That usually points to an impaction of some kind. The water consumption is an attempt to flush the obstruction.

Another behavior is regurgitation of fluid from the crop which usually tells us the crop is growing yeast. Sometimes both disorders are going on at the same time. I usually treat the impaction first, then I finish with seven days of miconazole. If the crop issue persists after a week of miconazole, then I do a three-day Epsom salt flush which requires a feeding tube to tube it into the patient.

 

[SilkieChickensLove]

Thank you for the info! I am hoping we won't have to do that- I am definitely not feeling confident with how to put a feeding tube into his mouth without injuring him. He is outside wandering with his bachelor brothers again this morning, we did force feed him his morning dose of miconozale but he isn't interested in eating anything. We picked up some pumpkin to try to entice him and will try that. But in hopefully good news- my daughter in law found an exotic bird and chicken veterinarian that will see him about an hour from us. They said they treat sour crop and impacted crop all the time so we are keeping fingers crossed that they can more easily determine what is going on and how to help him. Will update here after we take him in. Thank you again for all your help!

@azygous @Wyorp Rock So we are back from the vet. They were not a ton of help to be honest. Pretty much said that most often it is mareks that causes the crop to not empty as it should and wanted to do a blood test for mareks. But the results wouldn't come back for about 2-3 weeks which obviously is not helpful in this current situation so we did not do that.
We asked about the prescription anti fungal- they didn't have one on hand that was preferred, asked if his crop was blocked or sour and they didn't know. The offered to put him down and we said since we were only 3 days into treatment and he was just out running around in the yard with his rooster friends we wanted to give him the best chance for a recovery - assuming it is not be mareks and is treatable.
So they did a crop flush, gave an antibiotic, something for pain and gave him a shot to help move digestion along but no anti fungal. His crop after the flush was the same size so we honestly don't feel like that did anything. We are going to give the coconut oil and keep on with the Monistat and hope that he perks up and gets better.