Sour Crop. Advice welcome.

I have a young chicken (hatched this May) who clearly has sour crop . Quite unbelievably I've never experienced this problem in the past so would value any advice. I've read the sticky but if you have any more suggestion they would be most welcome.

I opened up the house this morning and fortunately she was just within view inside, otherwise I may have not noticed her in the dark interior. She was laid on her side with one wing outspread. As I pulled her carefully towards me and lifted her out of the house, milky fluid poured out of her mouth. I recognised the symptoms and tilted her forward and massaged her crop. It felt like a semi water filled ballon. Lot's of milky liquid came out and the last bit was more creamy coloured and had just two grains of corn in it. I popped her back into a quiet nest box and left her to recover from my ministrations for an hour. She was still very lethargic and unable to stand but her eyes were bright and attentive.

I returned and fed her with some difficulty and a great deal spilt some probiotic yoghourt, layers pellets (soaked in water and liquidised),some dried garlic granules that I use in the birds drinkers, a tiny amount of apple cider vinegar and a tiny amount of olive oil all mixed together. I also managed to get 20ml approx. of water into her. She perked up after about an hour and came out of the house for the afternoon, so up and walking although definitely feeling fragile. She had a big drink from a drinker that has ACV and garlic in it. I repeated the food again this afternoon.

After Goggling sour crop this evening there were a few other ideas offered on what to feed and I'd certainly value your opinions.



Porridge, mixed with ACV, mashed banana, and crushed garlic.

Apple puree.

Thanks everyone I'm waiting with baited breath!
 

Have you read our advice topic ?

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=4345.0


EDIT:  Oh I see you have.

One of ours had repeatitive sour crop as once it occurs once it often re-offends!

We washed out her crop with an epsom salt solution (about a teaspoon in a cup of warm water, can get this from any good stockist for horse supplies) this is easiest done if you can get a small tube about 2-3mls in diameter and a syringe (20mls) so that you can get the substance straight into the crop. Remove the tube and then massage the crop and holding the bird with her head/body pointing down and massage / squeeze the crop to expell the solution. they may find this a bit distressing but as long as you don't do it for long periods and give them breathing gaps they will be ok. this will clear out all of the yeasty contents.

Rpt this step a few times until the crop is empty and then feed them or syringe in a natural yoghurt/garlic (lots - pureed) mix (no feed in this) as both are natural remidies to thrush or you can use an antifungal like nystatin. This will line the crop - feel free to make a layers pellet yoghurt mash for her to pick at afterwards as this will also help.

You will need to do this for a few days until she comes out in the morning with no fluid in her crop at all!

Good luck - it does take time and patience! and unfortunately it can be too bad to treat!

Well a little update.

I caught her this morning before she came out of the hen house and she was looking remarkably perky! No fluid in her crop. All the same I popped her into her dog crate with some water and a delicious breakfast of room temp porridge (I soaked the oats in the water for a couple of hours before making up last night). Probiotic live yoghurt, pureed apple and olive oil, I forgot the garlic but will do that for her late lunch in a moment). She studiously ignored food and water when I was watching her but it was all gone by noon. She is pooing which is good. The poo looks like wet 'normal' poo so hopefully she is on the mend.

Just a note to anyone who might stumble over this post in the future. Do not over feed as your hen will gorge on her food as she will be very hungry and possibly re start the problem.

So I'm very pleased at the moment and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she is getting better. Thank you all for you valuable comments. The tubing sounds quite daunting so Holly if you have any pointers on how to get a tube down a chicken I'm all ears. Although hopefully I'll not need the technique just yet!

Good news, Orchardlady  .  Hope she continues to improve.

We'll all keep our fingers crossed

Pinky seems to have the same syptoms but I will see what the vet says....

It's been a few weeks now since this hen had sour crop and I think I can now confirm that she is cured , so much so that I noticed her 12 foot up a tree yeterday with her twin sister and then again both of them on the top of my neighbours fruit cage...bad chickens....

Of course I 'll never know if it was the wonderful concoctions I made her to eat or if it was making her sick, or plain just catching it early enough but I'm so please she is recovered although not so pleased to see her and her sister romping on my neighbours fruit cage....naughty chickens...