[morbidia]

One of my exbatts died yesterday, she fell ill so I phoned the BHWT care line and they thought it was sour crop, the symptoms were text book. I took her to the vets because the help line suggested I give her Nystatin and the vet wouldn't give it to me without seeing her, he confirmed that it was sour crop and instead of giving me Nystatin he advised me to syringe feed her natural yogurt for a few days. I took her home and fed her the yogurt over the weekend and initially she looked like she was perking up, however on the Monday afternoon she went downhill again so I got some Nystatin from the vet, she was taking this for 4 days but then yesterday my daughter came downstairs and found her dead ( she was in a cat basket in the kitchen),Is it common for chicken to die from sour crop or is it possible there was something else going on, I am paraniod that it was coccidiosiss but I read that this only affects younger birds, she wasn't eating but was drinking and wasn;t pooing out much at all just lots of clear liquid with brown bits in
I am worried about my other girls, I have disinfected everywhere just in case but is there anything else I should do, or am I worrying over nothing

[Jo57]

Sorry I can only offer sympathy and not advice. In similar boat myself. Sad and a worry!

[GrannieAnnie]

I'm no expert, but yes they can die from sour crop.  I had a couple of birds with it a couple of years ago.  Did the yoghurt thing and massaged their crops holding them upside down to clea the gunk out.  One of them was fine afterwards, but the other one died.

Still, we can only do our best for them.  Sorry you lost her.

[compostqueen]

I'm very sorry she lost the battle but I'm not surprised as it's very difficult to treat successfully

I lost one of my girls to sour crop despite vet treatment and subsequent care at home.  She never really got any better and died after about 10 days. She seemed to rally a couple of times and I thought she'd turned the corner but she'd be worse again very quickly.  It's complex and difficult to deal with.  The vet can give antifungal and antibiotic, but one before the other, if you get my drift.  I think once the signs are there it's maybe gone too far 

[bantam novice]

So sorry to hear about your ex-batt.     I recently lost one of my girls to what I thought was sour crop but when she was post mortemed it turned out that although she did have sour crop she had a huge growth and loads of fluid in her abdomen and lots of white nodules on her heart and liver. 

Hens are very good at hiding when they are seriously unwell until it is too late.  I suppose I am saying that you have done the best you can and your ex-batt could have had other serious things going wrong as well.  At least you gave her a good few months with you.  Good luck with your other girls.

[lmpd]

Very sad!!!

[ANHBUC]

   So sorry

[morbidia]

Thanks everyone. I feel a bit more reassured now, she had had a couple of funny episodes in the 11 months that she was with us but would be ok the next day and never needed any treatment, I didn't realise chickens could die from sour crop though 

I just have to get used to not seeing her pottering around the garden with the other three now,I feel ok when I can't see them but today I let them out and felt sooo upset just seeing the three of them,its so sad and she was a lovely girl who I miss a lot