The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Hillview Farm on June 20, 2014, 07:24:52 am
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I've got an unwell hen having crop issues! I'm not sure if it's sour or blocked or both! Smells!
Last night I gave her some oil and moved it around in her crop and this morning it had reduced but not fully. She still seems to stuff herself with corn so shall I removed it completely? I soaked some layers pellets in live natural yogurt, oil and some water which she enjoys in small doses.
Her poo isn't massively solid but it is green, maybe she's bunged up with grass?
Anything else I should or shouldn't do?
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With sour crop we never feed them anything because it only fuels the sourness. Water only for 24 -48 hours with regular massaging to work it through. I don't attempt crop draining. When the poos have lost their stinky slimy quality and the crop is completely empty and cool she can go back onto a normal diet. Don't worry about feeding her. She should be able to go weeks without food.
We have had cases where the crop has gone sour because of an impaction. Treatment is the same. We have also had cases where the crop has gone sour because of a gizzard impaction due to grass, which is irreversible. But the crop is draining so that's not the problem.
You will need to watch for reoccurrence. If all the sourness isn't removed, or if the cause is cankers, different treatments apply.
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We had a hen with sour crop, we had her on her own with just water and we syringed a small amount if yoghurt in twice a day for a few days, and she picked up, the sour crop sorted itself out and she seems ok now.
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So she has been put into a run on her own with no food just water, her crop is smaller but isn't emptying fully. Shall I just keep going with it? Or knock her on the head?
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Are you massaging her crop Hillview? Without that nothing much will happen.
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I rub and move the mass around in the crop yes, going to get some cod liver oil today and try some of that. Out large animal vet came out yesterday to Pd some cows and he said to feed her a wet mash of layers pellets and so I did a little and it's much smaller today.
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I would recomend live yogurt and masage every time ....
We had a chicken with a herniated crop (somehow got tangled up with the pectorials) she was 7 our vet (who had never delt with chickens before) told us to masage crop and only tip her up if she was starting gurgle she was put on a diet of waterly layers mash and onken live blubery yogurt. it worked she live for another year and i only had to empty sour water from her crop twice in that time. unfortunatly 2 weeks ago i went down with breakfast to find her by the water trough not only gurgling but blue wattles as well we dispached her and the post mortem showed she had got a snail stuck in the tight spot where her crop sqeezed through the pecs. she must have been trying to flush the snail through....
Good luck with your choock :fc: