4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Kathybaldwin]

Hello everyone. I have two 16 week old bantams and the past week or so, one of them has been looking a bit off. She appeared to be gagging, and when I've picked her up for a cuddle she's been sick. She is still eating and drinking but very lethargic and wobbly, she seems to loose her balance if gently nudged. Yesterday she was very quiet and just hunched herself up in garden and closed her eyes. I have made an appointment at the vet tonight, but can anyone give me some advice on what to do in the meantime? Her crop is very large and doesn't seem to get any smaller when I've massaged it. Someone mentioned holding her upside down to make her really sick, shall I try this?

 

any advice would help. she's currently half way through the flubernvet course of wormer and neither of them seem interested in vegetables or treats. also when should I start changing their food from growers pellets to layers?

 

thanks Kathy

[Olly]

It sounds as if she may have an impacted crop. Hens can also get sour crop, and if she had this she'd have very smelly breath. That can be helped by emptying the crop but it's not easy to do, and if it's impacted then I don't think trying to make her sick would be a good idea. Make sure she's hydrated, syringe water into her if necessary, but you've done the right thing by making a vet appointment.

 

I'd keep her separate from the others if you can, if she is very dopey anyway then popping her into a cat carrier or a large box won't do any harm and it will give her a break from having to maintain her 'pecking order' position.

 

Hope your vet can sort it out.

[Kathybaldwin]

Hi thanks for replying, I've been googling sour /impacted crop in my lunchtime and am now expecting the worst! Baytril has been mentioned a few times on various sites. I will keep you posted tonight on the outcome....

[sandyhas3chucks]

if liquid poured out of her beak then it sounds like sour crop.

Baytril can make it worse.

her crop will feel like a baloon if it is sour, and initially her breath MAY not smell.

If blocked it wll feel very hard more like a golf ball.

I expect she has gone to bed now,

If she is doing odd break neck dancing movements with her head and not sleeping, emptying it would give her some relief.

Decide what she has then do a search on here for which ever & you will find posts relating to it,

good luck.

[Kathybaldwin]

Hi Olly and Sandyhas3chooks many thanks for your advice the vet made a few suggestions, but basically the crop was very distented and even after tubing or antibiotics the prognosis would not be brilliant, also although she was pecking around and drinking she was not absorbing any nutrients and was basically skin and bone, so would probably not have had the strength to withstand the tubing. I felt so guilty and responsible, why hadn't I noticed she was loosing weight, why didn't I go to the vet sooner. I was surrounded by three children (2 of them mine) and the youngest was quite fascinated by the fact the chicken was about to die! Midnight the half sister seems to be fine but how do I go about introducing a new one? Are bantams happy on their own?

[Olly]

Very sorry to hear that she didn't make it. Please don't blame yourself - you will frequently hear it said on here that it's very hard to diagnose chicken illnesses, because they tend to conceal symptoms very effectively.

 

In order not to lose their place in the pecking order they will behave as if there's nothing wrong, and often by the time it's apparent that there is a problem they are too far gone to save. They can also go downhill very quickly, and she probably didn't have the problem for very long at all before you spotted it. She may even have had some sort of congenital defect, they were not very old after all. You did the right thing by acting on it when you found the problem, so don't give yourself a hard time about it.

 

Your remaining bantam will need a friend, and in fact I would advise getting two, then if something happens to one in future, you won't have another lonely chicken. There are some good tips on introducing new chickens in the FAQ section. Ideally you keep them separate for a bit, but you could just put them in together, keeping an eye out for any bullying. Midnight is still quite young isn't she, and probably not laying yet?

 

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience so early on in chicken-keeping, this doesn't happen very often and the chances are your new chickens will be fine.

[Egluntyne]

Sorry to hear it.

[sandyhas3chucks]

so sorry, don't beat yourself up.

i did know about it and was checking.

Mine started sour on Wed, saw a vet Thursday.

by Monday he said the same as yours, just too weak!