Chicken bald back

[alet_chicken]

The crop of one of my newly rescued ex-batts, Carol, has become very enlarged over the last couple of days. It is pendulous (it's a proper handful) and feels like it is filled with fluid. I don't think it's sour - but I have never encountered sour crop before and don't have a great sense of smell anyway.

 

I checked her last night and this morning, and since it was not emptying overnight, I decided to follow the treatment for sour crop on the forum (if only to get the crop to empty), and starved her inside all day in a cat carrier today. I put her back in with her friends after they have gone to bed, so by tomorrow morning she will have been starved for the recommended 24 hours.

 

Her crop appears to not have gone down at all since this morning, so I'm not sure the starvation treatment can be described as a great success so far. She drank all the water I had left her with (about 200ml, containing a soluble probiotic), and so she must have digested at least some of the contents of her crop.

 

She did lay a big egg today. She seems fine in herself, if perhaps a bit uncomfortable with the big balloonlike crop.

 

I am worried that the crop problem may be caused by her over-eating and drinking. In my experience hens with impacted or full crops tend to stop eating; however Carol seems to be wanting to eat and drink everything in sight.

 

Any advice on what might be wrong? Anything else I can do at home to help her? Or is it a case for the vet if things don't improve overnight?

[laurmurf]

I'm treating one of mine for the same thing at the moment... and it's generally not wildly successful, I have to warn you.

 

The most likely cause is a blockage somewhere at the bottom of the crop, the first stomach or in the gizzard that's preventing the crop from emptying. So you want to try to remove the blockage upwards or encourage it downwards and all the while massaging some nutrition into the chook past the blockage. She's still eating and drinking because she's hungry and thirsty - the blockage is stopping anything getting through. If she was a 'poorly' chook then she'd be hunched over and not wanting to eat. She's not caused this by being greedy.

 

To try to get the blockage up you can try crop lavage: get a biggish syringe, a long canula tube (dog sized) and some avipro solution. insert the tubing into the crop and syringe a couple of hundred mls of avipro into the chook. Hold her upside down and massage her crop to make her 'vomit'. Stop frequently to let her breath. And keep massaging the crop to break up and shift the blockage. If it's long grass she may bring up the grass in her vomit. You'll be able to tell from what comes out of her whether she's already got sour crop (because it will stink) or blocked crop. Keep filling the crop and vomiting her until you think she's clear of the blockage... easier said than done. When you've finished give her a final dose of avipro (and really fill her crop up - 200mls for an average size chook) and then massage her crop for while. This should get her rehydrated as well as trying to get any blockage left shifted downwards.

 

To shift the blockage downwards you can syringe with avipro, or some people recommend liquid paraffin, and massage gently for a good long time. The idea behind the paraffin is to shift the blockage downwards. If you do use this then use a much smaller amount than you would avipro and finish with the avipro so she stays hydrated.

 

I speak from bitter experience: I have lost 4 chooks to this, all caused by eating bedding and blocking themselves up with it. We managed to save one and she passed the compacted bedding and grass in a long snake from her bum. But the others have sadly faded, losing weight and despite my efforts to shift the blockage, which failed, they all died.

 

good luck to you (and to my girl too!)

[Tweedle]

I have sucessfully treated sour crop several times. When you get her up in the morning check her crop if it is still squishy and stuff still in, give her water with a small amount of bicard of soda in to drink. After she has drunk it empty her crop by putting her upside down head downwards and forward and gently pushing on her crop. All the gunge should come pouring out of her beak. Be very careful not to do it too long so as not to choke her. Do this for about 10 seconds and then push the crop contents back and lift her so she does not flood her lungs. If you do this a couple of times or until the crop is much emptier. At this stage you can either get some nystatin from your vet or buy some daktarin oral gel from the chemist. If you get the daktarin give her a small blob of this in her beak two or three times a day. Dont feed her any soft grains whilst she is being treated.

If you go to the little hen rescue web site and look in the medical section and then scroll down to sour crop there is a picture of how to empty your little hens crop. Really usefull to see. Good luck with your hen

[alet_chicken]

Thanks Laurmurf and Tweedie. So far she has been very good at resisting my efforts at emptying her crop. I'll have a look at the Little Hens Rescue website.

 

Laurmurf, do you know of anywhere in York that sells Avipro? I will order it on the Internet otherwise, but it may take a day or so to arrive. I have some over-the-counter probiotic powder from Pets at Home that I have been using up to now.

 

Also, as a general question, I would be grateful if you had any suggestions on how to get hold of the right size cannula tube. My first point of call would be the vets, but this is maybe less urgent than the Avipro because she will drink anything I put down for her.

 

Very best of luck with your girl Laurmurf.

[majuka]

Have you tried tipping her forwards and has anything come out of her beak? One of my quite elderly ex batts developed a pendulous crop. We didn't even have to tip her forward, just picking her up to examine her made disgusting black / brown fluid come gushing out of her beak. We emptied her crop, we didn't think she had sour crop and neither did our vet. He gave her an injection in an attempt to restart the crop muscle but warned us that once it had become so distended it may never restart. Sadly Henry did pass away in her sleep However in addition she went blind overnight at the same time that the crop started filling up so I suspect that her body was starting to shut down and the crop issue was just one of many.

 

Good luck with your girl. Please keep us posted.

[laurmurf]

I've got the canula and syringe and a wee bit of avipro left. I'd be happy to have a look at her if you want to bring her to my house in Fulford? I could do a crop lavage on mine and show/help you how to do yours, if that would help? PM me if you'd like to arrange something.

 

You can get Avipro delivered really fast from VetUk via Amazon (they do an express postage)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/VioVet-Avipro-Plus-raquo-100g/dp/B004FGAV4A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326924797&sr=8-1

 

edited to sort out hyperlink

[lillybettybabs]

I managed to tip Betty up last week, cor....... be prepared for the stink.

[hippy chick]

I have had successful outcomes with sour /impacted crop.

I usually find that the sour crop is caused by a blockage lower down. I upend the chuck to make her vomit, and the give her 2mls of liquid paraffin just before settling them down for the night. This usually clears the blockage by morning if not i repeat at 8 hr intervals. This always worked for me when I had greedy Gwen who used to eat the wind fallen damsons and sloes. Be prepared for very runny poos!

[alet_chicken]

Just a quick update. I took Carol over to Laurmurf this afternoon and she kindly and expertly performed a crop lavage on Carol. Carol's crop is completely empty right now (hurray!) and she should hopefully make a full recovery.

 

It turns out the little dear had eaten a lot of grass, and it had formed a clump in her crop, acting like a strainer.

 

Thank you very much again Laurmurf. (And sorry for the mess Carol caused.)

 

Most of all good luck with your little girl!

[majuka]

Fantastic news Well done Laurmurf!

[sandyhas3chucks]

white maggots would help her shift an organic blockage.

Just to add that sour crop ca have any causes other than a straight forward blockage.

Brilliant news