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[Clare L]

One of my girls is not well, so wondering if anyone can help.

 

Looking back she has been a bit off her food and not coming back to the run for corn when I am calling them in for a few days, but I assumed she was getting broody, as my girls seem to be forever broody! Anyhow, I noticed the day before yesterday that she was been spending alot of the time on her own, and not doing anything.

 

Yesterday she did not move from the edge of the glug all day, just resting her head on it, looking like she was dropping off, and when I stoked her she seemed to be opening her beak up, like she was having trouble breathing or retching. I took her out to have a good look at her and she instantly starting vomiting a HUGE amount of bright yellow liquid. The liquid was not pleasant, but it did not smell bad. She was making some terrible noises after that, but then seemed to perk up a bit and was drinking in the afternoon. She cant have eaten anything, as she did not move all day. I emptied her crop again later in the afternoon and more yellow liquid came out.

 

She also seems a bit unstable on her feet, not falling over, just unstable, and she seemed to be struggling more than usual getting up the ladder to bed.

 

To be honest I had not expected her to live the night, but she came down as usual this morning, but we have separated her from the rest of the girls, just in case. Although her crop was empty this morning on its own she is still not well and just sitting there next to the glug. She is pooing, and it is a sort of yellow froth with what look like whole pellets in it. Her comb is also looking very dark.

 

About a month ago we lost one of our young girls to pendlum crop, so wondering it is related in any way? But she was not unwell and was acting fine in herself, but the vet thought it was untreatable, so we had her put down.

 

So does anyone know what the problem might be, and what might help her, or do you think she has reached the end of the road? She is now over 4 years old and the last of our original flock.

 

I would appreciate any advice you can give.

 

Thanks

Clare

[Mrs_B]

I didn't want to read and run off - I don't have a huge experience with chicken issues of this kind, but could there be a blockage in her digestive system of some sort?

 

I would take your girl to the vet asap as she sounds in a bad way and like she's suffering

 

Hope she improves soon!

 

x

[Clare L]

Although she is still very unwell she is looking much brighter now. She has moved around a bit more and is acknowledging me with little chicken noises and looking at me (unlike yesterday) and even her tail feathers have lifted off the floor a bit too, so probably wishful thinking, but maybe clearing out her crop a few times has helped a bit. I think she is happier being in a separate area from the other girls too.

 

I am just not sure what to do for the best now. Should I carry on trying to empty her crop, is that something that should be done throughout the day, or just morning or night?? I am not sure what the vet would do either, if it is a blockage, is there anything they can do which does not involve surgery? We decided not to go down that route with our little Orp with the pendlum crop - the vet said was not likely to work anyway, and was kindest to put her to sleep.

[miller30]

Sounds like sour crop to me if you feel her crop does it feel like a balloon or can you feel anything hard in it? it depends how experienced you are with chickens to how you treat it but you will need to sort it out or she will eventually starve to death i have treated a few cases of sour impacted crop with sucess but also a few i have had to put them out of their misery it also depends on how long she has had it and how weak she is i always make a point of when i pick my birds up just give them a quick mot check crop,vent cooties leanne

[Tweety]

She sounds very poorly, and I would advise you to take her to the vet ASAP. She is clearly suffering.

[Clare L]

Thanks for the advice. She was fine on saturday and running around and eating normally, we give them their weekly once over at the weekend (like you said, crop, vent, lice etc.!), and all was fine with her then, so think it was probably monday she was not wanting to come back in and then after that sitting around a bit - but she gets like that when she is broody, and we have had the nest box closed off most of this week as we have a major broody girl who we are keeping out of the nest box!!! When she gets like this I usually have to drag her out from under the bushes to put her back in the run, so it is not unusual behaviour in our coop! I cant believe they can hide an illness so well!

 

She does seem to have a hard lump in the righthand side of her crop. I just went to have another feel and she must be feeling a bit better as she ran away from me and put up a good fight.

 

The earliest I can get her to the vet is tomorrow. It is good to know what it might be and how I can deal with it / help her. Thanks for clarifying that it might well be impacted / sour crop as I was not sure it was sour crop, as I had expected it to smell bad when I emptied her crop. Hopefully the vet will be able to help and will keep my fingers crossed she keeps getting stronger between now and then.

[miller30]

Its a good sign when they still have a bit of fight in them im not sure how experienced your vet is with poultry mine is useless no matter what is wrong with your chickens they send you away with a bill no less than £50 and antibiotics thats why i gave up using them and treat my birds myself or cull the last resort was when i took my cockbird in and they thought it was a girl she will need an anti fungal medicine if its sour crop as antibiotics wont work if you can i would syringe some live yoghurt into her or even if she will eat it out a bowl she will need emptying maybe twice aday but you must give them a break in between so they can breath leanne

[Clare L]

Well I took her to the vets this morning and they said that she had a blockage of some kind, but not in her crop or bottom end, so blocked somewhere in the middle. It was not sour crop. They said that they could attempt a period of time trying to drip feed her and using a tube, but we decided that she would be better off being put to sleep.

 

It is very sad, but our vets are very good and do treat a lot of chickens, so they tend to be able to give an honest opinion about what the chances of survival are, even if they do offer to treat them if that is what you want to do.

 

So thats goodbye to the last of our original flock It seems odd to only have two newbies left!

 

Thanks Leanne for your advice - I appreciate it.

Clare x