Locking Bar Eglu Classic

[Alis girls]

Title says it all. My oldest Omlet girl - 3and 1/2 - whats wrong and is there hope or am I preparing for the worst. Other girls fine (i hope) thanlks Ali x

[Daphne]

Sounds like she might have sour crop and needs emptying. Chickens don't have a gag reflex so we need to help them, although sometimes some of the liquid just pours out when they bend down to peck.

 

You need to gather your girl up and give her crop a good but gentle massage, massaging upwards towards her beak. Then you need to gather her under your arm and point her beak down, upend her and the vile stuff (it will probably stink) will come out. You should only do this for 10 seconds or so as its stressful for her and if you are like me, for you as well . You can do this a couple of times. Be careful when putting her the right way up as you don't want the fluid going back down into her lungs. This needs to be repeated for as long as there is still fluid in there (I do it twice a day).

 

If you aren't confident then perhaps a vet would do it (not sure ). The good news is that this is fixable in the short term, the less good news may be that she has an underlying problem (eg a blockage lower down) and this is just the symptom.

 

There are various treatments for sour crop if that is what it is. I tend to restrict food to watery pellet mush, fresh waer and give live yogurt for 2-3 days, although something like fluconazole can also be used to try to get rid of the bacterial problem.

[Egghead68]

Just to add to the above, it is usually caused by a fungal infection and flucanazole does indeed work well. You can buy an oral thrush tablet at boots or superdrug (about £10), dilute it in water and give about a tenth twice a day. N.b. not licensed for chickens in the UK. Alternatively you can get a vet prescription for nystan.

[The Dogmother]

Daphne's advice is good, I wouldn't bother with thrush meds, neat ACV is just as good.

 

Do be careful to let her draw breath, and do wear gloves as the smell is something which takes a long time to scrub off! The action you need is rather like milking bagpipes.

[Alis girls]

Did as advised - many thanks - she wasnt impressed being wrapped in a sack and held upside down and massaged. Some smelly stuff came out. Why I didnt think of this I dont know but he crop wasnt that decended. Put her back with others this am - she chuntered crossly as doesnt like being handled. Will massage her again tonight. Thanks everyone - i am aware its an ongoing problem and will need observing and repeating. thanks Ali x

[The Dogmother]

I'd suggest emptying her then syringing in about 2ml of neat ACV, that will help.

[Alis girls]

Thanks DM - I have some ACV in the garage. Will do that this evening after work