Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[kissinuk]

We lost another chicken at the weekend due to sour crop. She had started to pick up after a few days of oil in the crop & massaging but had to be taken vets at the weekend

 

We've had mixed results with treating it over the years, but last year we done exactly the same thing to another of our girls and she is still here now. I asked the vet for her advice and she said it's also possible to flush the crop with water using a special tube & syringe from a farm shop. Has anyone ever attempted this? She did explain how to make sure you get the tube down the crop and not the air tube. Bearing in mind his hard it is to just get oil down their beaks I'm not sure I fancy this...

[Beantree]

We have the apparatus Kissinuk, but have only used it a few times with a case of 'pendulous and sour' crop. It is a risky process, but if you take it steady and feel the progress of the tube. It is easy to miss the crop and go straight down past it. You then suck the crop contents out. Flushing water in will surely result in overfilling and suffocation? Our preferred method is a strict water only diet with plenty of crop massage for 24 -48 hours. Sometimes we resort to Epsom salts and sometimes it is cankers and treating further is questionable. Surprisingly our 'patient' didn't struggle at all. I think she was too terrified to move!

 

Watch the poos in the coop every day. Slimy and watery is sour crop onset and treated quickly we have always been successful.

[kissinuk]

Thanks for the advice. The flushing was to be done after the contents of the crop are first removed, sorry I didn't mention that.

[Redwing]

I've never had to do this. I rely on emptying the crop and then starving the hen for a day or so and that always seems to sort things out

 

I would say that more difficult than the actual technique would be the ability of the hen to cope with the procedure, you really need her to keep still and cooperate which wont be at all easy.