- Joined
- Apr 21, 2018
- Messages
- 63
Hello everyone. I have a chicken with sower crop. I have had other chickens with sower crop and all have died. I wondered if anyone could help?
Thanks for the help I'll try now
Hi'Sour' crop is caused by a variety of mostly environmental circumstances.
Sometimes they don't get enough grit or the wrong type of grit that is not big enough to grind the grain.
Sometimes the grain mix is not right for the time of the cycle the hen is at so it doesn't get digested soon enough before it goes off.
Sometimes the hen is not drinking enough water to mix with the type of grain she is consuming.
There is a fungus that chooks can get in the crop. It is often on the grain & if the conditions in the crop are not correct, it allows that fungus to grow & multiply. The fungus is called Candida albicans. Its a little bit like thrush that humans get & lives in the moist lining of the organ.
Chooks that are fed on the ground are more susceptible to getting Candida from the manure in the soil or from mouldy grain.
Best to rake the manure away daily if you like to throw the grain on the ground. Or throw the grain on the short lawn grass.
Rodent droppings in food left in a bowl, tray or on the ground can also harbour various diseases including this fungus & other ails that can upset the natural flora of the crop.
The usual veterinary treatment for sour crop is either Nystatin or fluconazole both of which are antifungals given orally using a 1ml syringe into the beck at roosting time when the chook is easier to catch.
But by far the best way to clear up sour crop is to clean up the living environment of the chooks. So rake the manure away daily, don't allow water to overflow & cause wet patches of soil or bedding, make sure the roosting area or night perch is not above the egg laying or feeding part of the pen or coup. Make sure the chooks have free range on clean ground daily. If they are co-housed with ducks, make sure the chooks have separate dripper drinkers so they are not forced to drink the polluted water the ducks use. Ducks poo in the water & if other poultry are forced to drink that water they can get quite sick.
Worm the chooks with chemical wormer. Sorry about that one but the only stuff that works is horse, sheep,cow, pig wormer based on pyrental & ivermectin which might be called Moxidectin in many countries.
ACV, garlic, wormwood, etc don't work once the chook is infected & has adult breeding worms in its system.
Massaging to crop is one way to release the undigested grain from the crop if it is tightly packed. However this can be painful for the hen if the crop is very impacted. Flushing with a light solution of epsom salts can help remove the impacted grain or milky gunk.
So get an antifungal, administer according to directions, clean up the pen thoroughly, get a closed feeder so rodents & chooks cant poo in the feed. Only feed clean feed that has not gone rotten or mouldy.
Natural remedies that may assist are ACV 1tablespoon per gallon or 4lt. This may create an undesirable environment for the fungus to keep living in the lining of the crop. If the chook wont drink due to feeling ill, then use a 1ml syringe & drop a little down the throat. Be careful about doing this as the chook may aspirate it into the lungs.
Copper Sulphate may help also but it is an involved recipe requiring the making of a stock solution then breaking it down to a much weaker drinking solution.
Feeding unsweetened yoghurt can also help re-establish a good crop environment.
View attachment 3142