Chicken tipping (instead of cow tipping) and...sour crop?

[niglefritz]

We have some chickens that we think are possibly suffering from sour crop. We have one left who has the issue.

The only way we knew that something was up is that we did some live chicken tipping. We found some of the same fluids drained out of a dead one turned upside down, so that explains our actions with the live birds. Anyway, she looks fine, feels strong, and doesn't do anything strange or make odd noises while breathing. We didn't go smell each one's breath either to identify that she had a problem. Tipping was the only way we could find out who else might have an issue.

We are finding all sorts of advice from sources online, however, some disagree with others in what to do. Most recommend tipping, massaging the crop, feeding yogurt, ACV, and krill oil (we have fish oil that we will try today if she is still here). Others say if you medicate, to use Nystatin. They say either the fish oil or the Nystatin work quickly.

Anyway, when you tip the bird upside down, no grain comes out, but a yellow, milky fluid comes out (and my daughter says that it smells like half cooked chicken). She thinks that she might not like to eat chicken anymore (and she is generally not squeamish).   

So, my question is what do we actually look for if this is what is going on without going out to tip chickens every day. This seems to only have happened this winter to a few here and there. We are guessing that this has been our mystery issue in most of the deaths this winter, although not all. Some we still don't know what happened even after doing some investigating.   

My last question is how would you go about treating this yourself?

[Sweetened]

I don't really know what to look for other than a large mass in the throat or gullet area, as the food is being stored and not processed. Do you provide them with insoluable grit? It doesn't sound like their gizzard has enough friction.

I had it once in one bird. I hung her upside down and massaged downwards (technically up) from chest to the base of the skull. If there's a buildup, You'll be able to feel the grain/feed coming up and. This takes a while, and patience. I had her back on my knee and her head draped down the side of my leg. She'd lift it, but when I massaged the head would be pushed back and it was effective. Good luck.

[niglefritz]

Well, she was still around this afternoon. We have tipped her again, and very little came out this time. There was a little grain this time, even after massaging the crop. We could not get a whole lot out even though it felt like there was more in there.

We gave her ACV in her water...a fair amount of ACV. We also gave her some live culture yogurt. We gave more to the rest of them as well.

Someone online told me that it is most likely a thrush/yeast infection. In my experience as a mom, yogurt works hands down way better than Nystatin (which they recommended) any time.

We do give the birds grit. We give them gravel in the summer and buy some granite grit for the winter. Maybe they just didn't get enough?

We will keep on going...good things happening so far, we believe.

[niglefritz]

The hen had nothing in the crop that we could tell after the 24 hrs. Made sure she still had ACV & yogurt, and she got a bit of rolled grain & grit today too. We also gave her some fish oil. She put up a fuss as we got her ready to take it, then she held her beak open a bit after giving her some (thought she might like it, but it appears that she did not). Hopefully all helps.

She seems good, but we will keep doing this (minus the fish oil...what a pain), & increasing her grain over the next few days and wait and see what happens.

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