Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Could the one with the full crop be filling up on her feathers? They need extra protein during molt and feathers are protein.

Hmmm I don't believe she's eating feathers but hadn't thought of that. Ive never seen her eat one. She doesn't actually get blocked but her crop slows down to a near halt every year at molt time. She's shooting liquid like crazy now. I fed her some epsom salt water. It has worked every time. It's a mild laxative and seems to kick her system into gear. All of them feel crappy at molt time but this girl seems to get hit hardest. The strange thing is she just keeps eating and her crop will sour quickly because it's so slow. I don't panic about it like I did year one at least!

Well I just got home from a vet visit with Big Momma (my bad crop girl)
Her crop soured and then stopped altogether. Her crop is FULL of fluids. The only she's had in the past 24 hours was liquid and had a whole sunflower seed in it and she hasn't had access to any of those since Tuesday. Not sure if she gorged on them or what. So she's on a prescription now to hopefully kick start her system. Fingers crossed it works Poor old girl.

Aw, poor girl , hopefully the meds work before she starves :sad:

I should mention that I decided last year to start weighing my girls once a year really just for my own knowledge. The way my brain works it helps to have #'s to compare to physical findings like body condition so that I can become confident in assessing by feeling their keel. Big Momma was 3.2kg this summer and last. That's on the large side for her breed-especially from a hatchery. Shes a solid bird-very muscular Today she was 2.9 which is still a good weight but her condition is much thinner and her keel feels more prominent. It was handy info to have. Just passing along in the hopes it may help someone.

Just out of curiosity how much was the vet visit?

Well altogether was $148
Ya ya I know...coulda bought a lot of chickens for that price. But not one of them would be Big Momma.
The prescription (Metoclopramide) was about 1/3 of that total. This vet is trained in poultry and keeps chickens, peacocks, etc so I don't mind whatsoever investing in a relationship.

You are lucky you have a poultry vet, nice to be able to turn to somebody who has the expertise.

Ontario Chick wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 21, 2017 7:34 pm

You are lucky you have a poultry vet, nice to be able to turn to somebody who has the expertise.

Very lucky. There's 2 vets I can see within a half hour drive. The other is near Midland. He's on the road a lot though so it's harder to get an appt. It's always interesting taking a chicken to a vet. There's inevitably someone who wants to take pictures and has never actually seen a live chicken before. The first time I took one to a vet she became a bit of a celebrity and trotted around the back room mooching people's lunch from them. They were amazed she liked yogurt lol. My follow-up call included a request for future pictures for the staff to see her progress.

Just so you're aware, the metoclopramide may help get things moving through a little better, but won't do anything to treat the underlying reason her digestive system is slow in the first place. Don't be surprised if you have to make a return visit for antifungal meds.
Very cool that you have vets willing to treat (and experienced with!!) poultry! I have two, both about 50 minutes drive from me in opposite directions lol. One is experienced but big $$$, the other is reasonably priced, and... enthusiastic...but inexperienced and often unwilling to consider a layman's suggestions. I consider myself fortunate that I haven't had to choose between the two in several years lol, but when I had to, I used the cheaper vet for results from Guelph, and the expensive one to treat favourite animals lol