Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Hello! I'm new! I have a small coop with 9 hens and I am three years into this. Like most, I truly enjoy my birds. BUT, when sickness strikes, I'm desperate to help them. My black sexlink appears to have a sour crop. I have isolated her (since Sunday pm), put apple cider vinegar in her drinking water, placed a serving of yogurt in her box (for which she didn't show interest). I am hand feeding her sourdough bread soaked in rice milk laced with probiotics and massaging her crop every 2 - 3 hours. At times, during the massage she does spit up clear liquid and sometimes there appears to be feed in it. I welcome your input!

Pull food completely. Give her 24 hours with no food, let the crop try to empty as best it can. I've used kefir and probiotic capsules (that I dumped into the kefir) and syringed it into her beak to get her to eat (after the 24 hours). It worked for my hen luckily, but it's a tricky thing. I'm sure there are others who will speak up too. Someone had luck with a red wine solution before?

I have had sour crop twice and both times epsom salts in water worked.
1/2 tsp dissolved in 1/8 cup of water and syringed into the bird bit by bit. It makes them very thirsty so make water available but withhold food. I especially don't think you should give bread...May be wrong there but any type of bread to me slows the crop down. The frat time I gave this I saw chunks of grass and sunflower shells coming out within a couple hours. I gave a second dose about 3-4 hours later then nothing but moistened chicken food for a few days (no grass/seeds/bugs/dirt). I know some people swear by making a bird puke but I'm not brave enough to do it and haven't had to.

Just to add...A lot of times slow or sour crop is secondary and there is something else underlying that is causing it. In one of mine I realized she had worms which had slowed her system down. The other time was a result of gorging on sunflower seeds after breaking into the grarage lol.
Checkover for lice/mites and I would probably treat for worms if you haven't done it in a while.

Hhmm... All sounds good. I think the cause are sunflower seeds. Chatting with the owner of my local feed store one day and they asked if I gave my hens sunflower seeds as treats. So, I've been giving them the occasional sunflower seed. Not a good idea according to you Happy. Although quite watery, her droppings appear OK. Whitish, yellowish and clear liquid with small black mushy matter. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

I still give my guys sunflower seeds but just a handful at a time. The sour crop incident was a result of a hen literally gorging herself after she broke into a bag. Her crop was so hard and huge. It went sour after not emptying after several days.

Welcome to the forum!
Check her vent. If there's a discharge, or gluey bum feathers that smell yeasty, you're going to have to go for the big guns--medication for candidiasis. Sour crop can be isolated, but often it's systemic. If that's the case, not enough probiotics will survive to get through her digestive system and overpower the yeast.

I gave the hen some yogurt with an eye/ear dropper yesterday. Today, she's walking around ing well and looking for food! The crop is looking good too. She helped herself to yogurt. Will keep her for another 24 hours and then she's good to go back to her peers. Bum looks and smell good. Thank you for your help!

Put the hen back in the coop this morning. Crop is normal again. She was feisty as I handled her which I take as a very good sign. I learned a few things thanks to OPT!

Glad your hen seems to be feeling better, also to PTO