New girl off...?

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Aileen

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Gah! I am so frustrated one of my newbies is "off" but as I really don't know them yet I can't tell you much and am in a quandry as to what to do for the best.
She was sitting fluffed up in the corner of the nest box and her eyes are pretty much shut, but there's no signs of respiratory distress, and her crop is nice and squishy.
I have brought her in for the night to see if she is feeling the cold as its pretty cool here today (don't go rubbing in your tropical heatwave at this point please :lol: ) But I don't even know if thats the right thing to do as they have only been together for a week, am I disrupting a pecking order ...
Also, a bath in case she is eggbound? Given that we don't really know each other yet I am worried this would only add to her stress.
Your thoughts? ..
 
I'd keep her under observation and not do anything which could make her weaker such as a bath. Egg bound is possible but not likely I'd say.
 
Well she's still with us this morning, shes drinking and when her eyes are open they're clear and bright. She is sat in kitchen watching the world go by from her "infirmary cage" but she is definitely droopy. I will keep her in for today in case she was just being bullied and was needing some food and water as thats all I can think of. Unless she just is destined not to make it as some are.
Back later tonight with another update folks.
 
was her crop empty this morning did you check, any chance it could be sour crop.
 
It was smaller but its soft?? Thot sour crop was hard and impacted? It is very large and she is drinking lots....

*edit* Vets today 5:10, tipped her upside down and the gallons of water she has drunk today all flooded out and she is very gritty...
 
impacted crop is hard and solid sour crop is soft and squishy.
Looks like the vet emptied it, did he give you any antifungal medication for her. Sometimes vets give abs for this and this can sometimes make it worse if its a fungal infection. The antifungal usually prescribed is Nystatin. Hope she is a little better this mornng
 
Need to make sure all the food is fresh. No mouldy feed or rotting fruit as that causes sour crop. But risky turning her upside down as she can choke and suffocate -lucky this time.
 
Sorry Aileen, I hope she gets better soon :(

Is she still drinking a lot?
 
She had her first sleepover last night - at the vets!
I tipped her up to see if anything would come out as she had done nothing but drink all day and it flooded out of her, creamy stinking water so I took her to the vets and he flushed her out (said it was rank rotten) and kept her in overnight to re-hydrate and administer some anti bio's as she was very droopy. Got her home today and she is the brightest she has been since getting her last week. Shes in our infirmary (downstairs loo) tonight but I am hopeful of getting her back outside tomoro.
Is sour crop not pretty terminal? I darent take any chances re: massaging her crop in case I do more damage than good, this only actually being the second time any of my birds have had it.
But fingers crossed all is well again for now.
 
sour crop does not have to be terminal. I have a hen who had it two years ago and is still with us given the right treatment, although she does have occasional relapses which is something you will need to keep an eye on. My hen gets fungal sour crop not bacterial though and needs antifungal medication.
 
In this case, I would suspect an underlying cause, which is not good :(
 
yeah foxy I suspect there is something underlying going on but she is coping well and happy apart from the occasional lapse she even lays eggs when she is fit and well. My theory is that due to my inexperience the first time she had sour crop I missed it till too late and it damaged her is some way. She has lived quite happily with all my other hens for well over a year and none of the others have had any problems so I assume it is damage to either her kidneys or lungs or something similar and nothing contagious. Whilst she is happy I shall just leave her. She does have a gurggle the majority of the time which only seems to go when she has a relapse which is quite odd. She is a pet to me not just kept for eggs so whilst she is in no distress and happily digging sunbathing and having fun with the others I will leave her
 
Sorry Valburnham, I was referring to Aileens hen..didn't mean to confuse you!

Aileen, glad she is brighter, what meds has she been prescribed?
 
oh sorry foxy im easily confused but as a matter of interest have you any opinions on my girl with the gurgling, another thought I had was that she streched her crop and it was not very effiecent but does not explain the gurggling
 
She's not great....
She's not eating, she's staying in the house all the time and her crop hasn't seen any food in it forover 24 hours.. she's not happy but the problem has been eradicated to the best of my knowledge.
I haven't given her any meds as a post mentioned fungal / antibacterial and I am nervous of aggravating things.
Should I bring her in again and monitor her food and water intake?
Really concerned now :-(
 
I think i would bring her in and keep her warm feed maybe a branmash with some poultry spice in it and see if that perks her up. bless hope she pulls through!
 
I don't know whether you've seen my other post, but I have a hen who seems to get sour crop quite regularly. I don't feed any treats now, to try to avoid her overeating. I check her crop every morning, usually by sight now as I can tell when it is full or empty, but I started by feeling the crop and it was soft and felt full of water. I massaged it gently several times a day (every couple of hours to start with) and this clears it after 2 days. She was feeding normally though. I have now tried Beryl's Friendly Bacteria from 'Chickenvet' as this was advised as having good results with sour crop. It is mixed into the feed (or can be given orally) once a month. I did this last week when she had a particularly full crop that wasn't emptying and it seems to have worked so far.
 
?! She doesn't walk very well?! Everything is very slow and exagerrated, I brought her in today as she tends to sit on her own and I hadn't seen her eat or drink and when I watched her walk the term "spastic chicken" did indeed spring to mind. She pulls her legs right up then straight out before putting them down - totally bizarre.
Anyways, I have given her the run of my house tonight as I feel so sorry for her, so she has had a snack of porridge and poultry spice and as I type this she is on my knee watching X Factor having a bit of girly time :-)
Yep I know,totally fallen for her and I am not sure she is gonna be with me for long .... Anyone any ideas? She seems happier in here away from the others, could they be making her life miserable
 
Ministry of Funny Walks springs to mind. We had a Legbar that stretched one leg right out forward before she plonked it down. Happened every so often for no apparent reason -perfectly health and happy hen. Sometimes she did it with both legs. But it did make us laugh!
She obviously prefers your company to the hens. If you have hard floors like lino or tiles (easy to clean) she could become a pet like our Orpington Cockerel 'Bottom' has. When we took him to Tenby on holiday someone told us that a lady walked her Orpington hen on the beach in the mornings. Another lady walked her pet duck. Quite funny when he crowed on top of the dunes. About 100 people turned to look for the source of the noise. He had his photo taken hundreds of times and seemed to enjoy it. For some reason not many people have chickens for pets, which is suprising. He is a bit noisy in the Summer mornings though -a hen would be quieter.
 
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