please please help guys

karminski

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peeps i am now worried and concerned in about 2 months i have had 4 birds go down with sour crop and only 1 pulled though , had one go down a about a week ago and although i did what i could today i had someone cull her she wasnt happy at all and today i drained her 3 times and only fluid came out but i am so worried that either my girls are picking something up that they shouldnt or i am doing something very wrong .

they have fresh food each day thats kept dry in sealed bin i go though almost a bag every 8 days or so so no food is left to go mouldy or anything they get fresh water once ,twice daily if needed with everything added , the house is kept clean and although i do still get 3 or maybe 8 red mites sometimes daily its soemthing that i am on top of beleive me. i just dont know now :( :( its got to the stage that once the big girls go then thats it i wont get no more and i will just stuck wth my bantams { never given me any porbs at all } and then turn the main part of the run into a giant fruit cage .

p.s thesehave all been my ex batts and some are or must be over the age of 3 now .
 
Really sorry to hear you're having problems with sour crop! I have one who suffered with it regularly last summer. Rather than try to empty it out though I massaged her crop several times per day and it seemed to clear completely after about 2 days and she was fine again. It can be quite dangerous to try to empty the crop as the fluid can get into their lungs, which is why I did the gentle massage.
 
i only empited her as it had started to come out the mouth when i massaged her , i hold veritcal upside down so it can all drain out with the neck compeltely straight :-)05 some say do this some say dont .
i did have one case last year or the year before and that bird pulled though i havent done anything different but i need to try and work out whats going on thing is i dont have the money to though at this by having post mortums etc done wish i did have .
 
They might be eating undigested grain out of each others poo Karminski. Our hybrids do it as they are feeding monsters. Could be the rotting poo that sets up the sour crop. Even with grit one or two don't grind the food up properly. It's grains of wheat that I see in the poos. Perhaps if you only gave them crushed stuff and perhaps ex-bats are susceptable to it anyway? If not that I don't know.
 
i have started to notice some corn in thier poo but only some and one of the girls went to peck at it , they only get 2 handfulls thrown around the late mid afternoon and the little banties get 1 , do you reckon it could be worth leaving out the corn for say 3 weeks and see what happens although i think they may kill me if they dont get thier afternoon treat :lol:
 
Perhaps treat them with something you can be sure they will digest Karminski, like a little boiled rice? Perhaps cabbage leaves. Ours are getting a lot less corn now and apples and purple sprouting broccli leaves instead.
 
am not taking this as the answer i am looking for but its something, i am willing to try anything to stop this re-acurring in any of my girls . i spoke to a friend tonight who sugested that maybe someone was feeding them cut grass or something similar or the girls had somehow got hold of any poison that someone could of left close to the run but that surely would affect more then 1 bird at a time .
 
I guess only one would be looking for grain in poo. Then she would go through them all to find more and take it all. When she got ill another sees it and eats it all and so it goes on. Just a possibility. Fresh cut grass won't hurt and I agree poison would get them all, or most of them unless just one pellet was put in at a time.
 
What's the 'everything' they get in their water ?
 
Im not an expert but from reading up on ex bats three is quite a good age for them. The way they are bred is lots of eggs short life unfortunately. It could be that you are doing nothing wrong. The slowing down of the crop in the girls could be due to tumours further down in the system which is a big killer of ex bats. I have kept a couple of ex bats and they are such lovely friendly birds and its so good to see them having a life but it is so heartbreaking when they have such a short life that I decided to stick to my bantams as they seem to not have so many problems. I think it takes a special sort of person who can deal with the stress and hurt of losing them so quickly and unfortuantely as much as I could have loved to have more I just could not put myself through it. Just remember you have given them such a lovely life after the dreadful start they had.
 
I think Val is right, Karminski, and at three years old, your ex-batts are coming to the end of the line and showing typical problems for birds of their age and background. Sadly, if you take on ex-batts you just have to accept that things will happen you can't cure, all the garlic etc in their water isn't going to do any good. It's not your fault in any way, you take good care of your birds, and have given them a lovely home for the time they had left.
 
thanks for that guys :D i truly am wandering if tis something more to do with their insides and old age then with what i am doing as my white leghorns and maran are so so healthy and have never been ill in any way, that i can agree that when its time for ex batts to start giving up the ghost they do it the hard way and you do have to be tough to deal with it . my firend who does the culling for me even asked his poultry friend to se if he had any ideas but all he came up with with neeps if thats how you spell it ??? i have to admit its not something i have read very much about .
 
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