Then yeast begins to grow and feed on the food that is stuck in the crop. It often occurs because of an impacted crop that hasn’t been cleared. Sour crop is basically a yeast infection in the chicken’s crop. What is sour crop and how does a chicken get it? After a few days she looked ill again and soon we found out she had sour crop. The way I look at it is: if the oil will save her life and nothing else is working, then try it!Īfter we fixed the impaction we released Slater back into the flock. Many chicken owners swear by it while others swear against it. If water alone doesn’t help break up the impaction you can try olive oil. Keep an eye on her to be sure the impaction was removed and the crop is emptying. She’s going to be hungry and will fill her crop if she can, you don’t want her to fill her crop until you know it’s working well.
Try getting as close to the bottom as possible and massage up. You want lots of water to break up the blockage. If she isn’t drinking on her own or isn’t drinking much you may have to force feed the water. A chicken can go a few days without food.
Adding food to an already impacted crop will just make things worse and won’t provide any nutrition to the bird since the food can’t get out of the crop and into the gizzard. Don’t worry about your chicken getting hungry. Withhold food until the impaction is removed.The best way to do that is with water and massage. That may mean keeping your birds in their run until you cut the grass for the first time (when it’s green and lush) so they don’t eat the dead dry grass.
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The best way to prevent impacted crop is to offer granite grit, free choice, and limit your chickens’ access to long dry straw or grass. If you aren’t sure if your chicken’s crop is emptying properly, check first thing in the morning before you feed your chickens. Your chicken’s crop should be empty at some points in the day or, at least, first thing in the morning.
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To check your chicken’s crop, hold her like a football with beak pointing forward, you can reach around the front of the bird and find the crop, a small bulge, below her neck and above her chest.Ī chicken’s crop will feel full after she’s eaten and will be flat (and hard to find) when it’s empty. Drinking a lot of water (an attempt to move the blockage).A firm, large crop (like a tennis ball) that doesn’t empty.How do I know if my chicken has an impacted crop? Impacted crop is when something, usually straw or dried grass, gets stuck in a tangled mess and blocks food from moving from the crop to the stomach. Food can hang out in there for a while waiting to be digested. What is impacted crop and how does a chicken get it?Ī crop is a little sack where a chicken’s food hangs out just after being swallowed and before going to the stomach (Proventriculus and gizzard). I started researching and quickly realized she had an impacted crop. She wasn’t interested in any of the treats I was dishing out and wasn’t “playing” in the dirt with the others. I noticed that one chicken, Slater, was not scratching around with the others and was perched on a low branch instead.Ī little while later when I went back out she was still there perched on that branch sleeping. One day I went out to the coop to check on the chickens while they were scratching around in the dirt. I’ve written about keeping chickens healthy in the winter but I didn’t realize that spring brings it’s own challenges, specifically, Impacted and sour crop.
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