Keeping hens and ducks chat.

ali-t

It never rains but it pours here! One of the newbie hens is presenting with a swollen crop today so we have done the upside down massage thing recommended for sour crop as it felt like a water balloon. Hopefully a few more times doing that and she should be OK.

We have 3 rode island red crosses that are new hens are have scaly leg so the leg washing and vaseline regime will begin with a toothbrush scrub - not the most glamorous of weekends here.

has anyone got any advice for us on treating any of these conditions.

edwink

ali-t wrote: »

One of the newbie hens is presenting with a swollen crop today so we have done the upside down massage thing recommended for sour crop as it felt like a water balloon. Hopefully a few more times doing that and she should be OK. has anyone got any advice for us on treating any of these conditions.

Hi Ali

Is your hen any better today?.

Do you think it is just fluid in there? Because it depends on if the sour crop is caused by an impacted crop that has gone sour which you can smell in the hens mouth and you can get a compacted crop which will result in a hard mass surrounded by soft fluid. Or if it just looks swollen and feels just watery it could be caused to a bacterial imbalance.

I have not had to treat a hens crop that had a bacterial imbalance before. But, I believe you will need too feed her a very controlled diet to correct the imbalance.

I have had to treat a compacted crop before that was rock hard to touch and thankfully the hen was ok. I used to feed her separately from the others by putting her on my lap 1st thing every morning plus twice more during the day by giving her olive oil and massaging her crop very gently to start with. Over a few days of doing this I was able to feel movement in her crop so continued with the olive oil but with a few pellets in it which she could easily find. Slowly but surely the crop started to go down in size and wasn't anywhere near as hard as it was at first. One morning she came running out their hotel and automatically jumped on to my lap and when I felt her crop it was empty. So it worked and she was able to eat normally again. I became very attached to that little hen because she became like a dog to me and followed me around the garden everywhere and would jump on to my lap whenever she could. Bless her!!

Let us know what is happening with your little hen Ali.

Edwink

ali-t

Edwink, funny you say that about the smell with sour crop as there is no smell but I did read that it would smell like sour milk. She is still very swollen today but we have been tipping her upside down and massaging her which causes liquid to run out of her. I think we will have to do it for a few days and we are witholding food and have put apple cider vinegar in her water. It could well be a bacterial infection.

we have also soaked the legs of the 3 with scaly leg and put vaseline on to smother the mites. Doing that every couple of days should help shift that and even more frequent cleaning them out should stop it transferring to the others.

this good life caper is not very glamorous is it. Lol

edwink

ali-t wrote: »

Edwink, funny you say that about the smell with sour crop as there is no smell but I did read that it would smell like sour milk. She is still very swollen today but we have been tipping her upside down and massaging her which causes liquid to run out of her. I think we will have to do it for a few days and we are witholding food and have put apple cider vinegar in her water. It could well be a bacterial infection. We have also soaked the legs of the 3 with scaly leg and put vaseline on to smother the mites. Doing that every couple of days should help shift that and even more frequent cleaning them out should stop it transferring to the others.

this good life caper is not very glamorous is it. Lol

Definitely not glamorous that's for sure. I'm normally in dungarees with wellies on covered in poop. Luckily I have several pairs of dungarees because there is normally one pair in the wash.

On to a more serious note. Ali it looks as though you are doing all you can to help your hens so I applaud you for that. Like me you are a really caring hen keeper and do all you can to keep them well, clean and most of all loved. Not an easy job sometimes is it?

Just out of interest what have you got growing on your allotment? Interested because we grow our own too. Anyone else grow their own on the hen thread?

Edwink

ali-t

Edwink we are doomed to fail every time we try to grow anything. It has been a disaster so we gave up and just stuck to hens.

jim-jim

morning, we 'had' strawberries, they became pick your own, including the plant :rotfl:

We also have potatoes that the chucks have free roam of, but don't bother with.
x

jim-jim

After suffering a loosing battle with the mites. Mr Jim is making a new coop :j:j

Any advice how do we get the chucks into their new home without bringing the beasts with them?

The old coop will be burnt, every time you touch it you come away with them crawling on you. Even the green waste bin has them.

Oh drat, can they live in my house :eek:

thanks for any advice
x

edwink

jim-jim wrote: »

After suffering a loosing battle with the mites. Mr Jim is making a new coop :j:j Any advice how do we get the chucks into their new home without bringing the beasts with them?
The old coop will be burnt, every time you touch it you come away with them crawling on you. Even the green waste bin has them. Oh drat, can they live in my house :eek: thanks for any advice x

To stop your hens taking the mites in to their new house you will need to treat them all with mite powder. When we had exactly the same problem and had to burn our hen house. Even though they had a new house to move in to we powdered that too just in case a few stray mites piggybacked on one or two of the hens.

We had a massive problem with mites after bringing in 8 more hens. These blooming mites were crawling on us too and we must have taken them indoors with us but they must of died off because they soon disappeared.

Best thing to do when you have treated their new house is make sure you treat their perches because the little blighters live underneath the perches and crawl on the hens during the night and live off of the hens blood. You can check that you have the all clear by going up to the hen house when it gets dark and your hens have been in for some time. Get a piece of white kitchen paper and wipe the underside of their perches. If the paper has any red on it you still have the mite problem. If you treat the house and the hens very well with the powder you shouldn't have the problem anymore.

Nice to see a new face on our hen thread. Good luck and let us know how you get on as any information is always helpful on here.
Edwink

jim-jim

Thanks edwink, we don't need to do the night hunting in this coop
just open the door they are every where. I've sprayed it everyday, powdered at night in all the corners, round the doors. open up in the morning and they are still there, in the water bowl, around the edge of the door. Squirming like maggots.

My advice to anyone getting chucks do not buy a second hand coop.

Oh and they are call Boris (a black rhode X) Doris, Hank, Derek, Mich, Rosie and Betty they are all warrens. RIP Digger, Rhino, & Frank. The age ranges are from 7 months up to nearly 3years old.
The next 3 recruits, when the time comes.....:( will be called Hetty, Hey Hey and Harold.

x
PS they are all girls x

CAFCGirl

Late to the question,

but another grow your own here. We have an allotment, I say we - i'm the only one who works it! Plus a few bits that are grown in the garden that DS was responsible for (strawberries in troughs) plus some kitchen herbs as there's no point having them at the allotment when I need them near the kitchen for cooking LOL