# Sour crop?



## thesmallholding (Feb 22, 2013)

Basically we had a hen with sour crop early this year, we did everything we could to help her, someone told us to massage her crop so we did and she had this horrible smelling black sick like stuff coming out her mouth anyway that night she sadly past away, I've just been out into my garden to check on the girls and my little LC has what feels and looks like sour crop, any idea on how to help her without having any loss?


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## Energyvet (Jul 25, 2012)

Empty the crop. I believe the black stuff was blood. Generally sour crop is more like curdled milk. Use apple sauce or other easily digestible foods like scrambled eggs or oatmeal until she's back on her feet. Mash can work well too. Some recommend ACV diluted in the drinking water to change pH of the crop to make it less hospitable for the bad bacteria causing the sour crop. You can google sour crop too.


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## thesmallholding (Feb 22, 2013)

Energyvet said:


> Empty the crop. I believe the black stuff was blood. Generally sour crop is more like curdled milk. Use apple sauce or other easily digestible foods like scrambled eggs or oatmeal until she's back on her feet. Mash can work well too. Some recommend ACV diluted in the drinking water to change pH of the crop to make it less hospitable for the bad bacteria causing the sour crop. You can google sour crop too.


Well with the other hen who had it we emptied her crop and literally seconds after she started dying


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## Energyvet (Jul 25, 2012)

I think the other hen (because of the black discharge) had something more complicated than a sour crop. The other hen was likely hemorrhaging. Digested blood is usually black. It could have been a foreign body, tumor, injury of some sort. A sour crop is generally just a bag full of digestive juices gone bad. I think your other hen was misdiagnosed.


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