# Recurring sour/impacted crop problems



## jenllplaydead (Nov 9, 2013)

One of our Honeysuckles had a problem with an impacted crop about two months ago. After separating her completely for about 4-5 days with only water, it emptied out and we were able to put her back in with her sisters, after re-introducing food back slowly).

The same thing happened again a couple of weeks later so we followed the same procedure and it turned out she'd been eating the sand from their dust bath(!) as she had lots of sandy poop. 

We removed the sand based dust bath and once her crop had emptied properly again (I really had to put my foot down with my other half who kept trying to feed her maggots and yoghurt, because she was hungry) we put her back in and all was well for another few weeks. She even started to lay for us again!

Typically, it's happened again. She is a glutton (even for a chicken) and would stuff herself until she bursts if we let her! I picked her up earlier in the week to check her crop and she was sick over me so I figured all was not well. 

We separated her straight away (bringing her inside over night) with just water again (although we then discovered she was actually eating the sand and stones thrown out of the main pen by the others!)

We thought all was ok and put her back in yesterday morning (although I wasn't 100% happy about it) and lo & behold, she fell into the food and ate pretty much all day. This morning, her crop was full again, although it seems to be mainly air with some grit at the bottom...

My question is, is there anything we can do to help prevent this from happening repeatedly? We love our honey and I'm happy to keep separating her every few weeks when the problems start but I don't want to stress her out and make her life miserable by doing this if there is something else we could do. 

Any advice would be appreciated. 
Thank you


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

First impacted crop and sour crop are two completely different problems and need different treatments.

I read a few years back that a bird that gorges itself on grit, or sand in this case, is lacking something in their diet. Usually some mineral. Its possible she is not processing enough of what is in her feed and she's feeling she needs to get it some how.

She needs grit to process anything that's seed like so eliminating that could cause issues. There are things on the market that you can use to supplement to see if that stops the activity. Manna Pro has a Poultry Conditioner, there is Rooster Booster Poultry Cell. Try adding one of these to her diet. Also, if you are feeding a layer brand food, try adding free choice calcium. I have mine in separate dishes for the girls that want it.

If upping her nutrition doesn't work then I would suspect she's suffering from pica and you may never get it to quit.


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