# Three month old Buff Orpington with sour crop.



## Gabriel06 (Jul 29, 2020)

Hello, my girlfriend's chicken, a three month old buff orpington, has what we believe to be sour crop. This is the second day of her showing symptoms (lethargy, not eating and barely drinking, swollen crop). We have been trying to feed it Greek yogurt, but she just refuses to eat it no matter what we do. Also, the swelling of her crop has barely gone down, if at all, since the first day of symptoms.


On the first day of her symptoms we emptied her crop. Today we tried again but nothing came out.
What could we do to make sure she starts eating and recovering?


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

That sounds more like impacted crop. If the crop is firm feeling she's got something in there that is wadded up and can't pass through the crop. Something like that happens when they eat too much grass or grass is pulled and fed to them. It can also be a large solid obstruction.

Try massaging the crop to see if you can loosen whatever it is. A little mineral oil is said to help in moving it along. Grass is a real problem and would probably need a vet to address the problem.

With sour crop that there can be an odor and they usually drink large amounts of water.


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## Gabriel06 (Jul 29, 2020)

robin416 said:


> That sounds more like impacted crop. If the crop is firm feeling she's got something in there that is wadded up and can't pass through the crop. Something like that happens when they eat too much grass or grass is pulled and fed to them. It can also be a large solid obstruction.
> 
> Try massaging the crop to see if you can loosen whatever it is. A little mineral oil is said to help in moving it along. Grass is a real problem and would probably need a vet to address the problem.
> 
> With sour crop that there can be an odor and they usually drink large amounts of water.


Thank you very much for the information. On another examination of the crop it does seem like it's impacted crop.


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## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

That is one of the best tips we can give to chicken owners to prevent a problem, never ever pull grass or weeds and give them to the chickens whole, chop/tear them up into small pieces, If you watch a chicken eat grass that is still attached to the ground, you'll see that they tear off the end, a little piece at a time, they know what they are doing  we just need to follow their lead.


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