Weasel Update

Welcome back to Gone Chicken. This is just a quick update on the weasel problem. It has now been 4 weeks since the last attack. There has been no sign of the weasels trying to get in. The only time I've seen any of the weasels was a few weeks ago. I saw a large cat with one of the weasels in its mouth. I think that the weasel problem is over now. Once it warms up I will take a few pictures of the chicken pen to show you what I did to help deter the weasels. That's all for now, keep visiting.

Chickenman

Sour Crop

Now I'll talk about Sour Crop. Sour Crop starts out similar to impacted crop. However, when a chicken has sour crop the food can still digest some. The problem? The rotted food, when digested, begins to act like a poison. To treat it naturally feed it garlic or apple cider vinegar. For more desperate measures, pour salt water down its throat count to five seconds, and turn it upside down for eight seconds(no long than eight seconds or it will aspirate) then let it catch it's breath, keep doing this and it should throw up the contents of the crop. If it does then put it on a soft food diet for a few days to give it time to recover. I haven't dealt with this personally so feel free to do your own research. I try to raise my chickens as organically as possible, so I don't use antibiotics. If you feel like you need to use it to treat your chickens, then do it. I'm just giving you a run down on ways to help more naturally. Keep visiting.

Chickenman

Impacted Crop

Today, I want to talk about a problem I recently had with my rooster, Demonique.  I noticed that he was staring off into space, he wouldn't react to movement and he wouldn't eat. He would also crane his neck up weird. I picked him up and felt his crop, it was the size of a small orange, maybe a little bigger. Anyway, I took him out of the pen and set him under a heat lamp. I gave him some olive oil to drink, he drank it well so, I then gave him some water mixed with apple cider vinegar. Then I gave him some cooked oatmeal mixed with garlic, honey, and some more olive oil. I also gave him some warm water. After he ate and drank some I massaged his crop in a downward motion. After massaging him for a few minutes, he perked up. I had to put him back in the pen because of extreme cold temperatures, but he was doing a lot better. The next day I felt his crop and it was down by half. After two more days, it was back to normal and he was feeling a lot better. Now, lets talk about what an Impacted Crop is. A crop becomes impacted when a chicken either: eats too much and can't digest, eats a large chunk of something and can't get it down, or eats something that it shouldn't eat. It is best to treat it as early as possible, the earlier you treat it, the higher chance your chicken has of surviving. So, I suggest you learn the symptoms so you can act immediately. If your chicken does get an impacted crop then olive oil is one of the best things you can give it, the olive oil lubricates the crop and makes it possible for it to go down. The apple cider vinegar and garlic is to help prevent it going sour( more on that later). Oatmeal (cooked) is easier to digest, so its safe to feed to the chicken( If your chicken has impacted crop do not feed it feed, grain or anything hard), and the honey gives energy. One more thing you can give it is chopped pineapple, pineapple contains an enzyme that aids in digestion, and it can help break down the food in the crop. It is important after giving it olive oil to massage it's crop in a downward motion, massaging helps move the food down the crop. While not immediately life threatening, impacted crop will eventually kill the chicken if it goes untreated. They can only last about a week until lack of food and not being able to digest proves fatal. Typically, you can save the chicken well before that. Feel free to do your own research on any of this. A good site for all things chicken is www.backyardchickens.com . There are a lot of helpful people on there. Next, will be a post on sour crop. I hope this helps you if you ever have a chicken with impacted crop. Keep visiting.

Chickenman

Update

I would like to apologize for taking so long on doing this new post. It's been pretty crazy. Here is an update on the weasel situation, I ended up losing a total of 11 chickens to the weasels. I lost Uther and 10 hens. I haven't lost another chicken since the start of the new year, thankfully.

It turns out it wasn't 1 weasel, but a family of weasels; a mother and at least 3 juveniles. Thanks in part to a cat, the weasel population is now dwindling. In one of the upcoming posts I will show you what I did to try and weasel proof my pen. Well, that's all for now, Happy Late New Year.

Chickenman