The Definitive Guide to Treating Sour Crop in Chickens

One of the best things about keeping chickens is that they tend to be pretty healthy compared to other animals. These birds are tough, hardy, and, aside from a few typical illnesses, generally have little to worry about.

But one typical issue that every keeper is going to deal with, sooner or later, is sour crop. There are all kinds of things that can cause this condition in our birds, and some keepers give it little more concern than the common cold.

That might be a huge mistake. Severe cases can have life-changing consequences, and even be fatal! Accordingly, you’ve got to know what to look for to identify sour crop early, and how to treat it yourself. I’m here to help you do that with this comprehensive guide…

Sour Crop: What It Is and What It Isn’t

Candidiasis, better known by its common name sour crop, is nothing more than an infection of the chicken’s crop. The crop, if you are unfamiliar, is a pouch for holding food prior to sending it to the gizzard, and it’s the first stop at the bottom of the esophagus.

When the crop is infected by a proliferation of fungal or bacterial organisms, most commonly Candida albicans, but also C. tropicalis, C. krusei, and C. glabrata, proper crop function slows down and eventually stops.

This means food will stay in the crop instead of moving on to the gizzard, and that can cause all kinds of issues. Some other inciting factors can cause it, too, but these are the most common.

Far from being merely irritating, sour crop can result in a greatly diminished quality of life, significant weight loss, and eventual death. It is nothing to take lightly!

Identification: Sour Crop Symptoms

One of the most important things you can do as a keeper is learn how to identify sour crop. That begins with learning what a normal, functional crop feels like and how a healthy chicken acts.

Pay attention! There are typically signs if you look closely, but sometimes these birds can be stoic, which makes your job a little harder.

Squishy, Bulging Crop: The crop is located just above the keel of the chicken, what a layperson would call the chest or sternum region.

When the crop is healthy, you won’t be able to see or feel it protruding under the skin unless a chicken has just enjoyed a big meal. Then it should feel firm but yielding, like a bag of sand. If the crop is conspicuously bulging and feels squishy, like a bag of jelly, there is a problem.

Slow/Absent Emptying of Crop: One of the easiest and surest ways to identify sour crop or other crop-related issues is to watch for slow or even entirely absent emptying of the organ.

After chickens eat, the food should exit the crop as it moves to the gizzard. If, over time, the crop doesn’t go down and flatten out, you’ve definitely got a problem.

Note that the first thing in the morning every bird’s crop should be flat because it’s empty; if they are waking up with a bulging crop, you should assume there is an issue.

Foul, Sour Odor from Mouth: In case you were wondering how this condition got its name, now you know. It is called sour crop because a sour, nasty smell will typically emanate from the mouth of the bird.

If you get close to their head and smell something that resembles bad sauerkraut or vomit, that’s an all-but-certain indicator.

Lesions or White Liquid in Mouth: When food cannot move through the crop, liquid and other secretions can build up in there, forming a nasty white sludge.

Look for dribbles around the beak or inside the mouth of the affected bird. Likewise, this can sometimes result in oral sores, which are an indicator absent any other possible explanation.

Lethargy: When chickens feel bad for whatever reason, they tend to lose some steam. They won’t be as energetic, active, and plucky. The same goes for sour crop.

Loss of Appetite: A contributing factor to the above-mentioned lethargy is a major or total loss of appetite. A bird with a full or impaired crop will instinctively eat a lot less or nothing at all for the duration.

Weight Loss: Illness and a lack of calorie intake will result in significant weight loss. If you notice one of your birds thinning out, they definitely need to be checked out. If any other symptoms are present, check their crop immediately.

Rubbing Beak/Flicking Head Movements: The discomfort caused by this condition will lead some birds to swipe their beak on nearby objects or the ground, or flick their head like they are trying to get something off of it or out of their mouth.

Yellow-Green Diarrhea (Sometimes): This symptom isn’t always present, but if you notice any bird discharging a watery and yellowish-green diarrhea, you should give them a check-up right away.

Treating Sour Crop-afflicted Chickens

Sour crop can be mild or severe, with mild to moderate cases typically being treatable at home, on your own, as long as you know what you are doing.

If the crop is not grossly distended, the bird obviously suffering and unable to even drink, or if you notice intermittent eating in the presence of other symptoms, chances are good you can treat it yourself using the following procedures.

Quarantine Affected Bird

Even though this condition is typically not directly contagious, you need to isolate the affected bird. This will make treatment much easier and also reduce unhappy outcomes like bullying and picking that sometimes happen in flock settings when a chicken gets sick or starts falling out.

This is especially important because of the next step.

Withhold All Food, Provide Water

If a chicken has crop problems, giving them more food is just going to exacerbate issues. We need to fix the underlying problem and then resume feeding. Withhold all food from the quarantined bird, and that includes edibles like grasses, weeds, and other stuff they can get from the environment. No food!

At the same time, the bird should not get any water for half a day while you institute treatment. After that, it can have unlimited access to fresh, clean water for the duration.

Massage Crop Several Times a Day

At least twice a day, and preferably three times, start massaging the crop area gently. Massage it in a circular motion using two fingertips, or one for smaller breeds, working upwards gently.

It may be helpful to wrap the chicken in a towel if they find the procedure uncomfortable or painful. Lacking that, get someone else to help you.

You only need to do this for a couple of minutes each time. With a little luck, you’ll feel the crop start getting softer or notice it going down and emptying out since you’ve encouraged the contents to head toward the gizzard.

Check Crop in AM for Normal Size/Feel

Every morning, check the affected bird first thing and monitor for signs of improvement. If the crop is going down, or even better, flattened out entirely, that’s a great sign.

Administer Meds, if Needed

If progress is made concerning the contents and disposition of the crop, now is the time to start a round of medication and see it through to the end. See the following sections for more details.

Resume Feeding with Modified Diet

As long as the crop is showing signs of improvement and preferably emptied out, after a day you can start the bird back on a modified diet. The idea here is highly nutritious foods that will not antagonize the condition and will be easy to pass while the function of the crop is degraded.

A time-tested meal option for recovering birds is their usual type of feed mixed in with a few generous dollops of plain yogurt with no additives and no added sugar of any kind. This will help restore beneficial bacteria and facilitate digestion.

Another good option, believe it or not, is plain scrambled eggs. Don’t worry, scrambling and cooking them means you won’t incite egg cannibalism.

For Severe Cases, Get Affected Birds to Vet ASAP

If the chicken has lost a significant amount of weight or has fluid dribbling out of their mouth, don’t mess around: get them to a vet right away if you want to save them.

A crop that’s full of fluid is a significant aspiration hazard, especially if you try to rectify it yourself. Chances are quite high you’ll lose the bird in the process.

Call your vet without delay.

Medicines, Preventatives, and Other Treatments

The following home remedies and medications have proven effective in the fight against sour crop by directly targeting the microorganisms that cause it. Familiarize yourself with all of them…

Warning: Whether you are using an at-home remedy, over-the-counter medication, or prescribed medication, always—always!—see the treatment regimen through to the end.

Stopping short will allow the bad germs to reestablish themselves and likely become more resistant to treatment in the future. Not good!

ACV: Apple cider vinegar works well against mild or beginning infections, and is a great preventative for general use. One tablespoon in a gallon of drinking water for a week is generally sufficient.

Cinnamon Oil: Believe it or not, cinnamon oil is a potent antimicrobial agent. But it is quite intense and must be administered cautiously. Once you get birds over the hump, a few drops mixed into a small quantity of feed is all it takes. Continue regimen for 1 week.

Clove: Powdered clove is a natural, effective, and convenient option for reducing sour crop symptoms and whittling down the infection. Mixing in a teaspoon with feed and a little drizzle of olive oil to help it stick is a good way to administer it. Administer for 12 days.

Thyme Oil: Thyme oil works interchangeably with cinnamon oil for this purpose, though it isn’t as potent. Drizzle a teaspoon or so on chicken feed and stir until it is lightly glossy. Administer for 12 days.

Pomegranate Peel Powder: Another surprisingly effective, safe, and all-natural preventative measure. Pomegranate peel powder has shown to stop harmful Candida microorganisms from establishing themselves. Best used on weekly basis, once or twice a week, as preventative.

Nystatin: A dependable and popular antifungal. Functionally disrupts fungal cell membranes causing collapse and subsequent death. Preferred for treating sour crop since it works on a localized level directly in the gastrointestinal tract with minimal side effects. Administered as an oral suspension or, sometimes, mixed with feed. Follow veterinarian instructions.

Ketoconazole: A powerful antifungal, not used as often these days due to greater prevalence of side effects. Administered orally or in water or food. Risk of liver toxicity at high doses or when given for a long period of time. Follow dosing regimen exactly. Given for 1 to 4 weeks, usually twice a day.

Fluconazole: Another potent antifungal. Used to treat highly resistant or severe cases of sour crop. Mixed with water, given directly orally, or injected. Costly, and there are subsequent risks of germ adaptation if used too often. Requires careful dosing. Requires prescription. Adminstered every other day for two weeks, typically.

Itraconazole: Heavy-duty medication sometimes used to treat recurrent or severe cases of sour crop. Administered orally or mixed with food or water. Highly potent, but expensive and prone to causing significant side effects like GI disruption and occasionally liver damage. Monitoring is a must when administering. Given two times a day for 3 weeks.

Preventing Sour Crop

As always, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The following factors are known contributors to, or sometimes direct causes of, sour crop. Take care to manage or prevent these and you’ll go a long way toward keeping your birds happy and healthy.

Antibiotics: What? How? It turns out that antibiotics tend to wipe out many microorganisms, including beneficial ones. The resulting imbalance can pave the way for Candida albicans to proliferate out of control.

Moldy/Rancid Food: A major cause, and one that’s highly preventable. Never, ever give your chickens any kind of food that is moldy, rancid, or otherwise spoiled.

Excessive Grass Consumption: This can be a big one for birds that just love eating tasty grasses or people who give grass clippings to their flock or use them for lining coops and nesting boxes.

Ingestion of Foreign Objects: Chickens are reasonably smart, but they aren’t that smart. If your bird gobbles up string, washers, screws, plastic bits, or anything else they shouldn’t, chances are good it will cause sour crop among other problems.

Infection: Attendant infections in other parts of the body or the GI tract generally can sometimes spread or “spill over” and result in sour crop.

Internal Parasites: Another common cause if you don’t stay on top of worm mitigation. Bad infestations can lead to a host of other issues, including sour crop.

Physical Injury: The stress and toll of physical injury, especially blunt force injuries to the chest, can now and then lead to these problems.

Odd Diet: Chickens need a varied, nutritionally complete diet. If they aren’t getting it, or if they are forced to subsist on substandard or irregular food, sour crop might occur with greater frequency.