I could tell it was young as it did not have a coloured beak and had not developed many tail feathers. It could not fly and was trying to push through the hedge.
I had just take Jessie's coat off so I used that to cover the bird and pick it up. I know from experince that lorikeets have very sharp beaks.
I called the local wildlife carer and she said I could drop it off with her as she already had 3 others she was looking after. Apparently the Rainbow Lorikeets have breed earlier than normal for the last 2 years and this means that there is not a lot of nectar around for them to raise their young. This means they end up kicking the babies out early because there is not enough food .
We also have a sick chicken on our hands. I noticed that over the past week 'Squawky' was not coming to eat with the other chickens as was quiet and subdued. I thought that maybe she had worms or mites so I dusted her and wormed all of the chickens but she did not want to eat so the worming mash missed her.
So last night I caught her and put her in our home made wire cage so I could check her out today.
When we have a sick chicken I like to isolate them give them a bit of TLC and see how they go. They either get better or go to chicken heaven, we do not take $15 chickens to the vet not even if they are our favourite.
There did not seem to be any mites but she was very thin and lethargic. I offered her some mashed boiled egg mixed with yogurt but she was not interested.
Today I got her out of her cage and gave her a thorough inspection. Her vent was normal as was her comb and her eyes were still bright. I felt her crop (where a chickens food collects) and it was not hard so I knew it was not an impacted crop. But her crop was soft ans squishy and I could feel food in there when I massaged it. This told me that her crop had not emptied overnight and even though she had not eaten there was still food in her crop. So I did the sniff test as I suspected she might have sour crop and peww stink! Yep I think I found the problem. Sour crop is a yeast infection in the crop and the if you massage the crop and smell the chickens breath it smells rotten.
So now that I know (pretty sure) what I am dealing with I can try and treat it. I just hope that I have caught it in time.
I will keep her isolated for a few days and for the next 24 hours she will be on water only and I will be giving her crop a gentle massage a few times a day. After that I will try and get her back onto an egg yogurt mix and see how things go. I have seen suggestions to use and not use apple cider vinegar end even red wine but I think I will stay away from the acids and will instead add a pinch of bicarb soda to her water.
Do you have any experience with Sour Crop? What have you tried or had success with?
Thank you for your articles that you have shared with us. Hopefully you can give the article a good benefit to us. Tea Jasmine
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