My chicken is regurgitating clear liquid when she bends over to eat. She is drinking a lot but tries to adjust her neck soon after, as if to un stick something... then she bends over and out comes the fluid. Her droppings are runny and liquid. She has refused most foods except tomatos. Over the last few days she has stopped trying to eat. Her breastbone is protruding. She appears well apart from going to sleep on her feet a lot.. but she needs nourishment. It is as if the throat is blocked except for the top three inches uder her head... nothing seems to go further. A little while before we got her which has only been a few weeks she was bitten by a dog... not badly. She came good a few days ago as if nothing had happened after eating a lot of canned corn, but now she doesn't want that. She seems to be distressed when she brings up the fluid and the other chicken likes to eat it... thanks for your help.

-- ginger rogers (ginger@zipworld.com.au), July 26, 2001

Answers

Sounds like she has an impacted crop. Does she have a big hard lump at the base of her neck - off to one side a little? I've had a couple of hens get this. They end up starving to death. It happens when the crop contents get bound up and won't move down into the gizzard. Maybe she ate some long, tough grass or some hay or something. I read that you can try to work the contents back up and out the bird's mouth, but that the crop is often damaged and will get bound up again. I haven't tried it, the hens I discovered with it were already emaciated.

-- Paula (chipp89@bellsouth.net), July 26, 2001.