Crop Stasis

Failure of the crop to empty quickly results in fermentation, visible as air bloating the crop. The food at the bottom looked much thicker than normal too. The chick did beg but not enthusiastically and when he stretched his neck all but the very bottom was air!



Click on the photo and see the distended crop filled with air in this five day old just banded Stafford chick. (Its bald cap means it is going to be crested!) Immediately, I thought of crop infection with gas producing organisms such as bacteria or yeast or virus or parasites.

In neonates, Candida, thrush, a yeast is a common cause of crop stasis. Chicks with crop stasis have air bloating the crop and often die and those that don't die often have stunted growth.

Treatment is to acidify the crop. Having a sample of KD powder from Joanne at ladygouldianfinch.com, I treated the water with KD powder and immediately added greens (romaine lettuce and baby bok choy) to the parents diet.

KD Powder contains organic acids that works by acidifying the water they drink and thus also the crop. It can be made up in a stronger sanitizing dose to disinfect cages and drinkers or in a low drinking dose to kill germs in food, water and the environment that are causing disease. This gets rid of the infective agent in the crop immediately and promotes return to strong natural health. It is effective against Strep, E coli, Thrush, fungus and virus infections without compromising the immune system.

KD can be used as preventive, administered for two consecutive days each week or in this case, I will give it four consecutive days to treat the problem. It is an excellent product to use at the first hint of problems or as a preventative.

I was amazed when I checked the chick a few hours later and his crop was filled with greens and no gas!

A special Thanks to Joanne for being genuinely concerned with my problems with the imported birds and for including with my order, several additional products to try on them and for sending Dr. Rob Marshall's book Canary Health which was helpful in preparing this blog! I plan on giving the imported birds KD in the water for four days when they finish their antibiotic treatment. I was fortunate, thanks to Joanne, to have KD powder on hand to use for this case.



One day later, the chick is fine. I did hand feed him right before the photo and a normal very very small air is seen at the top due to his enthusiastic gulping!