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Posted by ciscobird on March 23, 2003 at 20:18:32:
Sour crop is the common name given to the condition where the birdscrop is moving too slow or not at all. Many people tend to view crop stasis (sour crop) as a diagnosis in its own right and this is a huge error because there are many causes of crop stasis in birds. All too often I get
the phone call with the caller proclaiming that they have diagnosed their baby birds problem, slow crop, and they want some of that medicine that treats slow crop, and there is where the educational process begins.
This article is an attempt to address the most common causes of slow crop and their diagnosis.
Environmental Causes:
Handfeeding formula that is too thick and not mixed in the proper ratios can cause water to be drawn into the crop from the bloodstream in an effort to dilute the food to a more digestible consistency. This often dehydrates the baby bird and the total gastrointestinal tract then slows and the birds crop slows down because his entire system cannot
function. In todays market this should never happen because there are many fabulous baby fomulas on the market with excellent directions and if you choose to wean and follow instructions this will not be a problem.
Low environmental temperatures cause the baby to chill and all body organs slow down. The crop then slows down and the food becomes stagnant and thick, again easily preventable with proper brooders and equipment. Dehydration can occur if the temperature is too high and again the results are the same.
Foreign bodies in the crop can also cause crop stases. I am talking about wood chips. those "digestible beddings" on the market and anything else that a baby can get in its mouth and swallow.
Infectious Causes
Many incidents are the result of infectious organisms growing in the crop that can be introduced to the bird by the parent birds or by the person doing the handfeeding. Cockatiels in particular have a high incidence of Candida sp. (a yeast organism). Many times this is fed to the babies by perfectly normal appearing parents. Many breeders are stunned and seem disbelieving when they find out that those beautiful appearing parents gave these babies this organism before they pulled the babies from the nest.
Bacteria are a second infectious cause of crop
stases, particularly Gram negative bacteria. Recently Dr. Susan Clubb has identified a bacteria known a Bordetella to be a cause of "lockjaw syndrome" in Cockatiels which is often accompanied by upper respiratory signs and crop stasis. The list of possible bacteria is endless but some of the most common are Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, Proteus,
Enterobacter, and E. coli. These too can be fed to the babies by the parents and some of them can even be transmitted in the egg by the hen.