RACING PIGEON POST
Each unit of our 125gr Improver or AntiFungal costs about £20 and will treat up to 100 pigeons for 6 months against diseases and give great flying results.
Read our all our health & performance articles at Pigeon Vitality Contact our veterinarian & nutritionist team by letter or email for any query: mail@pigeonvitality.com Pigeon Vitality, Lundekroken 10, 3940 Porsgrunn Norway
Contact our resellers if you want to use these patent protected products:
H. Beattie & Son 028 3884 0486; Derek Rooney 019 25 72 13 28; Taylors Choice 01270252530; Richard Sanderson 07795161546; Abbeyton Lofts 07799640711; B.Leefe & Sons Ltd 01653691411; BJF Feeds 01909770065; MedicAnimal LTD 02030580500; Gem Supplements LTD 01243531259; Cosworth Studs Feeds 01215561497; Boddy & Ridewood 01723585858; Andrew Hitchcock 07595394444; Graham Tysom South Ltd 01797227999; Graham Tysom North Ltd 01933317444; R.E. & E Smith 01915843773; P&J Lofts Friskney 01754820027.
Pigeon Vitality is looking for more distributors, please contact us
The content (content being images, text, sound and video files, programmes and scripts) of this website is copyright of Racing Pigeon Post and this article is Copyright © 2009 Pigeon Vitality. All rights expressly reserved.
Read our all our health & performance articles at Pigeon Vitality Contact our veterinarian & nutritionist team by letter or email for any query: mail@pigeonvitality.com Pigeon Vitality, Lundekroken 10, 3940 Porsgrunn Norway
Contact our resellers if you want to use these patent protected products:
H. Beattie & Son 028 3884 0486; Derek Rooney 019 25 72 13 28; Taylors Choice 01270252530; Richard Sanderson 07795161546; Abbeyton Lofts 07799640711; B.Leefe & Sons Ltd 01653691411; BJF Feeds 01909770065; MedicAnimal LTD 02030580500; Gem Supplements LTD 01243531259; Cosworth Studs Feeds 01215561497; Boddy & Ridewood 01723585858; Andrew Hitchcock 07595394444; Graham Tysom South Ltd 01797227999; Graham Tysom North Ltd 01933317444; R.E. & E Smith 01915843773; P&J Lofts Friskney 01754820027.
Pigeon Vitality is looking for more distributors, please contact us
The content (content being images, text, sound and video files, programmes and scripts) of this website is copyright of Racing Pigeon Post and this article is Copyright © 2009 Pigeon Vitality. All rights expressly reserved.
All about the crop & the racing pigeon
The crop of healthy pigeons should empty within 12 hours if fed twice daily and within 24 hours if fed once daily. Delayed crop emptying can be the initial indication to the fancier that all is not well with the team.
Often the problem is first noticed when birds are picked up for a morning toss and are found to have food in their crops from the day before. Alternatively birds may not appear normally hungry and trap sluggishly simply because they still have food in their crops, waiting to be digested, from their last feed.
And so what are the possible causes of delayed crop emptying? I find it easiest to group potential causes into four categories, namely, problems with the food, the crop itself, the environment or the body generally.
The crop
The crop is the dilated area of the esophagus (the tube from the throat to the stomach). It is the initial place that swallowed food comes to rest. In health it is a functional, contracting, muscular sac. At the completion of the meal it begins pushing boluses of food through into the stomach. Anything that inflames the crop wall interferes with this function. Common infectious causes include wet canker, thrush, and bacterial infections (often E coli.). Microscopic examination of a sample of fluid taken from the crop i.e. a crop flush can be used to identify a problem.
Food
Feeding poor quality food contaminated with bacteria, fungi, or toxins will lead to a slow crop.
The Body
One of the initial subtle ways that race birds have of showing us that all is not well is a crop that takes too long to empty. Frustratingly the list of possible health causes is virtually endless. The problem could be a disease elsewhere in the body that is not immediately associated with crop function e.g. worms or Coccidia. Alternatively it could be one of flock management that indirectly affects the birds well being e.g. over-training. Exposure to heavy metals such as zinc and lead is an often over looked problem. Drinkers, storage drums or feed trays made of galvanized metal can all expose the birds to these toxins. Quickly absorbed but slowly excreted they accumulate over time leading to a range of health problems including delayed crop emptying and even infertility.
The environment
Basically birds from lofts that fail to provide a sense of well being can be expected to experience delayed crop emptying. This may be because they fail to provide an environment conducive to health. For example they may be cold and damp. Alternatively they may fail to provide a sense of security so that the birds do not rest properly or may be poorly set up leading to excessive territorial disputes etc.
What to do?
A crop flush should be done immediately, particularly during racing, to prevent any crop infection give as indicated Improver and AntiFungal twice a week to insure high micro flora and immune system in the bird,. To identify any crop infection present and treatment given as indicated. If no problem is detected, a thorough clinical examination, together with microscopic examination of a faecal smear, may give the answer. Medication is not necessarily indicated. The birds recent management should be reviewed together with the loft design relative to recent weather. If the birds have been working hard and the weather is cold, no tossing for a few days and some probiotics or vitamins may help. Slow crops correlating with a recent change in a grain batch may indicate a feed problem. Interestingly, some specialists of the problem stated that they had good results treating birds that were otherwise healthy, with slow crops, with fennel tea. Fennel tea bags can be purchased from health food shops. Simply make a cup of fennel tea, as you would a cup of normal tea for yourself. This can then be added to the drinker. There is no strict dose rate. It smells like licorice but unless mixed too strongly the birds drink it readily.
The crop of healthy pigeons should empty within 12 hours if fed twice daily and within 24 hours if fed once daily. Delayed crop emptying can be the initial indication to the fancier that all is not well with the team.
Often the problem is first noticed when birds are picked up for a morning toss and are found to have food in their crops from the day before. Alternatively birds may not appear normally hungry and trap sluggishly simply because they still have food in their crops, waiting to be digested, from their last feed.
And so what are the possible causes of delayed crop emptying? I find it easiest to group potential causes into four categories, namely, problems with the food, the crop itself, the environment or the body generally.
The crop
The crop is the dilated area of the esophagus (the tube from the throat to the stomach). It is the initial place that swallowed food comes to rest. In health it is a functional, contracting, muscular sac. At the completion of the meal it begins pushing boluses of food through into the stomach. Anything that inflames the crop wall interferes with this function. Common infectious causes include wet canker, thrush, and bacterial infections (often E coli.). Microscopic examination of a sample of fluid taken from the crop i.e. a crop flush can be used to identify a problem.
Food
Feeding poor quality food contaminated with bacteria, fungi, or toxins will lead to a slow crop.
The Body
One of the initial subtle ways that race birds have of showing us that all is not well is a crop that takes too long to empty. Frustratingly the list of possible health causes is virtually endless. The problem could be a disease elsewhere in the body that is not immediately associated with crop function e.g. worms or Coccidia. Alternatively it could be one of flock management that indirectly affects the birds well being e.g. over-training. Exposure to heavy metals such as zinc and lead is an often over looked problem. Drinkers, storage drums or feed trays made of galvanized metal can all expose the birds to these toxins. Quickly absorbed but slowly excreted they accumulate over time leading to a range of health problems including delayed crop emptying and even infertility.
The environment
Basically birds from lofts that fail to provide a sense of well being can be expected to experience delayed crop emptying. This may be because they fail to provide an environment conducive to health. For example they may be cold and damp. Alternatively they may fail to provide a sense of security so that the birds do not rest properly or may be poorly set up leading to excessive territorial disputes etc.
What to do?
A crop flush should be done immediately, particularly during racing, to prevent any crop infection give as indicated Improver and AntiFungal twice a week to insure high micro flora and immune system in the bird,. To identify any crop infection present and treatment given as indicated. If no problem is detected, a thorough clinical examination, together with microscopic examination of a faecal smear, may give the answer. Medication is not necessarily indicated. The birds recent management should be reviewed together with the loft design relative to recent weather. If the birds have been working hard and the weather is cold, no tossing for a few days and some probiotics or vitamins may help. Slow crops correlating with a recent change in a grain batch may indicate a feed problem. Interestingly, some specialists of the problem stated that they had good results treating birds that were otherwise healthy, with slow crops, with fennel tea. Fennel tea bags can be purchased from health food shops. Simply make a cup of fennel tea, as you would a cup of normal tea for yourself. This can then be added to the drinker. There is no strict dose rate. It smells like licorice but unless mixed too strongly the birds drink it readily.