Drunk wobbly and low hanging crop. Marek's or pendolous crop or both?

Guys I am stumped.

need your help: What am I not picking up on here?

Pullet ( Blue Laced red dottie)hatched one week after Mother's day ( 17th of May).
The most gregarious, greedy and piggy of all seven of the chickens. second to last youngest.
Hatched by me in incubator and her brother was hatched week earlier ( on Mother's day).

Four days ago I noticed her crop hanging unusually low and large. Since she is an absolute pig and she is plump feathered( not smoothe), I thought nothing of it.

Three night ago same thing only this time I noticed when she turned around suddenly or made an acrobatic move...like stand and twist neck around to groom, she would wobble...like she was on a small boat and it was rocking. Only very sublte about it and not constant.

Picked her up at that minute and flipped her...some liquid light grayish tan came out, about three tablespoons full and no more no matter how I massaged. Crop was then a pingpong ball size and squishy...could not feel anything in it like food...just squish.

She went in with the rest for the night, and roosted fine.

Next morning I scooped her up and set her up in my house in a cage for the fasting for sour crop/pendoulous crop/poop trouble etc. ( even though no smell)

Started antibiotics that morning, and started vitamin ( poly-vi-sol) and selenium that night.

Liquid diet only and monitored. No more stuff would come out of crop all day.

That night I put her in the coop...no food in there so I figured she would rather be with her family to sleep and roost of she could.

Still wobbly all day.

next morning ( this morning 9/3/2015) she was on the roost with others and good balance...i was hopeful. Picked her up and felt her crop...it was considerably smaller but about the size of a jumbo marble and still squishy and still nothing would expel.

Took her in for another round of cage rest and food monitoring and medicine.

antibiotics, poly vi sol and selenium and St. John's wort in distilled water was given.

supporting her all day this way.

Her wobbling is worse and her crop is size of lemon...turned her upside down and liquid came out...but her diet is soupy liquid so I am not sure if it is just her food....but only a little bit came up. and can't get anymore. No smell...and her poops are very very normal...surprisingly timely in normal chicken form...so she is NOT blocked.

Not vaccinated for Mareks nor are the others nor is her brother ( the other egg I hatched) and NOONE else is having any problems at all.

Took fecal to vet...no worms and no coccidia...wormed her again anyway..just to cover base.

She shakes her head but I am not sure I want to call it a factor...I know she would rather set down in the cage than walk around. She seems to be having trouble with her huge crop full of ???? and I just can't figure out what is making her unbalanced.

Am I overlooking anything?

Thanks guys!

She may have a pendulous crop from her crop being stretched from over eating. Antibiotics are not good to give for crop problems unless you know if there is a bacterial infection. Sometimes it can be fungal, and antibiotics would make that worse. Antifungal drugs, such as Nystatin, Canesoral, or Fluconazole sometimes are used alone or with antibiotics. Cropbound capsules (colace or doccusate sodium stool softener) are sometimes use to treat impacted crop. A vet would be the best person to treat her, and to decide if there really is a problem. Since I haven't treated crop problems in my flock, I would rather give you some links to read from more experienced folks:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/answers-from-chicken-vet-on-impacted.html
http://www.tillysnest.com/2012/01/crop-issues.html
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/impacted-slow-and-sour-crops-prevention-and-treatments
http://www.chickenvet.co.uk/health-and-common-diseases/digestive-problems/index.aspx

What happened with this chicken?

I am not sure if anything happened to her. Nothing that I know of anyway. But I do know that she is a very bossy and outward piggy of a chicken and was greedy when it came to treat time. She may have caused this herself. But the wobbly stuff is mareks disease behavior (since we haven't Any worms or coccidiosis) and the crop problem is a separate problem and I can't seem to gain an idea on what really is the problem.

Thank you eggsessive I am reading your links now

So how do we determine if it is Mareks? I am dealing with this too. My bird stopped having interest in food, after months of vets, hand feeding, etc, she died. Now I have another one starting to exhibit the same detachment to the group and no interest in snacks.

Head shaking (slow) can be a sign of trying to adjust the crop, or can be a sign of trying to dislodge a mucus plug in a respiratory disease, or an ear infection. Mareks can cause crop stasis, but other things can also.

bygrace53 said:

So how do we determine if it is Mareks? I am dealing with this too. My bird stopped having interest in food, after months of vets, hand feeding, etc, she died. Now I have another one starting to exhibit the same detachment to the group and no interest in snacks.

Click to expand...

There is a PCR test for Mareks done on blood by some poultry centers, such as Texas A&M, but usually testing is done after death with a necropsy. Most state vets can give information about necropsies. State veterinary colleges may also offer this. How old is your chicken? Is she laying eggs? There are other things besides Mareks that could cause no appetite and pulling away from others, especially if it is a hen who is 2 or more, and has had some egg laying problems.

The girls will be 2 next month (Oct 2). I haven't noticed any laying problems. But I can't always tell who is doing what. Bernadette ladi a weird soft shelled egg with a long bloody umbilical cord attached. She didn't lay again for about a week. Then seemed fine. Then she got withdrawn and stopped laying and I knew this because she was the only one with blue eggs. She stopped eating. I brought her inside and tried everything, even an expensive visit to the vet. He found nothing wrong and she did not have worms, she was not egg bound. No broken bones. She started limping badly and passed in the night about 30 days later.

Now Pearl is withdrawing and is not interested in snacks. I'm not sure if she has stopped laying. She seems to be picked on if she goes for a snack, like they notice weakness. She might be losing some feathers. It is over 100 degrees here in Phoenix but I have a swamp cooler on them 24/7 and they are totally in the shade and have a lot of space. Very fresh, chilled water. I just don't know what to do...

So let's say she has strictly a sour crop issue. Even though it does not smell. She is really no worse for wobbling and I think her issue is more the crop than anything else. I will continue to care for her as a Mareks sufferer....but the vitamins and St. John's wort will not hinder any other treatment and since there is nothing else to do for a Marek Chicken...and she can stay in my house for as long as need be and be nursed by me....I am willing to cover all bases.

Sour crop...what do I do ?

And guys, thanks for helping....I am really hanging on every word. Ya'll even have my local vet intrigued ( country horse vet who loves chickens and doesn't get much opportunity to work on them...we are in a suburb that has rural outskirts....so he is just getting his feet wet on backyard chicken people)