10 month old hen, swollen under vent - Help! I'm new to chickens!!

[nmunroe]

I have a black mottled orpington hen, she is about 10 months old.
She has always been a feisty chunky lady, who is the first one to show up when there is food around.
However, I do believe she is my resident "freeloader" and I do not feel she has laid any eggs as of yet.
I am new to chickens and this is my first time with a health problem.

I noticed on Wednesday (1/20) that she didn't come when I went out to the barn and called my customary "chicky-chick!"
All of the other chickens showed up except for her, so I was afraid that something had gotten her.
I walked around the barn and she was laying under a chair by the barn near one of the waterers.
She did not try to get up and gave me to trouble when I picked her up (she normally does not like to be caught."
I looked her over and noticed that she had a big pile of poop stuck to her butt fluff (a bit bigger than a golf ball). I took her inside and washed off her bum with warm water, it took a while as it was very hard. I noticed that the poop had a very sweet smell. Once I took her out to dry her off, I noticed the area under her vent was very fat feeling and distended. I thought maybe she was egg bound. I did a quick search and it said to soak her in epsom salts and warm water, so I did that for about 15 minutes. I still did not see or feel anything that looked like an egg. Her comb and wattles were red as usual and her eyes looked bright, she didn't look sickly.
We put a call out to two of the livestock vets in the area and they both said all they knew about chickens was how to cook them... So, since it was late and I didn't know what else to do, I dried her off with a blow dryer and put her back in to the coop. She climbed up to the top roost where she normally sleeps.

Yesterday (1/21) I am told she was walking around but slowly, and somewhat hunched over, with her tail down.
When I got home from work, I went to pick her up and put her in a dog crate to bring to my house. She was already in the coop, so I didn't see her walking around.
Her comb and wattles still looked normal, but her crop felt mostly empty except I could feel some of the gravel in there. I took her inside and soaked her in warm water with epsom salt for about 20 mins. I gave her some nutridrench, she actually seemed to like it and drank it from a children's medicine cup. I looked at her vent and it looked a bit looser/ more dialated than it had looked the night before. I still could not feel an egg, but her abdomen still felt fat.. maybe not as firm as the night before.
I dried her off and put her in the cage and she took a poop (first poop pic), it did not look overly abnormal, but it did seem to have a bit of water in it. After she pooped, she decided she was hungry and ate some of the food I put in her cage (partially covered with a towel, in my bathroom). I cleaned the cage and let her go to bed for the night.

In the morning (1/22) she was awake when I went in to the bathroom. It looked like she had eaten some more of the food.
I opened the cage to see if she wanted to come out, but she did not. I noticed that she hadn't pooped during the night.. which I found odd... but I'm new to chickens.
I went about my business for a bit, when I came back she had pooped (second poop pic)and to me it was perfectly normal looking and it didn't smell sweet (I did notice that she had a piece of plastic in their from a clothing tag). I thought again that maybe she was egg bound. So I soaked her again in the epsom salt water for about 15 minutes, while I was doing so I fed her a spoonful of yogurt with a crushed up Tums in it. I noticed that her abdomen was still swollen looking and red-ish (picture below). I put her back in the cage, and she did pick at her food some more. I have not had any update on her so far today, as I am at work.

None of the other hens are acting sick, however none of the other hens are laying either.. we assumed it was the winter lack of sunlight.
We offer them oyster shell in a separate container from their food, we let our chickens free range during the day we have them on an acre with our horse barn.
The only thing I can think is that we have caught her getting in to the chick starter/grower feed.

I had intended to treat the hen myself, seeing as none of the vets in the area seem to handle chickens.
Google has me guessing she might have vent gleet, be egg bound, or an internal layer. Any advise would be super helpful!!

 

[ChicNmom]

I'm not as experienced as some of the people here. I think the poop looks OK.
The swelling in the abdomen would make me think it could be an internal infection like egg yolk peritonitis. Especially since she seems to be pooping OK. The calcium was a good call.

Look up some of the Egg peritonitis threads and see if any of the other symptoms or descriptions seem familiar to what is happening with your girl.

I've been looking this topic over because I have an older hen with a similar issue I noticed while checking them over this evening. I've started mine on an antibiotic. But not sure if it will work. I had another older hen years ago with EYP. It especially seems to happen in older hens after they have taken a break from laying over the winter and then start to lay again when the days get longer.

I hope your girl pulls through!