PLEASE HELP

[DotToDot]

This is sort of wan update on my sick hen, Maisy. She’s the first one I posted about, in the thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/why-is-my-hen-gasping-with-her-comb-turning-purple.1573567/

She’s doing better, and eating a lot. Eating a LOT. When I put the birds to bed, I always come around with a little dish of water and food, just to make sure they’re filled up. Most of them don’t eat, but Maisy keeps. On. Eating. SO MUCH. I was getting worried and wondered if she was malnourished, so I went to check her crop…
For a minute I wondered it I was searching in the wrong spot. Her crop is the smallest, most shrunken crop I’ve ever felt. The little bit of it I could feel was squishy. Super squishy.
I’m so scared for her, what does this mean??

 

[azygous]

It only means something if it's that way in the morning before she eats or drinks. It should be empty in the morning. If it's soft and squishy in the morning before she eats anything, then she has a crop disorder. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

 

[DotToDot]

It only means something if it's that way in the morning before she eats or drinks. It should be empty in the morning. If it's soft and squishy in the morning before she eats anything, then she has a crop disorder. https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...w-to-know-which-one-youre-dealing-with.73607/

Sorry, but I’m a little confused. Do you mean it *shouldn’t* be empty in the morning?

 

[azygous]

The crop should be flat and empty in the morning if the crop is normal. Crops empty completely overnight and all food should have been digested by the time the chicken wakes up. Just as your stomach is empty of food when you wake up, so should a chicken's.

 

[Tonyroo]

If you see a ton of poop in the coop then they are digesting food in there crop over night.

 

[DotToDot]

If you see a ton of poop in the coop then they are digesting food in there crop over night.

There’s always a ton of poop

 

[DotToDot]

Update?
I posted this thread six weeks ago, and I think my hen is doing better? Her comb isn’t purple anymore, and she’s eating and drinking well. I sit with her a lot and make sure no one pecks her. She’s the bottom of the pecking order, and it shows.
But she’s been laying down a lot, and is generally just not a healthy chicken. Does anybody know how long she has left?

 

[azygous]

You know, of course, we can't tell you how long your chicken has left unless she's lying on her side, eyes closed, with no response to being touched. Then we can safely guess that she will likely die withing the next 24 hours, and probably much sooner.

As long as she eats and drinks on her own and is interested in doing chicken things with her flock, she isn't ready to die anytime soon.