Hen with lump on face, wasting away

[dreamofwinter]

Our dear Shirley will likely pass in the next few days, but I'd like to hear any opinions for my ongoing education.
Shirley is a Mystic Marans from Tractor Supply hatched in March 2022. Here's a photo of the lump on her face from mid-October, when she was still fairly well:

Symptoms:
Large lump behind eye appeared in early October
Isolating from others/sleeping off roost
Ravenous appetite
Did not molt
No respiratory symptoms observed
No mites or lice observed; coop and flock were treated with Elector PSP in late summer
No worms observed in her or other flock mates
No reason to suspect Marek's - she retains her coordination though she does not have strength to fly upward anymore

She's now lost almost all her body weight - lighter than even my tiny bantam Cochin pullet - and her comb has been ranging from pale to purple. She's been living inside the last week as our temps are consistently below freezing. Yesterday she fell over on the garage floor and we thought her time had come, but today she's upright and eating and drinking. She eats voraciously - mostly layer feed, some scratch and mealworms. We did give her a course of wormer when we initially brought her in, even though we have no evidence of worms.

I don't have much hope for her but would like to hear what others think. Is the lump a cancerous tumor, perhaps?

 

[Eggcessive]

How does the lump feel—soft, hard, smooth, or irregular? I see a little discharge in the corner of the eye, but do you see any bubbles or pus if you press around her eye? The swelling is typical of a respiratory disease, but there have been cases when a tumor can occur there. Cancer or Mareks disease could be the cause of her wasting away, while still having a good appetite. Can you see any white or yellow gunk in the roof of her beak where the choanal slit is? That is sometimes seen with a sinus infection. If you lose her in the future, I would ask your state vet lab to do a necropsy to find the cause.

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

Why are you letting her waste away? You should euthanize her or take her to the vet to get real treatment.

Having animals requires that you do right by them and sometimes it means euthanizing them yourself or spending money to have someone else do it.

I use the broomstick method (cervical dislocation) to euthanize any sick birds that I have. It is fast and painless and free.

 

[dreamofwinter]

Thank you for the suggestions - I'll check them. The lump is hard. No bubbling in the eye.
If I can make it work to get a necropsy I will - our state lab is 2 hours away and our post office is open incredibly inconvenient hours. Ah, rural life.

I will not let her suffer - she's still burbling happily at us and strutting around the garage, with the exception of the fall yesterday morning. I have used the broomstick method before and will do so again. You may have guessed, no vets within a 3-hour one way trip, otherwise I'd already have done that - but thank you for the concern.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

What does the inside of her beak look like?

I'm sorry she's not doing very well