I had something similar happen with one of my birds a week or two ago. I am not sure if she was dealing with internal laying and got a water balloon crop secondary to that, or what happened, but we thought she would die anytime, and at one point, I almost snapped her neck before my husband got home. I was ready to do it as she seemed like she was on her way out, and I thought she was uncomfortable (and this is part of the care of my flock), but then she rallied, and I waited. Her crop was like a water balloon, but not as large as some described here. I gently massaged it, and gave her some drops of poly-vi-sol without iron once a day for a couple of days. I noticed that whenever she bent over to peck (which wasn't that often) liquid would run out of her beak. I started using ACV with the Mother in it, at about a tablespoon per gallon, and just continued to watch her. I watched her overall appearance, especially her comb and how she held her feathers, in order to judge whether her health was deteriorating further. Over the next few days, as the balloon shrank back, I scrambled eggs for her with organic nonfat yogurt, and she started eating again. She wasn't out of the woods yet, and we still were not sure if she was laying internally, so we gave her a warm bath, blow-dried her, and then fed her eggs, yogurt and raisins. She ate well, and is doing better and better. Yesterday she played dandelion-greens keep away with the other birds. She wasn't as fast as usual, but she was quick enough to elude the other girls, and ate her prize. The truth is, when something presents as illness in a chicken, you can't always tell what exactly is wrong, or if it is a combination of things. Sometimes another poster can point you in the right direction, but sometimes you just have to go with your research, do your best, and hope you can save your bird..
