My virgin hen's motherhood-via-adoption plans are threatened with her illness!? What's up with her

[CrispyBiscuit]

HELP!!! My WHITE ROCK hen, Lucy, has been acting odd for the past week. She's usually all over our property ranging with a hop in her step. She's been acting real still and lethargic. She looks "loopy" -- like she's in a stupor. About 10 days ago I noticed she had a busted egg on her rear (where the eggshell is so thin that it busts on it's way out and gets her backside all nasty messy and mud/dirt adheres, etc.). Over the days I noticed it getting smaller and smaller so I figured it was cleaning up. But today, since she's been acting so weird, I decided I was going to make sure it wasn't infected. So I picked her up, took her inside in the tub, and with a warm water sprayer I used some soap to get the clump off her butt and thoroughly clean her feathers. I examined her cleoca (however you spell the egg exit hole) and it looks all rosy and healthy. But back to my picking her up.....when I picked her up she regurgitated what seemed to be water and I could hear water stuck in her throat as if I had squeezed water from her craw to her throat and I KNOW I didn't handle her roughly as I know how to pamper my girls (by PAMPER, I don't mean that I put them in those crazy chicken DIAPERS! lol!) Her craw seemed HUGE and swollen and so I felt it and it was smushy and FULL of fluid as if she'd drank a quart of water. She's not broody right now.

Not only do I care about Lucy, but I NEEDED to capitalize on her easy-to-evoke-with-a-few-ungathered-eggs broodiness in the coming weeks as I have my McMurray Hatchery order arriving in early May. I was going to let her go broody in mid / late April and them slip the baby chicks under her during the night --- to satisfy her desire to mother (she's a virgin) and my need to have my chicks taken care of for free --- a quid pro quo situation for sure. This is threatening the adoption plans!

What is UP with her liquid-y craw? What is this? What can I do to help her?

 

[CrispyBiscuit]

HELP!

 

[LaylaFlora]

I'm not much help but wanted to reply with what I could...

Have you smelled her "breath" to see if it smells sour? Is she eating normally? There is something called sour crop where her crop becomes impacted and she is unable to get any food into the rest of her digestive system. The crop fills up, and the food that is inside it starts to ferment. Chickens can die from sour crop. I'm not sure what the remedies are, but you should google it and see if the symptoms match.

I'm sorry your poor girl is feeling icky. Good luck!